Despite receiving a great deal of critical acclaim, Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 certainly has its detractors – not least its own producer (and director of the 1982 original) Ridley Scott, who stated back in December that the sci-fi sequel was “fucking way too long”.
Now it seems we can add another Blade Runner alum to that list, with Rutger Hauer – who played the replicant Roy Batty – telling The Hollywood Reporter that he wasn’t a fan of the sequel.
“I sniff and scratch at it,” said Hauer. “It looks great but I struggle to see why that film was necessary. I just think if something is so beautiful, you should just leave it alone and make another film. Don’t lean with one elbow on the success that was earned over 30 years in the underground.”
“In many ways, Blade Runner wasn’t about the replicants, it was about what does it mean to be human? It’s like E.T. But I’m not certain what the question was in the second Blade Runner. It’s not a character-driven movie and there’s no humor, there’s no love, there’s no soul. You can see the homage to the original. But that’s not enough to me. I knew that wasn’t going to work. But I think it’s not important what I think.”
Blade Runner 2049 was a disappointment at the box office, grossing just $260 million worldwide. Nevertheless, as with the Alien franchise, Scott doesn’t seem ready to call it a day, with the filmmaker revealing that he’s already got another sequel ready for development. Of course, whether he can convince the studio to take another punt on it remains to be seen…
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.
