According to Screen Daily, Warner Bros. Pictures and Alcon Entertainment‘s Blade Runner 204 will follow the original’s lead and be rated R! Director Denis Villeneuve not only confirmed the rating, but he also said that it would be one of the most expensive movies ever released with the restricted MPAA distinction.
“My producers are finding it fun to remind me that it will be one of the most expensive R-rated independent feature films ever made,” Villeneuve stated.
The Canadian filmmaker also revealed that there was very little green screen during filming, which wrapped in late November.
“I can count on my fingers the amount of times we put a green screen on set,” said Villeneuve. “Most of the movie was done on camera, me and [cinematographer] Roger Deakins worked very hard to do it that way. My actors were not walking on green screens all day long. CGI is a strong tool for backgrounds and extensions but what is around the actors needs to be as real as possible. When I watch a movie that’s mostly CGI, I’m disengaged.”
Lastly, while expressing his love for sci-fi (he’s previously stated he would love to remake Dune), he teased that there could be the potential for even MORE sequels to Ridley Scott’s 1982 dystopian classic.
“I’m doomed, I love sci-fi,” he said. “I have two more ideas now that I would love to do. [And] Blade Runner could go on… we’ll see how this one goes.”
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
Blade Runner 2049, coming to theaters on October 6, 2017, also stars Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri, Lennie James, with Dave Bautista and Jared Leto.
From Denis Villeneuve, the acclaimed director behind films like Arrival, Sicario and Prisoners, the Blade Runner sequel will be distributed by Warner Bros. in North America and Sony Pictures Releasing International in all media for all overseas territories. The film 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? Story details have not been revealed at this time.
Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, CEOs of Thunderbird Films, serve as executive producers on Blade Runner 2049 alongside Ridley Scott, Yale Badick, and Bill Carraro. The film is produced by Andrew A. Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Bud Yorkin, and Cynthia Yorkin.
