Villeneuve works to respect backstory of Blade Runner
Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve said he was warned by the director of the first “Blade Runner” movie, Ridley Scott, that he better do his homework before doing the remake.
The Quebec director said Scott told him about the source of inspiration for the first movie, which came out in 1982, and the back story.
“And then with the new one, he told me: ‘It’s your responsibility. If you do your homework correctly, it can be fantastic; if you don’t, it’s going to be (a) disaster,’” Villeneuve said Thursday, in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“That’s what I needed to hear,” said the director of “Blade Runner 2049,” in theatres Oct. 6. “He would be give full responsibility but full freedom. And I felt great with that.”
Villeneuve said the 1982 movie really influenced him when he first saw it, and he wanted to use his highly anticipated remake as a “love letter” to the original.
One of the main goals of the film, he said, was to capture the gloom and sadness of the first one.
“There were several objectives,” he said. “One of them was to try and bring back that fantastic, beautiful melancholia that was in the first movie. I worked hard to try and bring that melancholia back to the screen.”
His last two projects, “Arrival” and “Blade Runner 2049,” are both science fiction themed, as is the film he is currently working on, “Dune.”
Villeneuve didn’t want to get too much into “Dune,” as it’s still too early in the production phase, but added the movie will be “at a level I’ve never approached before.”
He said he’d like to continue making science fiction films, but admitted they are “exhausting.”
“It demands a lot,” he said. “To create different worlds, but it’s intoxicating at the same time. I loved it.”