Blade Runner 2 director talks about concerns of screwing up a classic

1982’s Blade Runner is one of those films that transformed how we saw sci-fi. It wasn’t just a genre populated solely by spaceships and aliens anymore, it could be made into a vehicle for visual grandeur and narratives focused on social consequence.

Also, there was Harrison Ford. Because in the 80’s, everything had Harrison Ford.

Over thirty years later the Ridley Scott classic is getting a sequel, however, unlike with 2012’s Prometheus (which revisited aspects of Scott’s other classic franchise- Alien) this new film will be helmed by Québécois director Denis Villeneuve. Those are some big shoes to fill, and Villeneuve was entirely aware of the fact and even hesitated in accepting the project.

"For me it’s like a monument. So when I realized one day that they put in front of me the Blade Runner project screen play, for me I was very moved to have this honor to read the screenplay, but I accepted to do it because I felt that Hampton Fancher, Ridely Scott and Michael Green did a fantastic job on the screenplay. It’s a very powerful screenplay. And I felt that it made sense to me and I had the Ridley Scott blessing. But you ask if I hesitated. I hesitated massively. It took me a lot of time to say yes. Not because I didn’t believe in it, because I was like ‘Who am I to dare to touch that?’ And at the same there’s a part of me that said, ‘I’m a hardcore fan, I don’t want to f— that up.’”

Filming for Blade Runner 2 is tentatively set for summer of next year, but we’re fairly sure that will also be contingent on the demands made by Ford’s return to the Star Wars franchise.