It was surprising to learn that there’s a Blade Runner 2 in the works. Fans are obsessed with the original, and it’s running a big risk to try and follow it up.
Then again, Ridley Scott has been gung-ho on the idea, and rumor had it he and Harrison Ford even got together recently after years of animosity. (They famously did not get along during the shoot.) Yet a new report tells us Ridley may not be at the helm of the next Blade Runner, which may not be such a smart idea either.
Scott told Variety and Collider that Hampton Fancher, one of the original screenwriters of Runner (along with David Webb Peoples), and Scott “talked at length about what it could be, and came up with a pretty strong three-act storyline, and it all makes sense in terms of how it relates to the first one.”
Scott also said that “Harrison is very much part of this one, but really it’s about finding him; he comes in in the third act.”
Scott hopes to have Blade Runner 2 shooting next year, but Scott himself will be directing The Martian instead. Blade Runner was not just the product of Philip K. Dick’s fervid imagination, but the cinematic version was Ridley Scott’s incredible vision. It would be hard to imagine another director taking it on and delivering a film as good. Even if Ridley directed it and it didn’t turn out so hot, it would still have a much better shot with him behind the camera than anyone else.
