Finally, the release date was set for May 25, 1979. Star WarsRudd came to believe that it was a lucky day for the studio.
“I remember being in a crappy office in Times Square, and I was like,alien “In space, no one can hear you scream,” Scott says. “I could see the line going around the block. Star WarsSo I kind of thought at that point we were in good shape.”
in fact, alien The film became one of the top-grossing films of 1979, setting box office records during its opening weekend and grossing $106 million worldwide, but received mixed critical reaction.
In the late ’70s, the sci-fi genre rarely got a fair shake from middle-aged critics, but in this case, they seemed unable to see beyond Scott’s glamorous Madison Avenue style to the substance beneath. While some hailed Scott as a visionary for a new breed of horror film, with both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert giving thumbs up, others deemed the film little more than an empty gimmick.
Despite the skeptics, As 1979 drew to a close, alien The film was nominated for two Oscars, for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects, winning a statue for the latter thanks to mad Swiss director H.R. Giger, while its runaway box-office success (the only metric that really matters in Hollywood, critics notwithstanding) has made Scott into a much-sought-after filmmaker.
Only a few years ago, he was wary of being categorised as a director of lyrical historical arthouse films. alienScott was being inundated with offers to direct big-budget sci-fi movies, but this time he wasn’t worried about being typecast, at least not yet.And so he found himself sitting in the plush offices of Italian film mogul Dino De Laurentiis to discuss a major adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel. Sand Dunes.
Scott actually Sand Dunes Screenwriter Rudolf WurlitzerPat Garrett and Billy the Kid), which opened in London, attempted to shoehorn its sprawling, unwieldy story into a manageable two-hour screenplay, but for every step forward, it seemed to take a few steps back.
“I Sand Dunes “It seemed like it went on for years,” says Scott, “but as things progressed it became increasingly clear that it would take another year and a half to two years of intensive work before we finally got going.”
in retrospect, Sand Dunes From day one it seemed like a haunted property. Planet of the Apes Producer Arthur P. Jacobs acquired the film rights in 1972, but the adaptation remained in development purgatory until Jacobs’ death in 1973, where it remained for two years while the producer’s estate worked out the complexities of contractual rights. Then in 1975, a French consortium led by wealthy Parisian and Hollywood aspiring Michel Seydoux purchased the rights from the Jacobs estate. Seydoux then recruited Alejandro Jodorowsky to make a film based on Herbert’s book.
