Like many of you reading this, I've been hooked on Scott's work since the Seventies when he delivered the best adverts ever seen.
Remember the Hovis commercial with a little boy pushing his bike up a hill to the strains of a brass band? Or the Guinness ad with Rutger Hauer blending in with a group of classical paintings?
Both are products of the South Shields born director regarded by many as one of the finest film directors in the world, who, since his early commercial-making days, has notched up such successes as Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator one of the biggest hits of 2001, Hannibal and of 2002, Black Hawk Down.
There's no doubt that Scott is at the height of his powers right now. With Black Hawk Down smashing box office records for a January opening, TV drama The Gathering Storm being one of the small screen highlights of the year and upcoming projects Red Dragon, and Perfume all on the horizon, let's hope for more qulity work in the coming years.
Background
Ridley trained at West Hartlepool Art School, went to the Royal College of Art to the BBC, where he worked as a designer, then as director, on such programmes as Z Cars, Softly Softly and Adam Adamant Lives.
On large-scale projects as Gladiator, he compares the experience with that of going to war: "You find your officers, you find your troops and then you hit the beaches running."
However, turning celluloid into beautiful, lucrative images has not all been a smooth ride.
His 1985 film Legend was plagued with difficulties when the 007 stage at Pinewood burned down during one fateful lunchtime. No-one was hurt but the multi-million dollar fantasy flopped, despite boasting superstar Tom Cruise in the lead role.
Trying to make films under such extreme conditions really take their toll on Scott, and the lure of take a less prominent role, such as executive producer, appears quite seductive. "As a director, you're at the centre of the nervous system and you're the central artery." he says. "When there is a lot of blood flowing through, you get a headache frequently. It's a very hard process and it would be nice to have a change of pace. It would be nice to stand off and watch rather than being right out here in front."
All the headaches and tension seems to have paid off though, especially in his meticulously detailed fantasies Alien and Blade Runner, all noted as watersheds in their field.
David Puttnam, who produced Scott's award-winning debut The Duellists, says: "Ridley has got a magic eye - his ability to take an image, frame it and enhance it, using light, is extraordinary."
Michael Douglas, star of his 1989 cop thriller Black Rain adds: "Ridley can see things that I can't see. When the celluloid comes back, there are things there that you don't see with the naked eye - it's a really incredible talent."
Over the next few pages there's a look at one of the greatest film-makers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
