Actor set to revisit Rick Deckard.
By Brandon Wolfe
Harrison Ford will continue his ongoing franchise reunion tour as Alcon Entertainment has announced today that the actor is officially set to reprise his role of Rick Deckard in the sequel to 1982’s landmark sci-fi noir Blade Runner. Academy Award nominee Denis Villeneuve, the director of Prisoners, is in talks to helm the film, which is slated to begin shooting in Summer 2016. Hampton Fancher, who co-wrote the original, has written the script for the new film along with Michael Green, based upon a concept originated by Fancher and the original film’s director, Ridley Scott. The story will take place several decades after the events of the original film.
“We are honored that Harrison is joining us on this journey with Denis Villeneuve who is a singular talent, as we experienced personally on Prisoners,” said Alcon co-founders and co-CEO’s Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, “Hampton and Michael, with Ridley Scott, have crafted a uniquely potent and faithful sequel to one of the most universally celebrated films of all time, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with this amazing, creative team.”
While Ford revisiting Indiana Jones and Han Solo made a certain amount of sense, him returning to Deckard seems like a questionable decision. For starters, it would essentially force the sequel to answer one of cinema’s most enduring unanswered questions – whether or not Deckard was a replicant. Also, if he was a replicant, his life span would have been restricted to where he shouldn’t even still be alive at the point several decades later when this film will be set. Delving further into Blade Runner’s world is a sound idea, but tethering it to the Deckard character feels restrictive and makes little sense. This will take some serious finagling to pull off properly, so let’s hope these guys know what they’re doing. (The guys other than Ridley Scott, that is. We already know he doesn’t).
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