Ridley Scott Regrets Not Directing ‘Blade Runner’ Sequel: “I Shouldn’t Have Had To Make That Decision”
Ridley Scott is looking back and opening up about not being able to direct the Blade Runner sequel. The filmmaker had been announced by Alcon Entertainment back in 2011 to helm the follow-up to his 1982 film that starred Harrison Ford.
However, Scott had to step down from director duties following a scheduling clash and Denis Villeneuve stepped up to direct Blade Runner 2049.
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“I shouldn’t have had to make that decision,” he told Empire magazine recently. “But I had to. I should have done Blade Runner 2.”
Scott went on to direct the sci-fi horror film Alien: Covenant instead of the Blade Runner sequel which ended up starring Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas and Jared Leto.
The director is returning to the dystopian future in the Amazon Studios series Blade Runner 2099.
“I’m one of the producers,” he adds. “It’s all set years on. To me, it circles the idea of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.”
Of course, the original film also had literary origins. It was based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Amazon picked up the series in February of this year with Scott attached as an executive producer. Silka Luisa is writing and exec producing the series coming from Alcon Entertainment in association with Scott Free Productions and Amazon Studios. Jeremy Podeswa joined the sequel series as the pilot director, producing director and exec producer.
Scott had been teasing a follow-up to the Blade Runner franchise for years, telling Digital Spy in 2018, “I think there is another story. I’ve got another one ready to evolve and be developed, so there is certainly one to be done for sure.”
In 2021 he told the BBC a pilot and a bible for Blade Runner had been made adding, “We’re already presenting Blade Runner as a TV show, the first 10 hours.”
Filming for Blade Runner 2099 has reportedly been pushed until Spring 2024 due to the writers strike and actors strike.
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