Ridley Scott...only on Machinima!  The longtime director of such sci-fi greats as Alien and Blade Runner will now set his sights on smaller fare with a series of web shorts.  Scott, his commercials production company RSA and Machinima will team up to produce 12 short sci-fi films with the possibility of developing features from them.  While Scott, now 75, is revisiting new visions of his earliest feature successes, he'll stay out of the director's chair for these shorts, sticking to executive producer status only.  Hit the jump for more.

ridley-scott-alien-covenant
Image via 20th Century Fox

It was announced today that Scott, RSA and Machinima will be developing 12 short sci-fi films that will debut online.  Machinima has been growing its readership with such web-series as Halo: Forward Unto Dawn, Mortal Kombat: Legacy and Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome.  RSA touts such visionary filmmakers as Kathryn Bigelow, Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendes, Neill Blomkamp, Joe Carnahan and Andrew Dominik.  The idea is to ping these directors for sci-fi ideas that they may have which would work best as a short film on a web-based platform.  Here's what RSA President Jules Daly had to say:

“There is a plethora of great talent here and sometimes they don’t have a platform for great ideas that would work well in shorts. It could be an established director wanting to try something new, or a brilliant young director from Sweden who surprises us. This is the future, it’s new territory we believe we must investigate.”

Daly fully expects to fill the twelve openings quickly and has visions for future rounds of short films.  The partnership allows for RSA and Machinima to produce potential feature films from cutting-edge filmmakers while bringing in Scott and his experience into the fold.  Here's what Scott said about the partnership:

“RSA has always been at the forefront of creating innovative work. With new media transforming the way audiences connect with films and filmmakers, Machinima is a great partner for us as we embark on this new model of delivering original content to fans. It’s a tremendous opportunity for pushing the creative boundaries for both our filmmakers and the audience.”

Read the full press release below:

Ridley Scott Partners with Machinima

to Develop New Episodic Science Fiction Franchises

Visionary filmmaker and Machinima will produce 12 original short films with RSA’s world-class directing talent, incubating the next global episodic Sci-Fi franchises

Los Angeles, CA, March 11, 2013 - Machinima, the number one global video entertainment network for young males, today announced a partnership with Ridley Scott and his commercial production company Ridley Scott and Associates.  This partnership will focus on building original high octane science fiction content leveraging Machinima’s reach and combining it with the talented filmmakers of Ridley Scott and Associates.  The two companies will focus on a powerful model of producing 12 Sci-Fi short films to be distributed to the global audience of millions through the Machinima Network with the goal of further developing the most successful short films. Ridley Scott will serve as executive producer with RSA president Jules Daly, and with Machinima, will select filmmakers from Ridley Scott and Associates to direct the short films.

Machinima helped reinvigorate the Mortal Kombat brand. After launching the trailer for season 2 of the Mortal Kombat: Legacy series, developed and produced by Warner Bros., it generated over 2 million views in the first 48 hours.  The original Mortal Kombat: Legacy series, distributed by Machinima, started with a successful short film that led to the first season which attracted over 60 million views leading to the second season and a feature film in development.

"Partnering with Ridley Scott to work with his talented directors shows Machinima's dedication to going above and beyond in delivering quality original content for our audience to embrace," said Allen DeBevoise, Chairman, Co-founder and CEO at Machinima, Inc. "By combining this unique incubation model together with our powerful partnership of established creative talent and scaled distribution to millions on Machinima, we believe new Sci-Fi franchises will be born.”

"RSA has always been at the forefront of creating innovative work.  With new media transforming the way audiences connect with films and filmmakers, Machinima is a great partner for us as we embark on this new model of delivering original content to fans.  It's a tremendous opportunity for pushing the creative boundaries for both our filmmakers and the audience," said Ridley Scott.

ridley-scott-alien-covenant-rated-r