BLADE RUNNER 2049

“I’M HAVING THE time of my life on this, but it is insane for sure,” admits director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival), well aware of what it is to follow in Sir Ridley Scott’s Spinner trail. “Because it is so insane, it gives you freedom. A lot of people on this [film] are children of Blade Runner, raised with the imagination and energy of the original, and have been inspired by those images all our lives.”

While the new film is based on an idea by Scott and original screenwriter Hampton Fancher, Villeneuve must make his own Blade

Runner. The specifics of which are, for now, as hard to pin down as glittering C-beams. We do know Michael Green’s script returns Harrison Ford’s unverified skin-job Rick Deckard to a still-inclement Los Angeles (weather forecast: acid snow). Ryan Gosling joins Ford, presumably as another Blade Runner (if Replicants still need retiring in 2049), while Jared Leto, Robin Wright and Dave Bautista also play roles.

Despite synth-god Vangelis being replaced as composer by Villeneuve regular Jóhann Jóhannsson, the director reassures fans that his sequel comes fully retrofitted. “There are a lot of digital effects,” he says, “but we are trying our best to do it in the spirit of the original.” We haven’t run a Voight-kampff test on him, but we’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.