Harrison Ford Tapped To Star In BLADE RUNNER Sequel
32 years after Warner Bros theatrically released its award-winning futuristic noir thriller, Blade Runner, it appears talk of a sequel is stirring things up at Cannes this year with word that Alcon Entertainment has offered actor Harrison Ford to his reprise his role in the new film.
In the years since then, with various versions of the film being made available in one form or another until helmer Ridley Scott‘s 2007 version, The Final Cut, hopes for a sequel have periodically come and gone for various reasons, with at least one version being prepared in 2009 by Scott, along with brother, filmmaker Tony Scott before the latter reportedly committed suicide three years later.
Based on late author Phillip K. Dick’s original 1968 publication, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, the first film is set in November in the year 2019, with Ford in the role of semi-retired LAPD detective Rick Deckhard, who, in the course of being pulled back to duty as a “blade runner” to hunt down and “retire” rogue humanoid beings called “replicants” following a bloody mutiny that led to their illegality, finds himself protecting and falling in love with Rachael (Sean Young) a replicant who believes herself to be human. The film flopped in the U.S. but gained success overseas and earned cult status among adoring sci-fi fans for becoming one of the most visually stunning and influential movies to date, in addition to, among other things, receiving preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library Of Congress.
The first film was co-written by Hampton Fancher who was also announced back in 2011 to provide the script with screen writer Michael Green. Not much is known about the plot of the new film except for Scott‘s return to the helm, and that it will take place several decades after the first film, so there is no word yet on whether or not the new film will be an original follow-up or be attributed to any of the three sequel novels written by K.W. Jeter between 1995 and 2000.
Ford has a clear momentum as of late, having just recently starred in last year’s sci-fi thriller, Ender’s Game, with an upcoming appearances in this summer’s release of The Expendables 3. More notably however, considering that Ford is returning to the big screen as Han Solo in the London production of Star Wars: Episode VII, another ‘run’ as 21-century cop in the future hunting down rogue androids would be pretty gnarly.
Stay focused, kids!
H/T: Variety