Ridley Scott's seminal adaptation of Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Blade Runner, is widely considered one of the most influential and acclaimed sci-fi movies of all time, so when it was announced that a sequel was in the works, there was understandably a lot of apprehension - although the fact that a director the calibre of Denis Villeneuve was attached did assuage a lot of concerns.
As it turned out, 2017's Blade Runner 2049 was very well-received by fans and critics alike, and some actually hail it as being every bit as good or even better than the original.
Unfortunately, this was not reflected in the movie's box office performance.
During an interview with THR, Villeneuve was asked if he thinks he'll "ever able to ignore the shadow of Blade Runner?"
"No, never. Blade Runner is one of my favorite films, and it’s absolutely a masterpiece. Ridley Scott is one of my favorite filmmakers, and even though he had given his blessing, it was very important for me to hear it and see it in his eyes that he was OK with me doing the movie at the time. But I was constantly thinking about the original film as I was making Blade Runner 2049. It was impossible not to. So 2049 was really a love letter to the first film, but it was by far one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever done, and I don’t think I will ever approach someone else’s universe again. I still wake up sometimes at night, saying, 'Why did I do that?' I’d declined a few other projects of that scale, but at the time, I said to myself, 'It’s a crazy project, but it’s worth the risk of losing everything.'”
A lot of Star Wars fans are hoping that Villeneuve will eventually work in the galaxy far, far away, but based on the filmmaker's comments, it doesn't sound like it's ever going to happen.
What do you make of Villeneuve's comments? What are your thoughts on Blade Runner 2049? Drop us a comment down below.
Officer K (Ryan Gosling), a new blade runner for the Los Angeles Police Department, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former blade runner who's been missing for 30 years.