Ridley Scott to direct Blade Runner 2, or 0

**sedition** · 18 Aug 2011, 01:30 PM

After revisiting his classic Alien with the upcoming 3D Fox film Prometheus, Ridley Scott is committing to direct and produce a film that advances his other seminal and groundbreaking science fiction film. Scott has signed on to direct and produce a new installment of Blade Runner. He’ll make the film with Alcon Entertainment, producing with Alcon partners Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove. This would be the most high profile project for Alcon since The Blind Side.

I’m not getting a clear sense at this point whether Scott intends to do a sequel or a prequel to the 1982 film that was loosely based on the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Also unclear is whether they start fresh or reach out to Harrison Ford, who starred that took place in dystopian Los Angeles in 2019, in which organic superhuman robots called replicants escaped and are hiding somewhere on earth. Ford played Richard Deckard, a burnt out blade runner assigned to hunt them down. His tired life gets altered when he himself falls for one of the replicants and struggles to keep her from being destroyed.

The film was not a blockbuster when first released--it grossed $32 million in its original run--but the film has gained esteem over time. From the bleak but breathtaking visuals to the complex storyline and themes of mortality, Blade Runner became a classic. There has periodically been talks of doing a sequel but those never really went anywhere. After injecting state of the art 3D in reviving Alien, imagine what Scott can do with Blade Runner? Now, the filmmaker is ready to engage. Alcon has its output deal with Warner Bros, which remastered and released a 25th anniversary version on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2007. Warner Bros made the original film.

This is just the first step and the project will have to be written and it will likely evolve during that process. That's what happened on Alien, which began as a prequel to his 1979 classic. That changed when Lost's Damon Lindelof came in with a different take on the subject matter that imprinted on Scott and Fox executives. They wound up making Prometheus, which Fox considers an original but which I've heard is a cousin to the original Alien franchise. That film will be released June 8, 2012, with Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Patrick Wilson, Idris Elba and Guy Pearce starring. Scott is repped by WME.

Source: Deadline

**YellerDog** · 18 Aug 2011, 02:17 PM

Huh.

**haohmaru** · 18 Aug 2011, 02:37 PM

I don't know how I feel about this.

**YellerDog** · 18 Aug 2011, 02:41 PM

Part of the charm of Blade Runner was that it is a product of its time. Going back and watching it today, you have to take into account that it's "the future as filtered through 1982".

1982's future isn't really plausable anymore.

**Josh** · 18 Aug 2011, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by haohmaru

I don't know how I feel about this.

Agreed.

**Chux** · 18 Aug 2011, 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by YellerDog

Part of the charm of Blade Runner was that it is a product of its time. Going back and watching it today, you have to take into account that it's "the future as filtered through 1982".

1982's future isn't really plausable anymore.

I feel the same about BTTF2's vision of the future.

**epmode** · 18 Aug 2011, 02:59 PM

If this is a real sequel, fuck off. Another film set in the same universe, yes pls.

Originally Posted by YellerDog

Part of the charm of Blade Runner was that it is a product of its time. Going back and watching it today, you have to take into account that it's "the future as filtered through 1982".

1982's future isn't really plausable anymore.

Blade Runner, like Alien, feels timeless to me. At least as timeless as you can get in sci-fi. Aside from some superficial effects and fashion, the recent blu ray re-release felt like a modern release. Incredible design work.