In case you weren’t aware, there’s a sequel to the (now) hallowed and influential 1982 sci-fi epic Blade Runner and it's in cinemas now. Denis Villeneuve has directed it and it stars Ryan Gosling as a new breed of Blade Runner, ‘Officer K’, who seeks out a predecessor (Harrison Ford), to solve a mystery about a long-dead replicant.
In the new episode of The Playlist, Nick and Fiona review the film, Blade Runner 2049, fresh from one of its first screenings. Fiona then interviews Denis Villeneuve about what possessed him to want to revisit Blade Runner, a film that its maker Ridley Scott has continued to tinker with over the years.
Villeneuve, of Sicario, Arrival and Incendies fame, is candid about the risk involved in revisiting such a revered film.
“When you make a project like this there is a lot of pressure, it is always a risk, and that is okay but I just felt it needed to be meaningful.
"Honestly, I knew that no matter what, the studio would make the movie [and] I’m seriously, profoundly, in love with the first movie; it is a link with the birth of my love for cinema.
"So I said to myself, ‘They will do the movie anyway and I don’t want somebody to fuck it up’, and I decided, I’ll give my best and for better or worse, I’ll do it. "
Listen to the full interview within the episode below (12:00)
