More than three decades after the release and subsequent failure of Blade Runner – despite its time-honored status as one of the genre’s greats, Ridley Scott’s sci-fi oddity initially bombed back in ’82 – 20th Century Fox is on the verge of revisiting future Los Angeles thanks to Blade Runner 2049.
But whereas Scott made off to helm Alien: Covenant, Fox handed the keys to the Blade Runner franchise over to Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Dune), and everything we’ve seen so far points to one of the most visually arresting movies of 2017. The real question now is whether the actual story of 2049, one which involves the returning Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and LAPD rookie, K (Ryan Gosling), can possibly deliver on such lofty expectations.
That being said, if Ridley Scott is feeling the pressure, it doesn’t show. The filmmaker, who holds an executive producer credit on Blade Runner 2049, spoke to IGN recently as part of the outlet’s special celebration for Blader Runner‘s imminent 35th anniversary.
No, I think the original was so good, really, and so long ago, I don’t really care. But I can say now that I think it’s a really good film, and it’s stood the test of time. Because I’m very much a part of the new script, we even took the opening of the film and that’s how I was gonna open the original film. And I was sitting with Hampton and said, “Remember that thing we did with blah-blah-blah-blah-blah?” He said, “Yeah.” That’s how we began our conversation.
Will the Blade Runner series continue beyond the release of 2049? Ridley Scott certainly hopes so, and even contemplates the possibility of expanding it in a similar fashion to his fledgling Alien prequel series.
Yes. I think that, you know what, George has always proved that. Of course, there’s always something. George Lucas. You know, and the way he’s handled Star Wars has been spectacular. It’s what I’ve been trying to do to really evolve Alien, because in those days I wasn’t into making sequels, but now suddenly you realize, ‘Well, that’s stupid.’ I’ll use the word ‘duh’ again, right? You’d better get into sequels, duh. So, that’s in a way what I’ve been doing.
Blade Runner 2049 is set to light up theatres on October 6th.
