At least it doesn't star Shia LaBeouf
December 19, 2016 8:43 AM   Subscribe

 
*faints*
posted by gwint at 8:46 AM on December 19, 2016 [7 favorites]


Even if LA 2049 is massively desertified, I'm not really seeing 'vast desolate landscape' as fitting the Blade Runner aesthetic. Very excited for the scenes involving precipitation and hyper-density, however!
posted by Svejk at 8:49 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Actual Replicant Shia LaBeouf
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:50 AM on December 19, 2016 [13 favorites]


Yeah, I was just watching this.

I still can't really accept that there is a new Blade Runner film. So much of the identity of the first film is bound up in its troubled development and commercial failure, and the resulting twenty year drip feed of alternative versions and production stories. And now a new movie is just going to come out? Nah. Impossible.

Over the years I've had a dozen crazy ideas about a sequel plot so I guess we'll see if they use any of them.
posted by selfnoise at 8:51 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


I still don't want there to be a sequel to Blade Runner, but otherwise that looks pretty cool.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 8:51 AM on December 19, 2016 [15 favorites]


Also, how do you make this movie now that the aesthetic of the first film has permeated visual SF culture? How can it not look like a knock off?
posted by selfnoise at 8:52 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


By making it really orange.
posted by Artw at 8:53 AM on December 19, 2016 [49 favorites]


This would appear to answer one of the open questions from the original film re: Deckard (unless there's an Unforeseen Plot Twist involved).
posted by thomas j wise at 8:54 AM on December 19, 2016 [8 favorites]


In the book, the whole earth was in a slow post-nuclear environmental death. Has much more of that feel. Can't wait for all the Kipple.
posted by nickggully at 8:54 AM on December 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


My thoughts:

Ooh, are they doing something with the empathy box and the wasteland?
Ooh, are they doing something with the fake police station?
Oh, FFS, Harrison Ford.
posted by Artw at 8:55 AM on December 19, 2016 [12 favorites]


I don't understand why there has to be a sequel. The first film was entirely self-contained. Wondering "what ever happened to Deckard and Rachel" totally misses the point of the first movie, anyway. And why does Harrison Ford have to star in every single reboot?
posted by My Dad at 8:58 AM on December 19, 2016 [19 favorites]


Over the last five years, are we just trying to resurrect Harrison Ford movies before 2016 gets him? If so, I want my trailer for "Regarding Henry 2: Regard Harder."
posted by MrGuilt at 9:00 AM on December 19, 2016 [68 favorites]


Mosqui2 Coast
posted by Artw at 9:01 AM on December 19, 2016 [30 favorites]


Witn3ss
posted by Artw at 9:02 AM on December 19, 2016 [11 favorites]


Air Force Two
posted by chavenet at 9:05 AM on December 19, 2016 [44 favorites]


Seven Days, Eight Nights
posted by jason_steakums at 9:06 AM on December 19, 2016 [13 favorites]


All the stars of Working Girl are still alive... Obviously, the only choice is....
posted by hippybear at 9:07 AM on December 19, 2016 [5 favorites]


If nothing else, maybe they'll re-release the Final Cut on the big screens again to whet our appetites.
posted by kokaku at 9:07 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


I can't help wondering if that plane crash scrambled Harrison's eggs a bit.
posted by Optamystic at 9:08 AM on December 19, 2016


Actually, I'm quite interested in BR2049. I'm curious to see what they manage to do with it. I saw Blade Runner probably every night the first week the movie was out (times were different back then, movies were cheaper), and took someone different with me every time I saw it. When they did the Director's Cut (without the voiceover) I was back in the theater repeatedly for a week.

Ultimately, Blade Runner is one of the Holy Trinity Of 80s Movie Flops Now Considered Influential (Brazil and Labyrinth are the other two), and while I don't really NEED sequels to them, I think I'll give this one a chance. I'll still have my DVD of the original film on my shelf if I decided that I need to edit this from history.
posted by hippybear at 9:10 AM on December 19, 2016 [5 favorites]


More Cowboys & Additional Aliens
American Graffiti-er
Presumed Innocent 2: Double Jeopardy
Patriot Games Expansion Pack
What Lies Even Further Beneath
posted by Chrysostom at 9:12 AM on December 19, 2016 [22 favorites]


Extreme Prejudice: The Further Adventures of Colonel Lucas.
posted by octothorpe at 9:13 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


needs moar pan am and atari
posted by entropicamericana at 9:16 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Also, if you can't get enough of near-future Los Angeles, then the ambient noise recording Los Angeles November 2019 can help with your soundscape desires.
posted by hippybear at 9:18 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


K-20: Widow Remarried
posted by Molesome at 9:18 AM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


Apocalyp2e Now.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:19 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


2016 was shit. 2017 might be ok.
posted by Fizz at 9:19 AM on December 19, 2016


I was set to reject this because Ridley Scott wasn't directing (and maybe even if he was, per Prometheus), but I liked Arrival very, very much, so there's hope.

