Book excerpt: 'If I were pressed to describe my style, I'd have to say it is called reality. No matter how stylized it gets, underneath it's real.' - Ridley Scott. Illustrated with images as iconic as they are stunning and including the author's first-hand experiences on set and interviewing the great director, this magnificent book charts the extraordinary journey of Britain's greatest living director. Telling the stories behind Alien and Blade Runner, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, and many more, it also goes in search of the themes and motifs that unite such different films, and the methods and madness of Scott's approach to his medium. This is the story of a director who has never been less than stubbornly, brilliantly, unforgettably his own man.