Image Credit: Everett Collection
Can Blade Runner be … replicated?
The idea of doing another film in the Blade Runner universe is a naturally provocative one — few sci-fi films are as revered, or hold up as well, as Ridley Scott’s 1982 cyberpunk-noir starring Harrison Ford as a cop hunting deadly humanoid robots. On one hand, who doesn‘t want more of a good thing? On the other, who wants too much of a good thing?
When Alcon Entertainment, the production powerhouse behind The Blind Side, announced plans last March for a follow-up to Blade Runner, the question was: Who would oversee this story? Today, Alcon confirms that Scott himself will direct it — lending the project far more credibility than if another filmmaker had taken the helm.
Image Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images
But the producers still aren’t saying whether it will be a prequel or a sequel, and it may end up being neither. Scott signed on to make the upcoming Prometheus, due next year, as a prequel to his 1979 classic Alien, but later backed off the notion it was part of that series, then backed off that, and most recently explained that it’s in that same fictional universe and leads into Alien, but is not strictly a prologue, er … or something like that.
So what will this movie be? Here’s what one producer exclusively tells EW about it …
“I’m not going to say there wouldn’t have been a Plan B, but the first plan was always to go to Ridley, to find out if he thought he could do something original in the context of a prequel or sequel,” says producer Andrew Kosove, co-founder of Alcon.
The makers of this new Blade Runner aren’t being coy — they have yet to hire a writer or settle on a concept, so it’s not clear to them whether this film would take place in the timeline before or after the previous one. “There’s no need to speculate,” he says. “When we have a prequel or sequel, or as with Prometheus, something that is simply ‘inspired by,’ we will be transparent about it. We will keep everybody up to date.” He laughs: “We’re not going to be sending out our treatment, but we will let people know.”
The first thing he says to reassure fans: “This is not a remake. We don’t have remake rights. This will be an original storyline inspired by Blade Runner, in the context of prequel or sequel.” So the original won’t be messed with. (Well, not messed with any more than the multiple versions of the film that have been tweaked over the years.)
Kosove says he understands why fans might be worried about how such a beloved classic might be handled in another film. These types of experiments don’t always turn out as well as their predecessors. “There is a risk when you take something like this on. Anyone who says otherwise would be dishonest,” the producer says. “There is risk, but the way we approach this is, how do you mitigate those risks? You do it by making sure you have the absolute greatest artistic talent associated with the project.”
That starts with Scott, he says. “And once we find out who the writer is going to be, hopefully that will be an equally impactful announcement. This might work, or it might not work, but at least I know the caliber of people we’re bringing on board.”
So what are your hopes and dreams for this Blade Runner film, Inside Movie readers? (Sounds like this is the time to make your voices heard.) Or are you just shedding tears in the rain?
On Twitter: @Breznican
Read more:
‘Prometheus’: Comic-Con details of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi origin story
New ‘Blade Runner’ producers talk movie prequel. Or movie sequel.
Shia LaBeouf would make a good Rick Deckard.
I hope Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Sean Young, Joanna Cassidy and Edward James Olmos will have cameos as a tribute to the original classic 1982 film.
Oh hell no. Shia LaBeouf should stick to that cruddy Transformers franchise. He’s awful.
ITA. No, no, a thousand times no on Shia…
Posted on Beautiful and professionally eextuced photographs! I enjoy black&white style a lot and like the mystic feel of the first photo. Nice job!
I hope that was big sarcasm, Brandon.
“Brandon” is a bot. I’ve seen the same comment on several other sites with different names.
I didn’t think Ghost Rider was THAT bad but I would ctalriney prefer if Nicolas Cage skipped the sequel (of course he’s not gonna!!)Clash of the Titans sequel is just bizarre and they are going 3D again -.- Didn’t they learn???
I’m sick of prequels. Make it a sequel. But the main thing is don’t fill a Blade Runner movie full of CGI. One of the best things about the original is that the world looks so tactile.
Why can’t Ford return?
Because it would answer the question of whether Deckard is a replicant. If he shows up looking aged 65, we know he isn’t.
Robert Pattinson, oMG please!!! Here is his chance!!! He would be GREAT!!!
Only if his character has no dialogue, and is killed within 20 seconds of his appearance.
LMAO
Yeah, his stiff acting would make him perfect as an early edition robot/replicant.
