Ridley Scott’s Temper Might Look Unreasonable Today But That Saved ‘Alien’ from Getting Canceled Midway During Filming

Although Ridley Scott is one of the most talented and successful directors in Hollywood, he has a reputation for quite an unfortunate thing in Hollywood. On top of heading projects like Blade Runner, Gladiator, and Prometheus, he is also known for having quite a short temper.

There have been several instances where he has said some very questionable things, ranging from targeted attacks at specific successful franchises to the failure of his own film. While these instances were not very helpful to his reputation, sometimes anger is exactly what a filmmaker needs to get the job done.

Ridley Scott’s Alien Was In Serious Trouble

Ridley Scott is known for being very vocal about his feelings in any given scenario. One of the most famous instances was when his recent film, Napolean, was released. When the movie first came out, it seriously angered many viewers due to its historical inaccuracy. Rather than listening to their complaints during an interview with The New Yorker, he told them to “Get a life”.

Another example was when the filmmaker was talking about superhero franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like Martin Scorsese, he heavily criticized the genre during an interview with Deadline, stating that he believes that he makes better films. While these instances are quite unfortunate, his temper seems to have been very helpful for him in one rare situation; when he was making 1979’s Alien.

When the movie was being made, it had a lot of very intricate pieces; the set design, the cast, costumes, and effects. All of these require a very big budget and a constant flow of money. However, it was reported by All the Right Moves on X that halfway through filming, the movie ended up running out of money.

Broken Fingers and Dreams

A production as big as Alien’s running out of money was a big deal. When the studio was trying to decide if the film should be given more money, they were reluctant to give the funding. While the film has turned into a classic now and helped put Ridley Scott’s name on the map, it was still a fairly new concept when it was being made.

The studio was having a meeting with the director, and they decided to cancel the film altogether, even though it was halfway done already. It is safe to assume that anyone would be quite upset if something like this happened.

Scott took it to another level and became so angry that he got up and hit his fist really hard on the table. The result was a broken finger. However, it was enough of a display to get the studio to change their mind and allow them $2.6 million more. While the addition was not drastic, it was enough to get the movie done and make it the classic it is today.

Alien is available for streaming on Hulu.