Following on the heels of Prometheus, the non-remake/prequel remake/prequel of Alien, it’s been announced that Sir Ridley Scott will give Blade Runner the same treatment, and will produce and direct. Though the news of another Blade Runner film came back in March, there had yet to be a confirmation that Scott would be on board for the project. Today, it’s been confirmed.
While I am firmly in the “more Blade Runner? Awesome!” camp, there are some lingering questions: first, since he’s presumably giving the whole thing the fancy-schmancy super-expensive 3D treatment, can we really afford to have Blade Runner even more dimly lit than it already is? (This is something I imagine Prometheus will at least partially settle, as Alien wasn’t exactly sun-drenched itself). And second: is Blade Runner really Blade Runner without Deckard, Rachael, Roy Batty, Pris, Edward James Olmos, et al? Remember, a lot of those gorgeous visuals were of those gorgeous actors, and the gravitas was because they (well, most of them) could actually act. Casting will be very important.
But, hey, more Blade Runner! My one humble fan request: since Draco Malfoy got to say “get your hands off me, you damn dirty ape!” in the thunderously awesome Rise of the Planet of the Apes, can we bring back one or more of “He say you blade runner,” “More human than human, that’s our motto,” and/or “Too bad she won’t live. But then again, who does?” Or not. I’ll settle for the set being lit so we can see, personally.
We still don’t know if this is a prequel, a sequel, a reboot, a remake or something else entirely. What do you want to see?
Danny Bowes is a playwright, filmmaker and blogger. He is also a contributor to nytheatre.com and Premiere.com.
At this point, anytime I see a remake of anything I like I immediately cross it off my towatch list. I like the stuff that I like and I don’t need it to be new/different. I’d rather have a new awesome idea from him.
This has the potential to be either really awesome or really shitty. Given the state of Hollywood these days, I’m leaning towards the latter.
Dont you DARE ruin my beloved bladerunner…dont you DARE…
AFAIK the company has a right to do anything with Blade Runner except a remake. As for the movie itself I’m neutral verging toward optimistic – after the announcement of Scott directing. But I’m waiting to see how Prometheus will turn out before I say anything more.
Either a prequel or a sequel could be pretty interesting. A remake–not so much.
Blade Runner . . . it leaves me worried. If they keep the noir tone and the city keep its dystopian trappings then many of my worries will have been put to rest, but I’d also want to know more about the plot before I rev up my interest.
In other news, I hadn’t heard about Prometheus either. And that sounds like something I’d be much more excited for, assuming it brings the Aliens franchise back to the excellent pre-Resurrection status-quo, much as Predators did to its franchise roughly a year ago. We need to start working off the stigmma of Alien vs. Predator, and quick.
When I read this I immediately felt burning hatred, then just merely annoyed-affront, then mild curiosity, and now I’m dialing in at intense interest. Will it be a prequel? Sequel? Reboot? Reinvention? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is classic Sci-Fi literature…all I ask is that Ridley not do something to tarnish it’s name or the original effect of his steam-punk classic! Pretty please :(
I just hope this isn’t going to be a vehicle to sell us more of the “Deckard is a replicant” stuff. I’m just not buying it.
A prequel following Roy as a tragic hero would have some potential, but I suspect Hollywood will take the most obvious path and give us the further adventures of Rick Deckard.
Am I the only one who thinks this could be awesome, with today’s effects? Has Ridley been making shitty movies for the last ten years, and this is some desperate act on his part? Well, Robin Hood aside… nope.
Also @7 …. Steampunk?
A steampunk version of Blade Runner would be dope.
I am waiting for the steampunk version of My Fair Lady, in which Professor Higgins accepts Col. Pickering’s bet that he can take a common Covent Garden flower girl and get her into the Hungarian Embassy – not by teaching her to speak and act like an aristocrat and getting her an invitation to the annual ball, but by rebuilding her into an unstoppable half-clockwork gatling-wielding cyborg war machine and sending her to blast her way through the front gate.
Am I the only one who thinks this could be awesome, with today’s effects?
Probably.
This may be terrible. Blade Runner is one of my top 5 movies because of the mood, the acting and the story itself. This smells like The Two Jakes.
I would be interested in a prequal. One that gets into the tribulations and battles that Roy Batty endured, You could get away with a slightly younger Rugar look alike and stay with the origional idea of the ambiguity between replicants and humanity. Get into what the frontiers were becoming in this futuristic look at humanity with replicants being used to scout, build, protect and ultimately used to fight and decide who is in control out in space. Yeah I could watch a movie like that.
If it’s a remake, especially if Ridley Scott is behind it, then the beast slouches a little closer toward Bethlehem in my opinion.
A sequel would just spoil it. I don’t want to be told what happens to Rachael and Dekkard because leaving it to our imaginations is what gives Bladerunner some of its enduring poetry and power.
Now a prequel dealing with Roy Batty… to see those things us people wouldn’t believe…? While it sounds intriguing, no one can replace Rutger Hauer. He gave Roy Batty a soul. No matter how capable the actor, this isn’t as simple a matter as replacing Dumbledore out of necessity. It’s like getting Shia LeBouef to play a young Rick Blaine in a prequel to Casablanca. Shudder!
The only way I can see this working is if Scott creates an entirely new cast of characters with engrossing stories to tell, then cast those parts as perfectly as Bladerunner had been, maintain the cyberpunk/classic noir milieu, and don’t be tempted to do too much just because money and technology allows it. But he’s going 3D, isn’t he. Well, there goes one hope for it already shot to hell.
I agree about Rugar being ireplaceable but I am not looking for end of his life Roy but for just born Roy four years earlier and what the world/space did to him to turn him into the man we get deserting and making his way back to Earth to live longer Roy. Did he start out in a mature body or did he grow up inside a year. Was he trained or implanted with soldier knowledge or both. Do we have a Soldier (movie with ol Kurt) training or is it more wake up and here’s your gun go fight. Those are questions I have and would like explored by a prequal. As an for an actor you would need someone who could pull off no soul at first and then a developing one. Maybe Franco he has done well lately.
@2…and the rest.
My thoughts exactly. Either this will be brilliant or a real stinker. With the latter the more obvious option, as a result degrading the original on some level.
And always cool to see fellow countryman Rutger Hauer in his prime, in a shot of the foreign movie that made him unforgettable to a big audience.
just found this release on what to expect…
http://www.horror-movies.ca/2011/08/new-blade-runner-film-release-date-set/
Maybe there is hope afterall….
Didn’t K.W. Jeter write a sequel to BladeRunner? I have a paperback around here somewhere that I never got around to reading.
Well, news from the Blade Runner Infiniti project has been leaking for some time now over at:
cashpiles.tumblr.com
Interesting stuff about the costume and make-up design, along with some plot elements.