Ridley Scott says a live-action 'Blade Runner' TV series is in development

Break out those origami unicorns — a live-action Blade Runner TV series is apparently in the works, according to filmmaker Ridley Scott. Speaking with the BBC, the Oscar-winning director revealed that a pilot episode and show bible inspired by his 1982 neo-noir/sci-fi classic have already been written. "We're already presenting Blade Runner as a TV show," he said. "It'll probably be the first 10 hours."

He went on to add that similar progress is being made on Noah Hawley's Alien project at FX, which Scott (who directed the 1979 original) is producing. "Alien is now being written, the pilot," he continued. "And when you write a pilot for TV, you have to also write the history because 8 hours or 10 hours, you have to write a bible of what happens."

Sadly, the filmmaker didn't reveal any specific details about either project. With that said, however, news of a Blade Runner adaptation for the small screen (beyond the Black Lotus anime from Adult Swim and Crunchyroll) is major news. If it's ultimately picked up and does well, Denis Villeneuve might be allowed to make a sequel to Blade Runner 2049.

Watch the interview snippet in the tweet below:

Thanks to an interview Hawley did with Vanity Fair over the summer, we know that the Alien show (expected to premiere sometime in 2023) will be less about the Xenomorphs and more about human greed that leads to Xenomorph infestations.

"You will see what happens when the inequality we're struggling with now isn't resolved," he teased. "If we as a society can't figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what's going to happen to us? There's that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser where she says, 'I don't know which species is worse. At least they don't f*** each other over for a percentage.'"

Hawley added that production would take a little longer than usual due to the slowdown caused by COVID-19:

"When you get to something with this level of visual effects, there's a lot of preparation that has to go into it. What's been really illuminating is to see that the entire film industry had to take a year off and they are now trying to jam two years of production into one year. So it's very hard to look on the planet earth and see where you might make something in the next six months. Everyone is racing to make up for lost time. So, I figure let that bubble burst a little bit and we'll do it right."

Scott's next feature-length film — House of Gucci — opens in theaters everywhere on Nov. 24.