Yeah about all Pattinson is good for is playing robots or characters that don’t speak. He’d make a great younger terminator. lol
It should be a sequel with the original cast set 30 years after. I do not think they can put lighting back in the bottle. Everything from the look and sound is a lost art in this CGI driven Hollywood. Also the movie was best known for making the future look like the present with just enough futuristic gadgets to remind us it is in the future. The few grand scenes showing the city was the desert of great 4 course meal. Nowadays Hollywood will demand the opposite.
One big problem with a sequel is the fate of most of the characters from the original. Another would be the question of whether replicants age. It would make little sense for them to do so, since they were only designed to last 4 years. I don’t want to watch an entire film of CGI de-aged Harrison Ford and Sean Young (although I’ll bet she’s already been on the phone to her agent).
i dont think harrison ford would do a sequel except as a cameo, he did not even like that movie, so i doubt he would want a to another one. i think it should be a prequel, giving the story of where the replicants came from. remember that whole long star wars like backstory that starts the movie. Make it prequel, and you can even cgi harrison ford in it.
If its a prequel, it will be AI. If its a sequel, it will be Battlestar Galactica. If they reboot it, he will just turn out to be a replicant himself (TWIST!).
No way this ends well…
“If they reboot it, he will just turn out to be a replicant himself.” That’s the way the original ends, so I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.
Okay you two morons who said Shia LaBeouf and Robert Pattinson would be good in this? NO. Kep them both FAR FAR AWAY
Thank you!
They are just trolling.
Apparantly, people forget that Blade Runner was a box office failure in its release, it wasn’t until years later it became revered as a masterwork. I don’t see this working, the original was so ahead of its time that any follow-up will be lacking. Just look at “Tron Legacy,” a 30 year gap between films is just too much for many to take and connect to a modern audience.
I don’t think it was years later. I know plenty of people who thought it was brilliant from day 1. However, Hollywood, like now, sometimes doesnt give a movie long enough to catch hold of the public, so it was in and out of theatres quickly. It was a cable and VHS success.
Tron is a good example. I guess we’ll see what happens with the Thing prequel this fall, since the 1982 version was also a box office disappointment. Alien was a big hit, so Prometheus kind of make sense. But this?
I won’t get into casting, but I would like to see the movie end better than the original. It was a great movie up til the anti-climatic ending with Roy. I understand it was a “meaningful” ending, but the action movie fanatic in me wanted Roy to go out with a bloody bang to tie up all of the other action in the movie.
That comment is even dumber than the one about Shia Labeef being cast as Deckard.
Perhaps someone like Alex Garland would be an apt choice for screenwriter.
I don’t want anything lame happening with it. I’m sure Ridley wants to blow our minds, and that’s what I’m hoping for. A film that features other characters and only briefly spotlights Harrison Ford’s character Dekkard, is really more appealing. Scott had a script back in the 1990′s, I think called Metropolis — which was a film he was developing as a possible spin-off from Blade Runner. He may be intending to use that material. Or, he may intend to use of the two classic S/F novels he acquired the film rights to: “The Forever War” and “Brave New World.”
Whatever he does, I hope it’s utterly Fantastic !
Don’t do it! Leave well enough alone. No prequel, no sequel. Can’t we have just a classic one-off movie and leave it at that?
I completely agree.
I’m intrigued. Not excited or appalled, just intrigued…Hopefully Scott can do justice to his 30 year old original by doing something original in turn with this.
Also, it’s funny that everyone mentions the multiple versions of Blade Runner. I don’t think people realize how little a difference there is between them, except for theatrical version, which has a voice over. The Final Cut is the best version, by the way. It’s Scott’s actual “Director’s Cut”.
Prequel is the way to go with this, and not have Deckard as a character in it at all. It’d need an up-and coming actor or an unknown as a new Bladerunner recruit. Perhaps having an older Bladerunner training him. But different actors are the way to go. Maybe a different city as well, but same style.
Blade Runner sequel….. if they’re serious, they better know that some time has passed since the world of 2019 AD – It’ll be 2048 thereabouts (29 years since the movie came out).
I can’t see Ford running down the street shooting down Replicants in his 60s in that dark, dystopian rainy world of Los Angeles.
No, another actor would have to take the lead if this film is ever made or an actress would take the lead this time….
Plus, the replicants would have to be more interesting to keep our attention – maybe they live longer than 4 years….and have infiltrated into society around the world in high positions….
I would love to see more of the flying cars thou !