We’ve been so wrapped up with Prometheus, and debating whether it’s a pure prequel to Sir Ridley Scott’s Alien, that we kind of, forgot the director’s previously announced sequel to Blade Runner. But an exciting bit of news regarding that project has us back on track.
Alcon Entertainment – which will co-produce the new Blade Runner film along with Scott Free and Bud Yorkin – revealed that original Blade Runner screenwriter Hampton Fancher was in negotiations to collaborate with Scott on the film, which indeed would be a true sequel to the 1982 masterpiece. In addition, producers confirmed that the new story would take place a few years after the events of the original film.
The way the story goes, Fancher and Scott always intended to do a series of films that developed the themes found in Philip K. Dick’s sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which inspired the original Runner. But as is often the case in Hollywood, Scott got lured to other projects, and the collaboration was put on hold for the past 30 years.
“It is a perfect opportunity to reunite Ridley with Hampton on this new project, one in fact inspired by their own personal collaboration, a classic of cinema if there ever was one,” Alcon producers said in a statement.
I think we’ll all agree that three decades isn’t too long to wait if Scott and Hampton are able to put their heads together and come up with a movie as flawless as Blade Runner. Rumors have been swirling around that the new Runner could focus on a female character instead of Harrison Ford’s Deckard (as the actor has aged significantly since 1982). But with what we’ve seen of Prometheus, it feels like Scott is getting his sci-fi mojo back … which means genre fans who love his Alien and Blade Runner films could be in for a second career Renaissance from the skilled storyteller.
