Originally published September 10, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
Appearing at the Venice Film Festival where his latest film Arrival premiered in competition, Canadian director Denis Villeneuve has been speaking about his next sci-fi project, the as-yet-untitled sequel to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and the pressure he feels as he attempts to follow one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time.
“First of all, it’s not possible to live up to the original,” said Villeneuve. “It’s Ridley Scott. It’s a masterpiece. It’s one of the best sci-fi films, one of the best films in the past 50 years. For me, what terrorizes me right now is what I’m doing is taking Blade Runner and making it my own, and that is horrific. To realize that when I look at the dailies, it’s not Ridley Scott, it’s me, and that it’s different. It’s still the same universe, we are still in the same dream, but it’s mine, so it’s like I have no idea how you people will react, I don’t know. It has its own life.”
Villeneuve also spoke about working with Ryan Gosling on the film, stating that: “I must say, the thing I can say is that Ryan Gosling is insanely good. I’m very impressed by that actor. It’s the first time I’ve worked with him and I never had someone that was as much a trooper, as dedicated, as precise and engaged. I feel that he is a real partner with me. I said to him, ‘You know, we are going to do it together and it’s like walking in a dark room with a lighter trying to find the way out. It’s a huge room and we are alone and it’s dark and it’s cold.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I understand exactly.’ But we have a lot of fun. It’s funny because very often we say that nobody realizes that a bunch of Canadians took over Blade Runner. We are, like, covert, nobody knows. I knew he was a great actor, I didn’t know how brilliant — he’s really an intelligent person, very clever, very provocative mind, he’s bringing a lot to the project right now, a lot, in a positive way. I’m very excited about it.
The Blade Runner sequel will see Harrison Ford reprising the role of Rick Deckard, and Villeneuve spoke of his enthusiasm about getting to work with the screen legend: “It’s a long shoot, and I started prep with him, but I didn’t start to shoot with him. But I will say that Harrison, to my great relief … you know Harrison Ford, he was one of my biggest heroes. I grew up with him, so to meet a man like that who is kind of a legend in your heart, that has that kind of humility, generosity, open-mindedness and simplicity, one of the nicest human beings I’ve met. I’m really looking forward to start working with him.”
The Blade Runner sequel is set for release on October 6th 2017 and sees Harrison Ford reprising the role of Rick Deckard alongside new additions Ryan Gosling (The Nice Guys), Robin Wright (House of Cards), Jared Leto (Suicide Squad), Carla Juri (Morris From America), Ana de Armas (Knock Knock), Dave Bautista (Spectre), Mackenzie Davis (The Martian), Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), David Dastmalchian (Ant-Man), Hiam Abbass (Munich), Sylvia Hoeks (Tirza) and Lennie James (The Walking Dead).
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