Blade Runner director Ridley Scott reveals his surprising favourite film

The renowned British director of sci-fi epics says the Australian feel-good comedy 'Muriel's Wedding' is more to his tastes

Ridley Scott will produce a film about a government agency of psychic spies (Getty Images)

Hollywood director Ridley Scott is renowned for his science fiction epics such as the classic Blade Runner and the more recent The Martian. When he settles down for a night at the movies, however, he has a more homely taste.

The British director has revealed his favourite film is the 1994 Australian feel-good comedy Muriel’s Wedding.

He told The Hollywood Reporter during a discussion with five other directors, including Quentin Tarantino and Danny Boyle, that he had seen the film six times. He had been asked what moment from any film he would put in a time capsule for future generations. His surprise answer was “[the whole of] Muriel’s Wedding”.

Boyle, whose films include Trainspotting and Steve Jobs, added that the end sequence from the Wallace and Gromit film The Wrong Trousers, when Gromit chases a criminal penguin by laying down tracks as he rides a runaway toy train, was one of his favourite ever scenes. “It’s one of the greatest action sequences I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Also at the table was director David O Russell, who said The Wrong Trousers had inspired the chase sequences in his 2000 Gulf War drama Three Kings, which starred George Clooney.