Also: The Fugitive 2: Electric Fugiloo
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:21 AM on December 19, 2016 [11 favorites]


Villenueve is a fantastic director, and it looks like they're melding in more elements of the book, so I'm cautiously optimistic. Are spoilers to Blade Runner even a thing? Well, anyway, I feel like the plot will take up with the somewhat hidden plot twists that exist in the first movie.
posted by codacorolla at 9:23 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


The Conversation II: Still Yakkin'
posted by Shepherd at 9:25 AM on December 19, 2016 [13 favorites]


kokaku: "If nothing else, maybe they'll re-release the Final Cut on the big screens again to whet our appetites."

I have the numbered collection case with ALL the versions, so I can watch Final Cut (legally!) whenever I want.
posted by Samizdata at 9:26 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


It terrifies me that this is being made. How much of an echo chamber do we live in, that you can make a completely contrived sequel to a loose adaptation of a book, and have people clamour for it? Someone posted here on the blue a while back an article, using the Lovecraft mythos as an example, making the case that IP law, among other things, has discouraged commercial entities from creating new settings and stories. It appears to ring quite true. This nostalgia-fest for endless sequels and ongoing franchise development (or creation) is boring as hell. Batman needs to die. Blade Runner should have been a one-off. Cthulu isn't creepy, he's a fucking meme that your grandparents joke about.
posted by constantinescharity at 9:26 AM on December 19, 2016 [12 favorites]


Huh, Hampton Fancher is listed as co-writer of this. In the intervening thirty-four years it looks like he's only written two other movies: The Mighty Quinn and The Minus Man.
posted by octothorpe at 9:32 AM on December 19, 2016


Even if LA 2049 is massively desertified, I'm not really seeing 'vast desolate landscape'

I think the orange wasteland might be a lightly terraformed Mars.
posted by Iridic at 9:35 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Fizz: "2016 was shit. 2017 might be ok."

Or it might be... 2016 II
posted by chavenet at 9:35 AM on December 19, 2016 [14 favorites]


The only way this can be good is if they incorporate the Mercerism plot from the original story.
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:37 AM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


I think the orange wasteland might be...

America in 2020.
posted by My Dad at 9:38 AM on December 19, 2016 [12 favorites]


Also: the lettering on the building is supposed to be Hangul (no idea if it means anything, though).
posted by My Dad at 9:39 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I have the numbered collection case with ALL the versions, so I can watch Final Cut (legally!) whenever I want.

Me too. I still love seeing it in the theater on a big screen with big sound and a room full of fellow BR-lovers or those dragged to see it by their BR-lovers.
posted by kokaku at 9:41 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Yeah, BR is SUPER GREAT in the movie theater. The giant dark room, the small buzz of the assembled audience, the sound of the movie begins and that giant reveal of flying over Los Angeles... I get goosebumps just writing about that here.
posted by hippybear at 9:43 AM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


Sorry, coming back to say one other thing: I really do love the cyberpunk aesthetic. Hyper-dense, vertical future cities is exciting. But it's also optimistic. Now that we're in the mid 2010's, and we have unprecedented analysis of demographics, economics, etc., I'd like to see films that depict more realistic prognoses of our future. I want visions of a depopulated developed world, with barons who live off the blood of the young and poor. I want servants for the rich, in poor physical health, under the watch of AI-operated machine gun turrets. Static technology, limited by the constraints of physics. An earth in the process of slow, not dramatic (or entertaining) desertification.

It'd be a hell of a sight, and depressing in a satisfying way.
posted by constantinescharity at 9:47 AM on December 19, 2016 [7 favorites]


All the stars of Working Girl are still alive... Obviously, the only choice is....

"Keep On Workin' It, Girl"?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:47 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


I really do love the cyberpunk aesthetic.

I think Bladerunner is dated. For example, it tends to paint "Asians" as "the Other", and it seems like this new movie is more of the same.
posted by My Dad at 9:48 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Also, for those of you who might still be keeping up with Vangelis, he released an album in September, Rosetta, dedicated to the Rosetta comet mission (continuing a long history of Vangelis doing albums about space). It was nominated for a Grammy.
posted by hippybear at 9:50 AM on December 19, 2016 [8 favorites]


All the stars of Working Girl are still alive... Obviously, the only choice is....

"Working Women"
"Working Mother"
"Working Girl 2: 2 Working, 2 Girl"
posted by MrGuilt at 9:55 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


It terrifies me that this is being made. How much of an echo chamber do we live in, that you can make a completely contrived sequel to a loose adaptation of a book, and have people clamour for it?

You're going to shit yourself when you read the wiki article for "The Wizard of Oz (film)" and see what it was based on.
posted by codacorolla at 9:58 AM on December 19, 2016 [10 favorites]


Working Girls, obv.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:01 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Looks like Ridley Scott didn't get to stick with his preferred title, Blade Runner: Deckard is Definitely a Replicant, Guys
posted by beerperson at 10:05 AM on December 19, 2016 [7 favorites]


American Graffiti-er

The title you're looking for is More American Graffiti.
posted by frogstar42 at 10:09 AM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


Working Girl3
posted by koeselitz at 10:16 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Dear Ridley,

The last time you released a kickass trailer for a pre/side/sequel to one of your early classic films was Prometheus and we all know how that went. I mean, I actually liked it more than most people but the trailer was so great and it got my hopes super sky-high so it was still a disappointment so please, please, please make this doubleplusgood ok? Because I just can't deal with another colossal mid-autumn disappointment after a whole summer of seriously high expectations of something I have basically been waiting my whole life to see.

