‘Blade Runner 2049’ Almost Had A Different, Clunkier Title

The decades long journey to bring “Blade Runner 2049” to the big screen has resulted in many paths not taken, and detours, like 1998’s unofficial side-quel “Soldier” (which apparently takes place in the “Blade Runner” universe). As such, it means there are many plot elements that got left behind, and even Hampton Fancher‘s original treatment for ‘BR2049’ had a different ending to the one Michael Green eventually penned in the screenplay. Turns out, there was another title being batted around for the movie, too.

The clean and simply named “Blade Runner 2049” nearly went by the title “Blade Runner: Androids Dream,” an obvious nod to the source material, Philip K. Dick‘s “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep.” Luckily, the idea was scrapped.

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“I think [Alcon partner] Broderick [Johnson] and I ultimately felt that simpler was better,” producer Andrew Kosove told Monsters & Critics. “The fact that the original movie and the original first frame of the film is Los Angeles 2019, and since our story takes place 30 years hence, we thought it was very simple and clean just to call it ‘Blade Runner 2049’ as opposed to a lot of these other titles being kicked around.

“By the way, I actually really like that title but with the benefit of hindsight, I’m very happy we ended up with the title we did because I think it’s a little leading,” he added.

However, “Blade Runner: Androids Dream” wasn’t the only name being knocked about during development.

“When Hampton wrote his treatment and draft, he titled it ‘Acid Zoo,’ which is a terrific title,” Green revealed. “For a while that was their working title. He doesn’t know this, when I started working on it, the working title was ‘Queensboro’ because I always considered myself a New Yorker.”

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“Then at some point I got a note from the line producer, just an e-mail he was sending back and forth,” Green said. “His signature at the bottom of the screen had changed to ‘Triborough.’ I said, ‘What’s going on there?’ He’s like, ‘Well, people found out that ‘Blade Runner’ was ‘Queensboro’ so we picked a different bridge to jump off of.’ That is the evolution. Actual titles, different ones were kicked around. I shouldn’t say which ones they were.”

“Blade Runner 2049” is now playing everywhere. [via io9]