With a couple of Oscar nominations to his name thanks to “Incendies” and “Arrival,” and a string of acclaimed films including “Prisoners,” “Enemy,” and “Sicario,” it’s not a surprise that producers would leap at the chance to work with Denis Villeneuve. And certainly, when it comes to “Blade Runner 2049,” the director had no problem getting in the door – but it certainly helped that he was equally enthusiastic about the project. However, there was one roadblock Villeneuve had to overcome: Rick Deckard.
Harrison Ford himself had the sign off for the director for “Blade Runner 2049,” which makes sense, as he’s putting one of his legacy characters into Villeneuve’s hands.
“…Harrison was there before me. The birth of the project was the producers from Alcon were able to unfreeze the rights. It was honestly like a master, high-skilled negotiation to bring the rights back to life. They unfroze something that was very difficult and the first thing they did was approach Ridley [Scott], of course. They said they’d love to do [it] with him and I think Ridley said, after 15 minutes, ‘Fly to London NOW.’ What Ridley told me was, when he did the original ‘Blade Runner,’ he had the desire to follow Deckard’s and different other stories. It was a universe that was open. You have a detective in the future. The desire was there. It’s just that so much shit happened with the first [movie] that it froze there,” the director explained at San Diego Comic-Con this summer.
“They went to Ridley and they went to [screenwriter] Hampton Fancher and both of them had an idea to do a sequel that excited everybody,” he continued. “The first thing they did once they got the idea, was they phoned Harrison. At the early stage of screenwriting, they asked him because, without Harrison, there was no movie. Harrison said yes and they developed the movie. Harrison was there before me. I didn’t go to Harrison; I had to be approved by Harrison.”
“Once I agreed [to shoot] the screenplay, I had to meet Ridley to hear from his own voice that he wanted me to do this. And then I had to meet Harrison to be scanned by Harrison to make sure Harrison Ford approved,” Villeneuve added.
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Needless to say, he pleased the right people, and in turn, delivered a knockout movie. “Blade Runner 2049” opens on Friday. [io9]