Your fan,
googly
posted by googly at 10:18 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Firewall 2: Waterwall
posted by Artw at 10:19 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


well, if they bothered to start with a script (seeing Hampton Fancher's name in there gives me hope, Michael Green not so much), then we might have something. But if it's another f***ing Prometheus (which definitely had a cool trailer), then I'll just read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch again.
posted by philip-random at 10:21 AM on December 19, 2016


If so, I want my trailer for "Regarding Henry 2: Regard Harder."

I was thinking it should be called "RE: RE: FW: RE: Henry".
posted by cortex at 10:24 AM on December 19, 2016 [34 favorites]


The title you're looking for is More American Graffiti.

Obviously not, since they made that one already.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:26 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Twerking Gurls: A youthful multi-racial cast is overseen by Griffith, Ford, and Weaver in a business power struggle comedy that features two strippers who find unexpected success when they both land day jobs at an investment bank.
posted by hippybear at 10:28 AM on December 19, 2016 [8 favorites]


Still Frantic After All These Years
posted by cortex at 10:29 AM on December 19, 2016 [8 favorites]


Regarding Henry: Portrait of a Serial.
posted by pracowity at 10:31 AM on December 19, 2016 [7 favorites]


Or it might be... 2016 II

Working title: The Reshittening
posted by dephlogisticated at 10:32 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Expatriate Games
posted by cortex at 10:33 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


The title you're looking for is More American Graffiti.

Obviously not, since they made that one already.


American Graffiti 3 - How Many Times Do I Have To Repaint This Damn Wall
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:34 AM on December 19, 2016


I trust Denis Villeneuve. This looks good. The soundtrack seems promising too.
posted by naju at 10:35 AM on December 19, 2016


The Mosquitto Peninsula: Allie Fox's Gold
posted by codacorolla at 10:35 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Indiana Jones and the Divestment of 401k
posted by cortex at 10:37 AM on December 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


Huh, Hampton Fancher is listed as co-writer of this. In the intervening thirty-four years it looks like he's only written two other movies: The Mighty Quinn and The Minus Man.

well, if they bothered to start with a script (seeing Hampton Fancher's name in there gives me hope, Michael Green not so much), then we might have something. But if it's another f***ing Prometheus (which definitely had a cool trailer), then I'll just read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch again.

Fancher may be getting a script credit if they've lifted entire sections of the original script or are incorporating clips from the original movie. He may not be writing an additional word for this venture.
posted by Zedcaster at 10:38 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Indiana Jones and the Divestment of 401k

"That belongs in an IRA!!"
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:40 AM on December 19, 2016 [29 favorites]


I am quite torn about this. If they were to do this to my satisfaction it would have to have a look as ground-breaking as the first film. So the orange desert/Mars is promising. I don't want to see just a continuation of the old story. I need a new vision. So I'm crossing my fingers that Villeneuve will pull it off.
posted by Ber at 10:40 AM on December 19, 2016


Whatever The Character's Name was In Firewall Returns: The Mortgage Payment or Whatever Wait Are You Writing This Word For Word Don't Include the Whatevers, Just Replace That With the Actual Name and Sub-Title, Goddamnit You Are Writing it Word For Word, Fine, Fix It Before the Movie Releases, Or Don't, I'm Going on Vacation
posted by codacorolla at 10:40 AM on December 19, 2016


People, people, people.....

.
.
.

Remember Prometheus?

Also, Jared Leto is involved so ...?
posted by Faintdreams at 10:44 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


How much of an echo chamber do we live in, that you can make a completely contrived sequel to a loose adaptation of a book, and have people clamour for it?

Do your best to avoid all of human culture after 5000 BC. It's terribly derivative.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:45 AM on December 19, 2016 [12 favorites]


All the stars of Working Girl are still alive... Obviously, the only choice is....

"Working Women"
"Working Mother"
"Working Girl 2: 2 Working, 2 Girl"


Working Girl: Get Back To Work
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:46 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Looks like Ridley Scott didn't get to stick with his preferred title, Blade Runner: Deckard is Definitely a Replicant, Guys
I've been alternately disappointed and amused over the years by the his insistence on sucking all the ambiguity out of the original. I'm not clear if his producer/story credit is just there so he can get a residual check or if he actually contributed to the sequel. Kinda hoping he has nothing to do with this tbh.


Also -

- Force 11 from Navarone
- The Frisco Grandkid
- Presumed Incontinent
posted by cnelson at 10:47 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


And why does Harrison Ford have to star in every single reboot?

He put butts in seats.

He's got bills to pay.
posted by GuyZero at 10:49 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Working Girl: Get Back To Work

In this vein the obvious title for the Blade Runner sequel is "Blade Runnerer".
posted by GuyZero at 10:50 AM on December 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


Blade Runner II: The Blade Running
posted by hippybear at 10:51 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Does the film draw on K.W. Jeter's sequels?
posted by doctornemo at 10:55 AM on December 19, 2016


Is anybody else getting a really strong Hardware vibe off this trailer?

