Anais Gutierrez
Director Dennis Villeneuve opened up about his upcoming film ‘Blade Runner 2049’ as we come closer to its premiere. Villeneuve explained how the sequel of the sci-fi classic is no replicant of the original film.
‘Blade Runner 2049’ stars Jared Leto, Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling in the sequel of the 1982 classic. The film is set to premiere on October 5.
An alternate future for the anticipated sequel
Dennis Villeneuve explains why the sequel to the 1982 science fiction classic conjures an alternative future that doesn’t depend on digital data the way we do.
The original film conjured a high-tech future of biomechanical androids, space travel, and flying cars. But it also saw people calling each other on pay phones.
According to director Dennis Villeneuve in the future world of ‘Blade Runner‘, “there was no Steve Jobs.”
“Apple didn’t exist in the first movie. People didn’t have cell phones,” he said.
Villeneuve, the Oscar-winning French-Canadian director of ‘Arrival’ and ‘Sicario’. He says he felt honored to work on the sci-fi classic sequel.
He describes how he decided to turn into a virtue the first film’s failure to foresee the information age.
“The virtual world is a very powerful universe but is not necessarily very cinematic,” he says. “There’s nothing more boring than a detective behind the keyboard looking at Google.”
“That allowed me to put my [detective’s] hands in the mud,” Villeneuve says. “We need a man to travel in the world, identifying clues.”
In the film, Ryan Gosling plays a new android-hunting Blade Runner. Investigating a deadly conspiracy, he goes in search of Harrison Ford‘s character from the first movie.
Set 30 years after the first film, the sequel extrapolates from the nightmarish future imagined by Ridley Scott and his team, and that posed some challenges now that modern technology has changed what the future will look like.
Dreaming the dream
Villeneuve describes how he and screenwriter Hampton Fancher, who also co-wrote the first film, decided to “dream the dream” rather than from reality. While the film is set in “an alternative future.” But the film does address modern concerns.
“2049” takes place in a reality Villeneuve describes as “a parallel universe linked with the first movie but driven by questions of the world today.”
For example, the sequel touches on ecological themes found in the original Philip K Dick novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ but largely ignored by the first film.
The divergence into a parallel world gives the sequel a timeless quality and an unsettling detachment from reality.
“Sometimes I had a strange feeling that I was more doing a period movie than a sci-fi movie,” Villeneuve says.
“For me, ‘Blade Runner 2049’ was like an edgy old sci-fi movie. It’s a movie that has the romanticism of old sci-fi.”
Once in a lifetime opportunity
Ryan Gosling slips into previously uncharted territory as the new Blade Runner Agent K in ‘Blade Runner 2049.’
Gosling was 12 years old when he watched ‘Blade Runner’, ten years after its initial release. He had rented it for a dollar as part of a four-for-four summer special and calls it four bucks well spent.
“This was unlike anything I had experienced before. It was transportive, very complicated emotionally,” he recalls.
“It felt very grounded and possible, and at the same time, that felt like this romantic nightmare. This created its own genre, really. Future Noir,” he says.
The 35-years-later sequel to one of the most visually influential sci-fi movies ever has Gosling dropping his comedic flair and romantic aura to play a relentless killer of renegade replicants. The Oscar nominee for last year’s musical ‘La La Land’ found this film to be a challenge he couldn’t resist.
“A ‘Blade Runner’ sequel is a unique film. It has a lot of action, but it also has a lot of other things. It’s a real melting pot of styles, themes, and ideas,” he reflected.
“I never expected them to make another one and was surprised that they were. As a fan, I was excited to know what that was. And when I got that script, it was a great story.”
As to how his agent differs from co-star Harrison Ford’s, he said:
“The circumstances are different and the world is different — so that makes the job different. One of the main differences is they are ostracized from society, forced to live in the shadows in a very isolated existence.”
“My character is struggling with his identity outside of that job. And he’s looking for some form of contact and connection amongst this nightmare of a job and a life.”
Gosling’s next film swings into another direction — space. He will play astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, in a film that reunites him with ‘La La Land‘ writer-director Damien Chazelle.
“It’s just an incredible story, and the angle that Damien chose to focus on is to tell the personal story of the bigger adventure. So far it’s been an incredible opportunity to spend time with Neil’s family. I’m really looking forward to this.”
Source: The Inquirer
