Blade Runner 2049 may have been one of the year’s most acclaimed movies, but it also proved to be one of the biggest box office disappointments, grossing just under $260 million worldwide from a budget of $150 million, plus hefty marketing costs.
Director Denis Villeneuve has previously suggested that a lack of familiarity with the universe could have been one reason for its underperformance, and now producer Ridley Scott – who of course directed the 1982 original – has weighed in with his own thoughts:
“I have to be careful what I say,” Scott told Vulture. “I have to be careful what I say. It was fucking way too long. Fuck me! And most of that script’s mine… I sit with writers for an inordinate amount of time and I will not take credit, because it means I’ve got to sit there with a tape recorder while we talk. I can’t do that to a good writer. But I have to, because to prove I’m part of the actual process, I have to then have an endless amount [of proof], and I can’t be bothered. The mother has to inexplicably die four months after she breastfeeds. The bones are found in the box at the foot of the tree — that’s all me. And the digital girlfriend is me… I shouldn’t talk. I’m being a bitch.”
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What do you make of Scott’s comments? Was Blade Runner 2049’s lengthy running time to blame for its box office failure? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
Blade Runner 2049 sees Harrison Ford reprising the role of Rick Deckard alongside Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, Dave Bautista, Jared Leto and Edward James Olmos.
Originally published December 28, 2017. Updated April 19, 2018.