This is what you want, this is what you get.
posted by workerant at 10:55 AM on December 19, 2016 [5 favorites]


Blade Walker
posted by LarsC at 10:56 AM on December 19, 2016 [5 favorites]


Blade Ran

But I just saw 'Arrival' which was pretty damn terrific and there's a good chance...

Blade Running: One More Time
posted by From Bklyn at 10:57 AM on December 19, 2016


Blade Sprinter
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:59 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


And why does Harrison Ford have to star in every single reboot?

Because Harrison Ford Movie Reboots/Remakes aren't simply "bring in a new cast to play the old(ish) roles" (a la "Ghostbusters" (no issue with that movie--dug it--just an example) or "Star Trek"). Instead, they are maintaining the continuity with new characters. Ford has to appear in order for the beloved character to gracefully pass the torch and tell fans "this dude has my blessing to be the new me."
posted by MrGuilt at 11:01 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Okay, It Looks Like The Danger Has Passed Now
posted by cortex at 11:04 AM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


I think the orange wasteland might be a lightly terraformed Mars.

I may be one of the few moviegoers/ tech enthusiasts unexcited about the prospect of a 'lightly terraformed Mars'. To me it seems less exciting and more dated than hyperdense NeoTokyo verticality. Indeed, if Elon Musk were to announce he was interested in turning Mars into the Teal-Black Neon Rainy Planet I would finally join the chorus of his fanboys.

I like the Ozymandias motif of that brief orange scene, but 'Mars' for me is all dusty potato-gardening and manifest destiny, like a distant Oklahoma.
posted by Svejk at 11:05 AM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Ford has to appear in order for the beloved character to gracefully pass the torch and tell fans "this dude has my blessing to be the new me."

I had thought that was what they were doing with Live Free Or Die Hard, with Willis handing over his torch to Justin Long, but alas, they made another movie, and they're apparently doing yet another, both with Willis, so...

I would so admire Ford if he were doing a series of movie sequels only to have his character killed off in each of them. That's some classy exit strategy shit there.
posted by hippybear at 11:06 AM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]




Still on board with it. Looks the part.

At least we know Gosling isn't a replicant. He's a real human bean. And a real hero.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:10 AM on December 19, 2016 [7 favorites]


Arrival 2: Departure
posted by koeselitz at 11:11 AM on December 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


If only

it could have been

Blade Runner II: The Runnening
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 11:13 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Blade Runner 2049 Will Keep the One Part of the Original Movie Everyone Hates

That seems a little unlikely. Also they seem a little confused - the benefit/hazard line is actual dialogue, from Deckard to Rachel, not part of the VO.
posted by Artw at 11:13 AM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


0:57, Korean for Lucky apparently.
posted by Damienmce at 11:13 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Hackman comes back to team up on updated surveillance thriller The Sext.
posted by cortex at 11:21 AM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


So...At least judging by the trailer (and the IMDB cast list) I guess Rachel had a definite built-in life span, but Deckard didn't.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:30 AM on December 19, 2016


Either that or prepare yourself for Uncanny Valley Sean Young Replicant Digital Replica, apparently a trend these days.
posted by hippybear at 11:34 AM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


But will they digitally de-age Rutgeur Hauer when he shows up?
posted by Artw at 11:38 AM on December 19, 2016


I'll take this opportunity to point out that the benefit/hazard line in the book makes more sense.

Paraphrasing: "Replicants are like any other machine, they can oscillate very quickly between being a benefit or hazard. When they're a benefit, it's not my problem."
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 12:08 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


they can oscillate very quickly

These replicants, they vibrate?
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:25 PM on December 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


Blade Runner 2049 Will Keep the One Part of the Original Movie Everyone Hates (Slate)

Huh. I thought everyone hated the scene where Deckard forces Rachel into sex.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:28 PM on December 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


The best possible outcome here is that Bladerunner decides to out do Star Wars by killing off Harrison Ford even earlier.

Like, that whole lead up with the desert and the tastefully hoarded living space is the cold open... Gosling has a mission to destroy the last of Tyrell's replicates, and he blunderbusses Deckard between the eyes right in the middle of his philosophizing.

Unlike Indiana Jones or Hans Solo, Deckard was never really what Bladerunner was *about*. He doesn't need to form a new team or do one last job or really drive the plot in any way way, so why not just use him to get butts in the seats and let killing him somehow be a character moment for the new guy?

Maybe the Baby Goose finds an audio diary of Deckard's that he listens to on the way back to New Tokyo that changes his outlook on replicants the way that Rachel did for Deckard? That would explain the throwback voice over.

