Aug 222011
 

It’s been talked about for years but it appears that a sequel to Blade Runner is now a reality.

It was announced earlier this week that Alcon Entertainment, who acquired the franchise rights to Blade Runner earlier this year, are planning to bring a new film to the screen – and they’ve only gone and got Sir Ridley Scott on board. That’s what makes me so intrigued. Blade Runner is clearly a labour of love for Scott; he has overseen numerous edits, even shooting new footage for the recent Final Cut, and has often spoken of his fondness for his third feature, released to disastrous box office in 1982 but since acknowledged, and quite rightly, as one of the most influential SF films of all time.

So how did this happen?

Andrew Kosove, the producer in charge of the project / company spokesperson chatted to the LA Times about the news earlier this week and revealed that Sir Ridley’s involvement was down to Alcon Entertainment’s pitch. What concerns me is that Kosove hasn’t been too precise about the nature of this film – is it a sequel? Prequel? Thankfully Alcon have confirmed, according to the LA Times, that it “definitively won’t be a remake”. Phew. That’s something at least, right?

I can see room for a film set within the same ‘universe’ as the original. If anyone can do it, it is Sir Ridley. There are the three sequel novels written by K.W. Jeter, that were released to mixed reviews (Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, BR 3: Replicant Night, and BR 4: Eye And Talon), which explored some interesting corners of the Blade Runner world, mainly involving the Tyrell family. I thought they were pretty good, particularly Replicant Night. Jeter was actually a friend of Philip K. Dick (who wrote the original novel that BR was adapted from), so perhaps it might be worth at least consulting him on the project, hmm? (Won’t happen, me thinks)

This news does make Scott’s next film, Prometheus, a more intriguing project, being as it is a kind of Alien prequel. Will the new BR film be a similar concept?

(Btw, I would love someone to finally finish off the film series with a direct fifth movie – some kind of Alien : War style plot. Alien Resurrection is not the way the series should be capped…)

Shooting isn’t likely to begin on the  new Blade Runner until 2013 or 2014 but a script is already in discussion. I’d like to see original screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples return to the BR world that they helped shape. (Again, won’t happen)

My prediction: expect William Monahan, whom Scott has worked with twice of late, to be involved at some point.

And no Harrison Ford involvement apparently…

 

Andy ‘Batty’ Jamieson, Editor

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