It’s been 35 years since Blade Runner, the ground-breaking, cult sci-fi movie directed by Ridley Scott, hit international screens. And now, Oscar-nominated director Denis Villeneuve (the man behind the sublime Arrival) has taken on the daunting task of helming Blade Runner 2049, the much-anticipated follow-up.
Three decades after the events of the first film, a new blade runner – LAPD Officer K – 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, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
The film brings together two of Hollywood’s biggest superstars. Naturally, Harrison Ford returns to his iconic role as Rick Deckard. And clearly, the film-makers had only one name in mind to play the new blade runner, K: Ryan Gosling.
Gosling’s interest in the film piqued when he learned a sequel was being touted.
“When I heard that Ridley was considering continuing the narrative, I was already invested. I already wanted to know what happened next,” says the actor. “And then, given the chance to enter that world and help tell that story…it just felt like an amazing opportunity.”
“When I read the screenplay, Ryan Gosling had already been suggested for the role of K, and I said yes immediately,” says Villeneuve. “There could be no one else. He is an actor who can express a world of emotion just moving an eyebrow. I needed an actor of extreme intelligence and the kind of strength to go through the darkness. Ryan’s passion and his relentless efforts in making sure we nailed every scene deeply moved me because I felt it was as important to him as it was to me to make a great movie together.”
Although Scott, who serves as executive producer, felt Ford would be sceptical about returning to the role, Ford loved the script from the outset, describing it as the best script he’s ever read.
The film brings together two of Hollywood’s biggest superstars
“It’s kind of fun to play a character 30 years later. In a way, I’m used to trying on old clothes,” says Ford. “And, happily they still fit, so I didn’t have any apprehensions about playing Deckard again.”
And what was Ford’s opinion of his new co-star? Well, the veteran actor had already thought K would be a good part for Gosling to play.
“I was very enthusiastic about proposing that to the producers,” he recalls. “And, they said that that’s what they were thinking, too, so I was very happy about that. I very much enjoyed working with Ryan in the film. He brings an originality to everything he does and an intelligence, but you don’t see the wheels turning. He inhabits a character rather than struggles to create it.”
Gosling was obviously equally full of praise for Ford.
“Harrison is a great film-maker,” he states. “There is a reason the majority of his films have become iconic and why so many of them are revisited time after time. He is the constant in all of those equations. There are many ways to play any given scene but when you work with Harrison, you realise there’s only one great way. And he’s already figured it out before anyone else.”
Gosling explains that the world “has become a much tougher and more isolated place than the one we left 30 years ago. As a result, the blade runner profession has become more complicated. When we first meet K, he is deep in the throes of that isolation and those complications”.
Musing on the relationship between the two characters, Gosling says that “Deckard is a significant person of interest in the case my character is trying to solve. K sets out to find him, seeking to get answers to questions that have become very personal to him.”
“What transpires between the two of them is extremely compelling,” adds Ford. It’s a very brave storyline. What I like most is the emotional context, which I think is very valuable.”
Blade Runner 2049 also stars Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Carla Juri and Lennie James, with Dave Bautista and Jared Leto. Villeneuve directs from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, based on characters from the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.
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