More than three decades after the release of Ridley Scott's tech noir film Blade Runner, production on its sequel is finally ready to begin. What's more, Harrison Ford is now confirmed to be reprising his role as Rick Deckard. I don't know if this is a good thing or bad thing based on his recent work in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but it's happening whether you want it to or not.
The plot of the film is said to take place decades after the events of the original film, which makes sense given Ford's age. The original was set in a 2019 version of Los Angeles and was based on the Philip K. Dick novel "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?". On surface level, Blade Runner was about Deckard pursuing and trying to terminate four replicants (androids that look and act human) who stole a ship in space and returned to Earth to find their creator; but, of course, we all know the themes of the film explore topics much deeper.
Ridley Scott, who directored the 1982 film, is on board to executive produce for Alcon Entertainment, which gives me hope that the sequel won't stray too far from the original that I absolutely loved. Denis Villeneuve is in negotiations to direct. Hampton Fancher — co-writer of the original film — and Michael Green have written the original screenplay based on an idea by Fancher and Scott.
We don't know much about the film's story at this point, but Scott did say last year that Ford read the sequel's script and that it had more than impressed him. "He said, 'Wow, this is the best thing I've ever read,' so it's very relevant to what happened in the first one," Scott told MTV. "I'm not just doing a sequel with lots of action and see how far we can go with the special effects because you can't really. Blade Runner kind of landed on a somehow very credible future. And it's very difficult to change that because it's been so influential with everything else."
"We are honored that Harrison is joining us on this journey with Denis Villeneuve, who is a singular talent, as we experienced personally on Prisoners,” Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, two of the film's producers — who head up Alcon Entertainment — said in a statement. “Hampton and Michael, with Ridley Scott, have crafted a uniquely potent and faithful sequel to one of the most universally celebrated films of all time, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with this amazing, creative team.”
As a big fan of the original Blade Runner, I've got mixed feelings on this. One one hand, I love the idea of returning to this awesome sci-fi universe. But I'm also hesitant to get too excited because I've been burned countless times before with things like this. Harrison Ford returning as Rick Deckard sounds good in theory, but it will all be for naught if the script can't live up to that of the original. I'm glad it has Ford's stamp of approval, but again, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull…
The Blade Runner sequel is scheduled to start principal photography in summer 2016.
