By Travis Johnson
Perhaps the venerable Sir Ridley Scott got a bit miffed at young whippersnapper Christopher Nolan staking out a piece of British military history with his upcoming film Dunkirk. Perhaps he simply want to be the most prolific octogenarian director in the history of cinema. Whatever his motives, the Alien and Blade Runner auteur is developing Battle of Britain at Fox with an eye to both direct and produce.
The Battle of Britain was the first major military clash fought almost entirely by aircraft, with the RAF seeing off the German Luftwaffe in the skies over Old Blighty from July to October, 1940. It’s been immortalised onscreen before, in frequent Bond director Guy Hamilton’s 1969 opus:
Of course, this is just one more film to be added to Sir Ridley’s bulging production slate, which includes an apparently infinite number of Alien spin-offs, an adaptation of the cult TV series, The Prisoner, a big screen version of the SF novel Wool, an account of the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, and an adaptation of the classic military sci fi novel, The Forever War. So, you know, don’t hold your breath.
