News of a Blade Runner Sequel

It has been announced that Hampton Francher who co-wrote the original Blade Runner movie with Ridley Scott, will be working again with Scott on a followup to the 1982 film. Not much has been announced as of yet, but the film will be taking place some time after the original meaning there is a chance that Harrison Ford will re-visit his role of 'Rick Deckard'.


The 1982 original was a very impressive visual and emotional experience, even to this date. Set in a distopian Los Angeles Deckard, a retired blade runner, reluctantly returned to track down and 'retire' (shutdown) a group robots (replicants) who had illegally escaped to earth. The film beard a very bleak neo-noir style, almost all of the scenes taking place in a rainy nighttime setting, with tacky neon lights illuminating the dingy streets. The movie dealt with complex emotional themes, one of the key subjects being genetic engineering. At the end of the film, with the dramatic death of Roy Batty (one of the replicants), the audience felt sympathy for the character, seeing him deliver a moving speech on simply wanting to live and the wasted memories that would be the result of his retirement. It was sad to think that man had created this machine seemingly capable of developing emotions, to simply cast out from society. It is these gripping and thought provoking ideas that I look forward to seeing revisited.