When fans of Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi classic found out that a sequel was in the works, they weren’t overly ecstatic at the prospect, but when it was announced that Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Arrival) was going to be behind the camera for Blade Runner 2049, stances were immediately softened. An atmospheric first teaser also went down pretty well, but even still, there’s a bit of apprehension at the thought of anyone following in Scott’s footsteps and building on the relatively self-contained plot of the original.
It should come as a relief, then, that Villeneuve is well aware of the responsibility that he’s undertaken, and is definitely feeling the pressure. During an interview with Variety, the director calls the Blade Runner sequel the “riskiest project” he’s ever been involved with, but seems to relish the challenge at the same time.
I feel [pressure] every day … At the same time, I’ve never been that inspired and excited. I love risk. All of my projects have come with a certain amount of artistic risk, or sometimes a risk of how you portray reality. I did a movie once about a school massacre and I had a huge responsibility to the victims of those events. I did a movie about a conflict in Lebanon, so there again, you have a strong responsibility to reality. When I did ‘Sicario,’ I felt responsible to how I would portray the Mexican society there. So I’m used to pressure. For ‘Blade Runner,’ it’s artistic pressure, and by far the biggest ever
Villeneuve clearly wasn’t too put off by the enormous pressure of working on such a well-loved sci-fi property, as he’s signed on to direct another adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune next. Is the filmmaker getting a bit too ambitious? Perhaps, but we’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt as his track record is superb.
Blade Runner 2049 opens October 6, 2017, and stars Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, Dave Bautista and Jared Leto. There are also rumors that one of the original replicant characters will be making a comeback as well, but as of now that remains unconfirmed.
