“Replicants Screenwriters are like any other machine – they’re either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a benefit, it’s not my problem." That’s a paraphrased quote from Rick Deckard, the main character in Ridley Scott’s seminal 1982 sci-fi thriller Blade Runner. He was actually talking about the skin-job replicants that the titular Blade Runners are meant to retire, which just means killing them really. And while I’m not saying that bad screenwriters should be killed, I’m perfectly fine with some of them retiring.
Which brings us to the long-proposed Blade Runner sequel, which The Wrap reports, has finally landed its screenwriter in Michael Green, who was one of the five writers involved in the fairly awful screenplay for Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern two years ago. Last year he wrote several episodes for the increasingly disappointing ABC found-footage horror The River. Besides a Flash script he wrote for DC, he’s written for such TV shows as Smallville, Everwood and Kings. Is this really the guy that is going to take us back (or forward) to the gorgeous dystopia that was (will be) Los Angeles? Sure, the original film’s screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples weren’t established when they pounded out their script, but anything could happen in the ‘80s. Cinema is an entirely different behemoth now.
Scott is set to come back and direct the film, which will be produced through Alcon Entertainment and Scott Free. It isn’t clear yet whether it will be a sequel or a prequel, but The Wrap’s sources say it will take place years after the first film’s ending. The story also says Scott is counting on Harrison Ford to come back for the Rick Deckard role, which indicates a sequel as I’m having a hard time understanding how that could even happen if the movie turned out to be a prequel. And we know that Sean Young is willing to reprise her Rachael role. And I’m pretty sure Rutger Hauer would come back in no time. The new film would probably feature a lot less smoking, as apparently 2019 L.A. didn’t get the smoking ban memo.
I could sit here all day halfway bemoaning this decision, but I’m just one Blade Runner fan out of millions. Tell me what you guys think in the poll below.
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