“What was always wanting was a story that flowed naturally out of the first.”
That’s Harrison Ford there, who touches on the creative roadblocks that Ridley Scott’s long-in-development Blade Runner sequel struggled to overcome soon after its inception. But after years spent languishing on the brink of development, Scott and 20th Century Fox pulled together a script that Ford believes is the best he’s ever read.” And that script is the foundation on which Blade Runner 2049 is built.
Directed by Arrival and soon-to-be Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, who took over from Ridley Scott soon after the sequel was rebranded as Blade Runner 2049, the film is set some 30 years after the original, at a time when Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard – a character who has essentially been AWOL for decades – reluctantly meets with a LAPD officer known as K (Ryan Gosling). 2049 is also rooted in a world crippled by runaway climate change, and thanks to today’s all-new featurette, you’ll be able to get an understanding of Villeneuve’s world-building process. Just don’t expect much in the way of story clues.
There’s also some new footage to peruse, including an intense chase sequence centering on Ryan Gosling’s K, as he presumably tries to outsmart his pursuers after paying a visit to Deckard’s far-flung hideout. Exactly how this factors into the story remains to be seen, but we imagine Gosling and Ford’s dueling leads will unite in the face of a common enemy: Jared Leto’s Niander Wallace, a blind Replicant creator perched at the tip-top of the Tyrell Corporation.
Rounding out the cast for this super-stylish sequel are Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Ana de Armas, and many more. Touting the “same genre, same atmosphere” as its time-honored predecessor, Blade Runner 2049 will descend into theaters on October 6th.
