Friday, February 27, 2015

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sequels

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Dropped suddenly down onto Twitter last night amid the bizarre stories of llama chases and frock distortions was a great big bomb of movie news - the director Denis Villeneuve is going to direct the sequel to Blade Runner. We've been hearing about a sequel to Blade Runner for awhile now... actually I don't know the answer to this: was there talk of a Blade Runner sequel back when Blade Runner actually came out, or is this just a recent thing piggy-backed upon Ridley Scott's revisiting of the Alien franchise with Prometheus?

Anyway Denis Villeneuve has made a name for himself in the US over the past couple of years by making Jake Gyllenhaal movies, so obviously Denis Villeneueve has been mentioned here at MNPP quite a bit over the past couple of years. He directed both Prisoners (my review) and Enemy (my review) - I far far far prefer the latter film, which will become evident once/if I get around to our awards for last year, but Prisoners was a fine film too.

The question really is, then, do we need a Blade Runner sequel? And as many opinions as you're gonna see flung about, the basic truth remains - nobody has that answer until we actually see, with our eyes and not our fevered imaginations, a Blade Runner sequel. I will say though that I'm more excited about the prospect of a Blade Runner sequel with Velleneuve attached than I would be with Ridley Scott attached, and that comes from somebody who thought Prometheus was yes very dumb but also astonishingly gorgeous to look at and also a lot of fun. It's on TV often enough that I've watched it several times now and I will get sucked into it every single time and I never feel guilty about it.

That said, Scott's best days are probably behind him, while Denis Villeneuve is right in the prime of his best days if you ask me. Enemy... I really cannot gush enough about Enemy. I want to roll around in Enemy. Maybe it would be better if Denis Villenueve went off and continued developing his own projects, sure. But he apparently wants to do this. And I am willing to give him the benefit. Harrison Ford, who is indeed returning to the role of Rick Deckard, has already praised the sequel's script to the skies and back. Let's just hope that the studio let's Villeneuve put his own stamp on it, and go where the material takes him. And by all of this what I mean is: Jake Gyllenhaal should clearly co-star!

What do you guys think?
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

At the End of Blade Runner, the characters Decker and Rachael went "north" presumably to protect Rachael from other blade runners. And of course to live happily ever after.

So we might have these scenarios:
1. Rachael's replicant time-clock runs out and she dies--leaving Decker lonely and he returns to Los Angeles voluntarily.

2. Decker returns to his old digs in Los Angeles because...and who wouldn't want to live in a Mayan Revival apartment?

3. Decker is forced to return to LA because creepy Captain Bryant has an assignment like the first movie: "I need you, Deck. This is a bad one, the worst yet. I need the old Blade Runner, I need your magic."

4. Decker returns (forced or unforced) and is required to mentor and tutor his replacement... sort of a Mr. Miyagi wax-on/wax-off where the new Blade Runner is played by a younger version of Harrison Ford. Old Harrison teaches younger the ways of blade running.

Number 4 seems most likely to me, and wouldn't that be a damned shame.

Anonymous said...

Denis V's "Next Floor" is some spiritual child of Blade Runner's aesthetics. I hope he doesn't Chappie/Elysium himself, before he gets to this "dream" job of his. And yes bring Jake on board if it can be justified (starting to get annoyed if they work together again after their prime have passed. Peri/menopausal movie-making ain't for everybody!)