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New 'Blade Runner 2049' Featurette Drops Ahead Of Original Film's 35th Anniversary
We're still about three-and-a-half months away from the release of Blade Runner 2049, itself a sequel(?) to the seminal 1982 sci-fi neo-noir film directed by Ridley Scott. The first teaser for the new film was released in December, with a full trailer premiering last month. Both clips piqued our interest almost immediately, and, to be honest, if that was the end of it, part of us would be satisfied. Through these samplings, director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Sicario) has already given us the tableaux of gritty futurism dripping with color that we demand, along with an atmospheric score, and, of course, plenty of beautiful faces (Ryan Gosling, Mackenzie Davis) and insane outfits (oversized collars, anyone?). That is to say, our curiosity has gotten a taste of what an updated Blade Runner looks like, and it's pretty damn cool.
And now there's more. With this Sunday marking the 35th anniversary of the original film, the crew behind Blade Runner 2049 released a featurette (below) on Wednesday that includes new clips of the upcoming film, Ridley Scott talking about the 1982 original and the 2017 sequel, and soundbites from Villeneuve, Gosling, Harrison Ford, and Jared Leto.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Villeneuve described why he took on this seemingly daunting project, and how he views it.
"Ryan Gosling and I made peace with the idea that the chances of success were very narrow," Villeneuve said. "I came on board because the script was very strong. But no matter what you do, no matter how good what you’re doing is, the film will always be compared to the first, which is a masterpiece. So I made peace with that. And when you make peace with that, you are free."
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As for the director's relationship with Ridley Scott?
"He said, it's your movie," Villeneuve continued. "I'll be there if you need me, otherwise I'll be away. And I must say he was not there physically, but I felt his presence all the time, because I was dealing with his universe all the time. So in a way he wasn't there, but he was there a lot at the same time."
As for the plot of the film, details are still slim.
"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," the official synopsis reads.
We'll do our best to wait patiently for October, but in the meantime, we'll gorge ourselves on the Blade Runner 2049 clips we have.
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