'Blade Runner' Sequel Moves Up Release Date to Fall 2017

Harrison Ford in original ‘Blade Runner’ (Photo: Warner Bros.)

By Pamela McClintock

Denis Vileneuve’s Blade Runner sequel will hit theaters earlier than expected.

Alcon Entertainment announced Wednesday that the follow-up to Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic sci-fi masterpiece will open on Oct. 6, 2017, instead of Jan. 12 of the following year. (The shift means Blade Runner will open in the heart of awards season.)

Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford (star of the original), Robin Wright and Dave Bautista star in the redux, which will be released by Warner Bros. in North America and Sony Pictures International overseas.

The change in dates was announced by Alcon co-chairman Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove.

Principal photography is scheduled to begin this July. The sequel, set set several decades after the original, is written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, and succeeds the initial story by Fancher and David Peoples based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. The exact storyline is being kept under tight wraps.

Acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins will reunite with Villeneuve on the project after making Sicario and Prisoners together.

Alcon acquired the film, television and ancillary franchise rights to the Blade Runner property n 2011 from Cynthia Sikes Yorkin, who will produce the sequel alongside Kosove and Broderick, and the late producer Bud Yorkin.

Scott will executive produce alongside Thunderbird Films’ Frank Giustra and Tom Gamble, and Bill Carraro.