This is a complicated topic, but here is a short answer:
Science fiction is not dying, it is just going through a bad spat. And a big part of the problem is Star Trek and Star Wars. Why? These two franchises have come to symbolize what sci-fi should be all about to most studio executives (and publishers). And why shouldn’t they? Those two franchises have generated a fortune in revenue and a groundswell of diehard fans willing to fork over more cash at a moment’s notice. So Hollywood, being the less than mentally agile town it is, has reached the conclusion that every sci-fi film must be just like Star Trek and Star Wars. As such, we have had an endless series of clones that try to tap into that whole “space opera” or “space adventure” motif. It is easy money.
Hollywood has little interest in trying new things…not that there is a whole lot of stuff to try. For even literary sci-fi has succumbed to a lack of imagination. As I have mentioned in another thread, literary sci-fi has broken down into three genres: artsy “New Wave” sci-fi that only a literary critic can truly love, “hard” science fiction that only a scientist can love, or, yes, endless “soft” Star Trek/Wars official spinoffs and unofficial ‘wanna be’ titles. Take a look at recent Hugo and Nebula winners - what are there, two… maybe three memorable novels in the last decade? Sci-fi, be it on the screen or between covers, is moribund. I think the last truly great science fiction book was Card’s Ender’s Game.
Not that there are no sci-fi books out there worthy of a movie. I think either WH40K or David Drake’s Hammer Slammers would make wonderful movies, especially during this time of warfare. Or Keith Laumer’s Bolo series. Or countless other books from the more fertile years of sci-fi. To make any of the above into a movie would require a director/studio to trailblaze a new path. Alas, that is not going to happen unless a director has a special love for one of these books (as Jackson had for LotR). Heck, if a sci-fi book doesn’t appear in Variety, I doubt the majority of directors will ever hear about it. I suspect the powers that be have a very low opinion of the genre in general. You don’t see too many directors perusing the sci-fi sections of their local bookstores. Sci-fi is a cash cow, but nothing to be taken seriously. Basically the same attitude they have had towards fantasy…until Jackson proved them wrong.
And, just for the record, who appointed Ridley Scott as the official voice of sci-fi cinema? After his Kingdom of Heaven debacle, he should be a more forgiving critic. Yes, Blade Runner and Alien are in the top tier of sci-fi cinema, but that is less a testament to his supposed genius and more of a critique of Hollywood’s sorry track record with the genre.