Anyways, I am cautiously optimistic, and will see this opening weekend (but maybe not opening night)
posted by sparklemotion at 12:33 PM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


...34 years is not enough time to learn the most important lesson of the original movie: No one likes the voiceover. After a nigh-infinite proliferation of director’s cuts and final cuts and no-really-we-mean-it-this-time cuts, all of which dumped the soft-boiled expository narration added at the studio’s insistence to the film’s initial release, the first glimpse of the sequel opens with ... the familiar drone of Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard on the soundtrack: “Replicants are like any other machine. They’re either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a benefit, it’s not my problem.”
Uh. That's not from the voice over, though, that was ordinary dialogue. It was present in all those fancy cuts and edits. And in a trailer like this, it serves to quickly remind the audience what came before. It's not an indication there will be similar narrative voices in the new movie.
posted by Western Infidels at 12:47 PM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


I like the idea of a spoiler-chum arms race to get Ford's callback character killed earlier and earlier in each subsequent sequel/reboot/etc. Third act, second act, first act, pre-title cold open; eventually someone replaces the lion in the MGM logo with Harrison Ford hollering and collapsing.

After that, it gets tricky; Indiana Jones and the Harrison Ford Dies In This seems like a mic-drop at first, but then people start clawing farther up the one-sheets by getting creative with credits; Henry Sends His Regards stars an ingenue named "Dead Harrison Ford"; time-twisting prequel American Graffito is presented by Sony Pictures in association with Actually Harrison Ford's Been Dead For Twenty Years.

As things devolve further, the production company for No Further Witnesses eventually releases a teaser trailer in which Harrison Ford dies a thousand deaths and learns the true nature of Samsara, guiding viewers into a global understanding of the illusion of reality and an acceptance of the ontological proposition that Harrison Ford never truly existed to begin with. The film has a modest opening weekend.
posted by cortex at 12:51 PM on December 19, 2016 [20 favorites]


Uh. That's not from the voice over, though, that was ordinary dialogue.

How do you think people control their home thermostat in 2049, anyway?
posted by My Dad at 12:57 PM on December 19, 2016


The Sean Young Indiana Jones Chronicles already covered this material.
posted by ...possums at 12:57 PM on December 19, 2016


You know, I'm a (probably) non-gay male, but I sort of squeeed when Ryan Gosling appeared.
I blame my wife's constant conditioning.
posted by signal at 12:59 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Bladestar Runner?
posted by lagomorphius at 1:05 PM on December 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


I am optimistically cautious about this, given the director--and at least Ridley Scott is not directing it.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:09 PM on December 19, 2016


Slate needs to start speaking for itself. I think the voiceover in the original is fine. The film is supposed to emulate the trappings of noir. Voiceover is one of them.

Sequels to classic films that have gone unfollowed for a decade or more are risky. People who see Blade Runner for the first time today begin a conversation with it about what it means to be human that may continue for the rest of their lives. A new film can't help but resolve some of the ambiguities of the first, and change that conversation. Not necessarily for the better. It's easy when watching Alien to pretend that Prometheus (which I like a lot, but it's sure not Alien) doesn't exist, but that isn't really a selling point; this new film has to connect to the old one in a meaningful way, or there isn't any reason for it. It has to be more than a footnote. There's no way for it not to amend the original, so it has to be as good or better, or it'll be rejected as a work of art (if not as a cash cow) just so people can continue their relationship with the original. Does anybody remember Stephen King's sequel to The Shining?

I see the potential here for a good movie, maybe even for a worthy continuation of the original, but I do. Not. Know. It's a big fucking jump.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 1:13 PM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


I have a fondness for the voiceover for its whole noirish vibe, but there's nothing like watching the cut without then watching the scenes again with VO to underline just how unnecessary it is - it's basically "here is the subtext of the scene you just watched/are about to watch" in almost every case.
posted by Artw at 1:19 PM on December 19, 2016


Uh. That's not from the voice over, though, that was ordinary dialogue.

It is also one part of the better known pieces of dialog in the movie (maybe only third to Tears in Rain and Leon's Voight-Kampff). I think it was included in all soundtracks, official and bootleg (barring the orchestral release) as part of Blush Response.
Unless who wrote that has some insider info they are already recording voice-overs, that seems reaching to conclusions for clickbait.
posted by lmfsilva at 1:22 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Well, it could be "something is used as a voiceover on the credits therefore the movie has voiceovers", which, well, falls down a little if you check out any number of recent trailers.

TBH I consider VO = automatically bad a very unproven case, even if the Bladerunner VO is itself an unneeded stinker.
posted by Artw at 1:36 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


A Blade Runner / Arrested Development crossover (known as BRAD) with Ron Howard doing the voiceover.
posted by hippybear at 1:40 PM on December 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


Blade Runner is one of my favorite films, full stop. I'd only ever seen the Director's Cut (or...one of them; or...several of them, I don't even know, Versions of Blade Runner is a confusing topic), though, so when I caught Blade Runner on TV a few years ago, I thought the voiceover was an MST3K-ish April Fool's joke. Defend it if you like, but I don't think it adds anything to the film except cheese.

I feel ambivalent about this. I'm not really the audience for sequels, reboots and remakes, I suppose.
posted by byanyothername at 1:42 PM on December 19, 2016


Alright folks, enough joking around now. Let's take a moment to watch a serious trailer: La La Runner.
posted by adrianhon at 1:49 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm also fond of the happy ending, with the footage from The Shining implying you can escape into nature outside the city and a cheery narration telling you Rachel will live. Doesn't make much sense if you think about it, the movie is clearly better without it, but the Vangelis sells it - or maybe I'm just mired in nostalgia.
posted by Artw at 1:50 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Apocalypse Now And Again.

