“Should have been f**king huge”: the 2013 movie that left Ridley Scott “ready to kill somebody”
While there’s no denying that he’s directed a few great movies, a handful of very good ones, and a couple of stone-cold masterpieces, nobody seems to have a higher opinion of Ridley Scott than Ridley Scott.
On one hand, you can understand why, since the guy who helmed Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, the criminally overlooked Matchstick Men, the drastically unsung director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven, and more, has every reason to feel comfortable with the legacy that he’s built.
On the other hand, White Squall, GI Jane, A Good Year, Robin Hood, Exodus: Gods and Kings, and others have made Scott’s filmography an inconsistent and unwieldy beast, but if there’s one thing you can’t fault him for, it’s his work ethic, with the knight of the realm pushing 90 and still churning out a new picture every year or two.
When he’s at his best, he’s incredible, as those aforementioned titles can attest. However, when he’s not firing on all cylinders, the shadow of mediocrity looms large, and some folks aren’t keen on the veteran’s outspoken nature, whether he’s criticising the industry or placing himself on a pedestal that his detractors aren’t convinced he deserves to be sitting on.
Every filmmaker, regardless of whether they’re Ridley Scott or anyone else, has at least one feature that they didn’t think got the credit it deserved or enjoyed the success it should have when first released. Many of those titles go on to become cult classics, although you can’t say that about his pick.
“I really loved The Counselor, which should have been fucking huge,” he maintained. “With that cast, we should have had a $50 million weekend. After the marketing and advertising on that, I was ready to kill somebody. You don’t preview films like that. You keep them in a box.”
He’s sort of shooting himself in the foot a little bit, here. Scott was adamant that the crime thriller should have been withheld until its premiere, and star power alone would propel it to bumper box office. That might have been true, but the reason why it didn’t take off is that it wasn’t very good, which audiences would have found out anyway, whether that was on opening weekend or further down the line.
Despite having a car-shagging Cameron Diaz, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Penélope Cruz, John Leguizamo, Édgar Ramírez, Natalie Dormer, and more among its star-stacked ensemble, big names aren’t enough to compensate for a shit film, which The Counselor was, and blaming those preview screenings for its failure suggests that Scott knows it fell short on every other level beyond the on-camera roster.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he incredulously asked. “You don’t show it, you advertise it, and you put it out, and you’ll have a $50 million opening weekend.” Or, and this might sound crazy, try making a better movie, and that way you won’t have to worry about being torn apart in previews, because the acclaim will speak for itself.
