Caffeinated Clint
Ridley Scott’s latest franchisey thing isn’t even in theatres yet and already we’ve moved onto the topic of his next one. Like week-old bread these movies, I tell ya – whatever loaf smells freshest gets the pickings.
“Prometheus”, which is somewhat of an unofficial prequel to Scott’s “Alien”, has seemingly got the veteran filmmaker all interested in returning to the well of some of his other past greats (his brother Tony too, for that matter; he’s doing a sequel to “Top Gun”) – namely “Blade Runner”.
It was recently announced that Scott would develop and ultimately direct a sequel to his 1982 classic. Unfortunately Harrison Ford will be sitting this one out (well, replicates can’t age after all, right?) but seems the project will retain some of the original forces behind it.
Hot off the press : “Blade Runner” scribe Hampton Fancher is returning to write the film.
The filmmakers are also revealing for the first time that the much-anticipated project is intended to be a sequel to the renowned original. The filmmakers would reveal only that the new story will take place some years after the first film concluded.
The three-time Oscar-nominated Scott and his “Blade Runner” collaborator Fancher originally conceived of their 1982 classic as the first in a series of films incorporating the themes and characters featured in Philip K. Dick‘s groundbreaking novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?“, from which “Blade Runner” was adapted. Circumstances, however, took Scott into other directions and the project never advanced.
Fancher, although a writer of fiction, was known primarily as an actor at the time Scott enlisted him to adapt the Dick novel for the screen. Fancher followed his “Blade Runner” success with the screenplays, “The Mighty Quinn” (1989) and “The Minus Man” (1999). He has continued to write fiction throughout his career.
Scott also will produce with Alcon co-founders and co-Chief Executive Officers Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove as well as Bud Yorkin and Cynthia Sikes Yorkin. Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, CEO’s of Thunderbird Films, will serve as executive producers.
The original film, which has been singled out as the greatest science-fiction film of all time by a majority of genre publications, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993 and is frequently taught in university courses. In 2007, it was named the 2nd most visually influential film of all time by the Visual Effects Society.
blade-runner-2-sequel-posterState Kosove and Johnson: “It is a perfect opportunity to reunite Ridley with Hampton on this new project, one in fact inspired by their own personal collaboration, a classic of cinema if there ever was one.”
Released by Warner Bros. almost 30 years ago, “Blade Runner” was adapted by Fancher and David Peoples from Philip K. Dick‘s groundbreaking novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” and directed by Scott following his landmark “Alien.” The film was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Visual Effects, and Best Art Direction). Following the filming of “Blade Runner,” the first of Philip K. Dick’s works to be adapted into a film, many other of Dick’s works were likewise adapted, including “Total Recall,” “A Scanner Darkly,” “Minority Report,” “Paycheck,” and the recent “The Adjustment Bureau,” among others.
If Scott really is getting all crushy on his old flicks, hoping to rejuvenate interest in them by doing belated sequels, might we also see a “Black Rain 2 : A Decapitation for a Decapitation”, “Thelma & Louise 2 : The Husbands” or a “Legend Continues : No Tangerine Dream”, in the near future?
