What the F, Ridley Scott. What the F. Are you back on Blood Meridian or are you just screwing with my emotional well-being? And what the F, Empire. What the F. Why didn’t you do you homework so you knew to ask Ridley about the fact that Little Children director Todd Field had reportedly taken over directing Blood Meridian as of August? According to a recent interview with Empire, Ridley had this to say of the Cormac McCarthy adaptation:

“It’s written. I think it’s a really tricky one, and maybe it’s something that should be left as a novel. If you’re going to do Blood Meridian you’ve got to go the whole nine yards into the blood bath, and there’s no answer to the blood bath, that’s part of the story, just the way it is and the way it was. When you start to scalp Mexican wedding parties that’ll draw the line. One scalp of coarse black hair is pretty well either Mexican or Indian, and there was no difference to the scalp hunters in Arizona at that time, who didn’t draw the line.”

Just like anybody that has read it (which right about a year ago, I wrote about the need for this to be adapted, but be adapted with the director having freedom from studio pressures), Ridley understands the difficulty of filming this great American novel. Which is why I was both frightened and excited when it was reported that Mr. Scott had dropped out and Todd Field had jumped aboard. Frightened, because anybody adapting this would frighten me. Excited because Field is a very exciting director and not nearly as sentimental as Ridley can be with his films (and sentimental is exactly what this story is not).

Now I’m just sitting here wondering what the gee golly heck in going on. Is Ridley back in the director’s seat? Is he just producing on some level? Is Todd Field still on this project (IMDb still has him listed – not that this is any sort of confirmation)?

I need answers.

Also, Ridley Scott turns 71 next week. Whoa!