I shall reserve any opinion until it comes out. Except that I shall also wait for other people to see it first, because my experiences of having my favourite movies revived have not been good. And I see little in the trailer to change that, although it is a very little trailer. Didn't someone somewhere once say "I've got a bad feeling about this"?
posted by Devonian at 1:55 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


0:57, Korean for Lucky apparently.

In the original Blade Runner, the heavy Japanese iconography and imagery hints that America was economically surpassed by Japan. So it's very interesting to see the Korean in the new teaser.
posted by cazoo at 2:01 PM on December 19, 2016


Keeping my expectations low, but that is some gorgeous cinematography eh.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:09 PM on December 19, 2016


I was disheartened when I first heard about the sequel. But after watching Sicario and Arrival, and seeing as Villeneuve drank a full bottle of Tarkovsky before starting on filming this one on a script which looks like Hampton Francher wrote it on a desk made of a short plank propped on stacked copies of Heart of Darkness... I might just watch it. I might even enjoy it.

I must have been the only person on the planet who actually liked the voiceover on Blade Runner. It's a film that's predicated on Deckard getting the shit kicked out of him at every encounter. He gets saved by luck or the kindness of (replicant) strangers every single time. The voiceover sounds like parody, a bit like Tracer Bullet's monologues in his hardboiled fantasies. It fits the delusions of the character, and it also fits the idea that Deckard is a Replicant, and whoever wrote his scripts was either a hack or someone with a sense of humor.
posted by kandinski at 2:10 PM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


I'm also fond of the happy ending, with the footage from The Shining implying you can escape into nature outside the city and a cheery narration telling you Rachel will live. Doesn't make much sense if you think about it, the movie is clearly better without it, but the Vangelis sells it - or maybe I'm just mired in nostalgia.

The ending was literally the only part of the entire film my dad liked.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:12 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Not sure the Deckard / Replicant question can be answered just because he's aged. There's a card to be played here that he just ages at the same rate as humans (if not slower).
posted by bitdamaged at 2:16 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Digging the hyper distorted 303 glitch sound in the beginning of the trailer.
posted by Annika Cicada at 2:20 PM on December 19, 2016 [5 favorites]


You know, if Hollywood is going to keep skull fucking Philip K. Dick's decaying corpse, and it will, I couldn't think of two better fuckers than Ridley Scott and Denis Villeneuve to do it.
posted by signal at 2:22 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


So, did Deckard move into the Bradbury Building, or what?
posted by valkane at 2:23 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I must have been the only person on the planet who actually liked the voiceover on Blade Runner

Me too, me too! Let's start a club!
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:26 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


This nostalgia-fest for endless sequels and ongoing franchise development (or creation) is boring as hell.

I am in general agreement with you. I'm middle-aged now, and my kids are getting into some of the stuff I'm into, and with the reboots and sequels that are going on...well, it's like nothing has really changed, you know? I've seen things the kids will see again. Star Trek on fire under the thumb of the studio; Star Wars glittering in the dark near the Mouse's Empire. All these moments will be preserved in time, like flies in amber. Time to restart.
posted by nubs at 2:32 PM on December 19, 2016 [8 favorites]


You know, if Hollywood is going to keep skull fucking Philip K. Dick's decaying corpse, and it will, I couldn't think of two better fuckers than Ridley Scott and Denis Villeneuve to do it.

I'm hoping they move on to adapting the rest of the Ted Chiang stories at variable levels of fidelity.
posted by Artw at 3:02 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Run Lola Runner
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 3:22 PM on December 19, 2016 [6 favorites]


I'm hoping they move on to adapting the rest of the Ted Chiang stories at variable levels of fidelity.

Well, they did already make _Limitless_, which you could view as a half-assed unauthorized adaptation, like if someone made a movie called _Spaceborne Grunts_ about people in the power armor army of an interstellar republic with stupid politics.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:27 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


So much angst about a movie sequel... You have a choice... If you aren't interested in a sequel, don't watch it.
posted by Pendragon at 3:57 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Hollywood....skull fucking Philip K. Dick's decaying corpse

He barely was able to stop them from producing a "novelization" of the movie, at the time
posted by thelonius at 4:13 PM on December 19, 2016


If you aren't interested in a sequel, don't watch it.

That's crazy talk. How would you be able to pour out your justified bitterness in FanFare if you hadn't watched the execrable film??
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:22 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


>>
>> And why does Harrison Ford have to star in every single reboot?
>>
>
> He put butts in seats.
>
> He's got bills to pay.
>


And let's be honest, that is one very sexy man.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 5:22 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'm looking forward to another movie inspired by Blade Runner, Mute, with director Duncan Jones. It has just started filming.
posted by eye of newt at 5:41 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Oh good, thats the sort of thing I was hoping for from him, much as the world needs more videogames movies.
posted by Artw at 5:47 PM on December 19, 2016


Dune: The Pauper is Wild.

Young Bob Smith of Caladan's life is forever changed when he encounters the son of the Duke, desperate to remain on his home world despite the orders of the Emperor!

