Age: 88
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Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director, screenwriter and producer. He directs films in the science fiction, crime, and historical epic genres with an atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. He ranks among the highest-grossing directors, with his films grossing a cumulative $5 billion worldwide. He has received many accolades, including the BAFTA Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement in 2018, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 and appointed a Knight Grand Cross by King Charles III in 2024. An alumnus of the Royal College of Art in London, Scott began his career in television as a designer and director before moving into advertising as a director of commercials. He made his film directorial debut with The Duellists (1977) and gained wider recognition with his next film, Alien (1979). Though his films range widely in setting and period, they showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, spanning 2nd-century Rome in Gladiator (2000) and its 2024 sequel, 12th-century Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), medieval England in Robin Hood (2010), ancient Memphis in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), contemporary Mogadishu in Black Hawk Down (2001), futuristic cityscapes of Los Angeles in Blade Runner (1982) and extraterrestrial worlds in Alien, Prometheus (2012), The Martian (2015) and Alien: Covenant (2017). Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards: Directing for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down. Gladiator won the Academy Award for Best Picture and received a nomination in the same category for The Martian. In 1995, Scott and his brother Tony received a British Academy Film Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Scott's films Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise were each selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In a 2004 BBC poll, Scott was ranked 10 on the list of most influential people in British culture. Scott also works in television and has earned 10 Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He won twice, for Outstanding Television Film for the HBO film The Gathering Storm (2002) and Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for the History Channel's Gettysburg (2011). He was Emmy-nominated for RKO 281 (1999), The Andromeda Strain (2008), and The Pillars of the Earth (2010). Description above from the Wikipedia article Ridley Scott, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
It is 1789 and France is beset by a number of problems. The treasury is empty and the country is facing bankruptcy. While the majority of the common people live in unimaginable poverty, the nobility and the clergy do not have to pay taxes and are living in luxury. In this situation, King Louis XVI decides to convene the Estates-General at Versailles. The negotiations go nowhere, so the Third Estate decides to invite the other Estates to join it, and a National Assembly is proclaimed. Some of the nobility and clergy do indeed join. All involved swear not to disperse until a constitution is drawn up. On July 9, 1789, this assembly declared itself the Constituent National Assembly. In this situation, King Louis XVI decides to send troops to Versailles. In protest against this move, the Parisians storm the royal armoury. Here they seize thousands of rifles and form a militia. Early in the morning of 14 July 1789, they attack the Bastille, a symbol of royal oppression. After a five-hour battle, they succeed in taking the prison. Thus begins the Great French Revolution, which changed Europe forever. An event that brought many progressive ideas, but also a bloody terror that eventually brought not only King Louis XVI to the guillotine, but also most of the leaders of the revolution itself. P.S., In my opinion, it would be best to treat this topic in the form of a historical miniseries on HBO MAX or Amazon Prime, for example.
