When Ridley Scott released Alien back in 1979, the world opened up for him as far as opportunities went. The movie he directed after Alien was Blade Runner in 1982. Blade Runner, which was based on the book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick, followed Rick Deckard. Rick Deckard was a cop that specialized in hunting down and eliminating rogue androids. The group that he was tasked with eliminating was lead by Roy Batty, a combat android who wanted to live more than 5 years, which was the average life span of an android in Blade Runner. Blade Runner apparently was a very difficult movie to shoot with a lot of problems with production and studio interference. The film bombed when it was released. The critics and a number of audiences hated it, lamenting the fact that the trailers made the movie look like an action movie. It wasn’t an action movie. It was a futuristic detective movie. Over the past 30+ years, the film has developed more than a cult following, finding new life on home video. 5 different versions of the film have been released so far, with the “Final Cut” being the definitive version. What made the movie work for me was a number of things: The cast which included names like Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos, Sean Young and Darryl Hannah. The visual style of the film was absolutely unique and gave us a dark glimpse of the future of 2019. Not only that, the music by Vangelis was something out of this world.
A few years back, Ridley Scott had announced that he had a number of movies planned over the next several years, which included a new Alien movie and a new Blade Runner film. With Alien Covenant coming out in a week and a half as of this post, Blade Runner 2049 is set to be released this October. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited for the new Alien film, but its Blade Runner 2049 that has my interest. For one, Harrison Ford is returning as Deckard in some capacity. Ryan Gosling is going to playing a new cop who is looking for Deckard. The actual premise of the film is as of yet, unknown for the most part. What really excites me most about the film is that it’s being directed by Denis Villeneuve, the guy who gave us Prisoners and Arrival. I loved both of those movies, so I’m anxious to see what he can do with Blade Runner. Like the first movie, I’m hoping that the action will take a back seat to the main story. That’s what made the original movie work so well. Well, that and the cast. I think this movie’s going to be a blast. I can’t wait.