(perhaps an earlier fork than a sequel)
posted by skyscraper at 7:04 PM on December 19, 2016


Indiana Jones and the Assemblage That We Apparently Don't Have Access To Anymore Because That Guy Randomly Changed His Mind About Lending It To The Musem

It would bring dark, gritty realism to the series.
posted by teponaztli at 7:51 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Indiana Jones and the Open-Carry Permit Acquisition Protocol
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:17 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Over the last five years, are we just trying to resurrect Harrison Ford movies before 2016 gets him?

Hey, it's not like it didn't try.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:36 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Witness 2: Horse-Drawn Boogaloo
posted by Sys Rq at 8:38 PM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


I'll be happy if there's a Lode Runner in it.
posted by juiceCake at 8:54 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Man, just think, a Lode Runner cinematic universe that finally lets fans explore the lore and mythos of the Lode Runner universe. Seems like a Warner Bro.s kind of project.
posted by codacorolla at 9:24 PM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


How can it not look like a knock off?

By making it really orange.

... and ergo the replicants will be skinned in sumptuous eye popping teal.
posted by CynicalKnight at 9:38 PM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Deckard is a replicant and is supposed to have a reduced life expectancy the same as Rachel but he still escapes with her despite having an unknown short time left alive. Wasn't that point of the original? How is he still alive?
posted by PenDevil at 4:24 AM on December 20, 2016


The point of the original was that he didn't know, and you didn't know.
posted by doop at 4:58 AM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


I must have been the only person on the planet who actually liked the voiceover on Blade Runner

> Me too, me too! Let's start a club!


Me three - The Blade Voiceoverer Club is now official.
posted by jammy at 6:35 AM on December 20, 2016 [3 favorites]


On top of all this there's a Westworld blade runner crossover waiting to happen...
posted by bitdamaged at 8:14 AM on December 20, 2016


I am fond of the voiceover because I am as old as dirt and I saw BR in the theater the first week it was released. It was such a paradigm shift for genre films in the look and the theme. Now I've got a DVD box that has a few different cuts and I'm fine watching it without the voiceover. On another note of blasphemy, I'm happy with the happy ending as well.

I showed the teaser trailer to my wife yesterday. She's on board to go hunting replicants.
posted by Ber at 8:26 AM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


Deckard is a replicant and is supposed to have a reduced life expectancy the same as Rachel but he still escapes with her despite having an unknown short time left alive. Wasn't that point of the original?

Well, I guess it depends on what you think the point of the original was. For me, the question of whether or not Deckard is a replicant is a minor one compared to the other questions in the film - what it means to be human; the importance of memory; the nature of the relationship between creator and created.

I think the takeaway line from the film is Gaff's "It's a shame she won't live; but then again, who does?". It's a call to make the use of the time you have, however much it is. This is underlined by the differences between Deckard and Roy - Roy has a short life span, but the things he has done with it - the things he has seen (you people wouldn't believe)! Whereas Deckard - replicant or not - is just kind of bumbling through. Roy is the protagonist of the film; the antagonist is death, which is coming for Roy regardless of Deckard.

Deckard is, by and large, meaningless. Roy's quest is for more life; and he gets his answer - he can't have it. None of the replicants would live long regardless of Deckard's action or inaction. Roy's final action is to save Deckard's life; to impart to Deckard some notion of the fact that he has to live his life, because at the end, all our experiences are lost, like tears in rain. But go have them. Go experience life! Because without those memories, without those experiences, what do you have? "It's a shame she won't live; but then again, who does?" Who truly lives life? Roy Batty did. Deckard is just starting to live his when the doors to that elevator close.
posted by nubs at 8:37 AM on December 20, 2016 [14 favorites]


I do like this silly theory though, which would probably make Ryan Gosling some kind of third generation copy.
posted by Artw at 8:55 AM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm still too bummed Vangelis didn't do the soundtrack to get too excited.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 9:00 AM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


I do like this silly theory though,

Silly?

...which would probably make Ryan Gosling some kind of third generation copy.

I would be shocked if this wasn't the case.
posted by entropicamericana at 9:03 AM on December 20, 2016



As a fan of both, Johann Johannson is a worthy successor to Vangelis in my view. Check out his album IBM 1401 A User's Manual.

Honestly this whole effort -- which I continue to oppose on principle -- is packed with talented people whose work I love. Roger Deakins is amazing.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 9:36 AM on December 20, 2016 [3 favorites]


I'm a hard boiled detective fiction fan, so I'm hands up for The Voiceover Club. I love the movie with & without. But I appreciate the "Los Angeles Detective" film noir style applied to futuristic vision.

Also, I'm Team Prometheus Was Awesome And Makes Sense Internally and in the Context of the Alien Franchise, and Team Dennis Villeneuve.

I'm looking forward to this like crazy.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:47 AM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


Best bit of the VO is when he explains sushi to the 1980s audience.
posted by Artw at 9:58 AM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]


In the original Blade Runner, the heavy Japanese iconography and imagery hints that America was economically surpassed by Japan. So it's very interesting to see the Korean in the new teaser.

