When I hear the name Ridley Scott, the first thing that comes to mind is the classic 1979 film Alien, the sci-fi thriller that follows a space crew whose ship is invaded by a menacing extraterrestrial. While this is the film Scott is best known for directing, summing him up to just this one film doesn’t do his career justice: per his IMDB page, the legendary filmmaker has been credited as a producer 147 times in his career. From Alien to Thelma & Louise to Gladiator, Scott has seemingly done it all since he began working in the film way back in the 1960’s over half a century ago. The director’s next project was announced yesterday, and he has selected a topic that is seemingly missing from his resume: war. Ridley Scott is set to produce the World War II limited series Roads to Freedom and will do so alongside Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.
First reported by Deadline yesterday afternoon, the upcoming series will be a 10 episode adaptation of the work of Sir Antony Beever, a British historian and author who wrote extensively about WWII. While most probably are not familiar with the author’s work his books have sold over 8 million copies worldwide to date, illustrating the demand for Roads to Freedom. Scott, Knight and Beevor will all serve as executive producers of the new series with Knight and Beevor set to co-author the series. It is unclear at the moment who will distribute the new series as of yet as the announcement noted that they are still looking for financing for the project, however given that this is a Ridley Scott project they likely won’t have to look very hard.
From the looks of it, Ridley Scott may continue to work in Hollywood until he physically cannot anymore. After half a century behind the camera he continues to remain an active member of the film industry and his work continues to be among the best in the industry. It has been stated that Scott has a strong personal connection with this project having grown up in London during the events of WWII. This could potentially end up being something very special if that is the case, and fans of the acclaimed director can be on the lookout for Roads to Freedom in the near future.