It sounds like a conservative choice, given that Korea is right next to Japan, and similarly high-tech, if following by a few decades (Samsung/LG are similar to zaibatsus like Sony/Panasonic), and without some of the Galapagos-syndrome oddity. I was hoping for something bolder; perhaps a world whose mega-Tokyo is, say, Nairobi or Sao Paolo, enhanced with tech that looks like magic and a syncretic mix of cultures from which we can pick out only fragments of familiarity.
posted by acb at 10:06 AM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


An earth in the process of slow, not dramatic (or entertaining) desertification.

constantinescharity, I'm pretty sure that's what we're watching outside the theatre anyway.
posted by sneebler at 12:57 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


nubs: "Well, I guess it depends on what you think the point of the original was."

The nub of it is, the characters stand for all of us in their desire to avoid action. Mind you, the man at the off-licence says it's an everyday story of French country folk.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:00 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


So...At least judging by the trailer (and the IMDB cast list) I guess Rachel had a definite built-in life span, but Deckard didn't.

They both did, but just like in Hollywood the female replicant's freshness date is a lot shorter.
posted by phearlez at 9:47 AM on December 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


Sean Young's career definitely had a shorter life span than Ford's. As did most of his female co-stars over the years.
posted by octothorpe at 2:48 PM on December 21, 2016


Justin Kroll at Variety: Blade Runner 2049 Helmer Denis Villeneuve Eyed to Direct Dune Reboot (EXCLUSIVE)”
(Not much there, but ponder…)
posted by Going To Maine at 11:55 PM on December 21, 2016


Alan Smithee's gonna be PISSED
posted by entropicamericana at 9:53 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


But how does Judas Booth feel?
posted by radwolf76 at 12:38 PM on December 22, 2016


I'll give Villeneuve one thing: if he's willing to tackle both Blade Runner and Dune, he has the same amount of guts as the 70s F1 driver with the same last name.
posted by lmfsilva at 12:42 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Oh god. Just give up on Dune. They've tried twice and I don't think it's filmable.
posted by octothorpe at 6:36 PM on December 22, 2016


You're saying its name is a killing word?
posted by Artw at 6:43 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


he has the same amount of guts as the 70s F1 driver with the same last name

If you did this intentionally, that is a truly impressive way to throw shade at Jacques.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:28 PM on December 22, 2016


The ~2000 Dune miniseries is pretty good. It's cheaply made, but embraces the cheapness by going for this weird operatic quality. You could pretty much shoot that script for another $100 million and have a Dune series that looked good.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:31 PM on December 22, 2016


If you did this intentionally, that is a truly impressive way to throw shade at Jacques.
Don't get me wrong, Jacques was the last F1 title I recall celebrating, but trying to do Blade Runner and Dune is the equivalent of trying to finish a race with a wheel literally blown off because if he's starting, might as well go all the way and deal with the consequences later.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:44 PM on December 22, 2016


"I will also simultaneously be filming Rendezvous With Rama, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, and The Gods Themselves."
posted by Chrysostom at 8:54 PM on December 22, 2016 [4 favorites]


If Villeneuve was all that, he'd be announcing his plan to film all the Dune books.
posted by signal at 3:34 AM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


To be commercially successful, all future Dune adaptations should skip directly to the sex witches.

During their evolution in uncharted space, the Honored Matres perfected sexual intercourse into a narcotic process.

By using carefully crafted skills, an Honored Matre practitioner learned how to coerce an outsider – typically of the male gender – into total subservience. This action, performed often, and upon the right individuals, allowed them to conquer many other groups in uncharted space, and build a formidable military and resource-base.

posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 6:37 AM on December 23, 2016


> Oh god. Just give up on Dune. They've tried twice and I don't think it's filmable.

You're saying its name is a killing word?


We also would have accepted "tried and failed?"
posted by cortex at 7:00 AM on December 23, 2016 [4 favorites]


I'm gonna need to look up box office numbers to complete that.
posted by Artw at 9:14 AM on December 23, 2016


30 mil in North America in a 40 mil budget. No idea what overseas was like those days. I don't know if that *quite* gets it into "tried and died", but it's got to be close.

I remain immensely fond of it. Avoid the extended version.
posted by Artw at 9:18 AM on December 23, 2016


For some reason, in college, we would watch it back to back with The Last Emperor. So know those films are inextricably linked in my mind.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:20 PM on December 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


If Villeneuve was all that, he'd be announcing his plan to film all the Dune books.

Each Dune book is 1/2 as good as the one before it, so it's probably just as well he sticks with only filming the first one.
posted by hippybear at 2:14 PM on December 23, 2016


I would be shocked if this wasn't the case.

I would be shocked if Edward James Olmos shows up in this picture.

Los Angeles Detective

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep took place in San Francisco! Blade Runner being set in SoCal is the ultimate betrayal.
posted by Apocryphon at 11:09 PM on December 24, 2016


The ~2000 Dune miniseries is pretty good. It's cheaply made, but embraces the cheapness by going for this weird operatic quality.

Is that why the Sardaukar look like commando chefs from Jean-Paul Gaultier's kitchen?
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:29 PM on December 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


Not every SciFi show has the restraint of Lexx.
posted by Artw at 9:31 PM on December 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


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