Film financing and production company Alcon Entertainment is currently negotiating with ‘Blade Runner’ executive producer Bud Yorkin for the rights to produce film, television, and ancillary product prequels and sequels based on director Ridley Scott’s iconic 1982 film ‘Blade Runner’. The Warner Bros. based Alcon Entertainment have thankfully made it clear they are not remaking the ‘Blade Runner’ film and actually will not have the rights to do so. Alcon also doesn’t have much of a science fiction track-record except ‘The Book of Eli’ and the very disappointing ‘The Wicker Man’ reboot.
The beloved and visually inspiring film was based on troubled author Philip K. Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’. Although the film made major story changes from the original book, the film captured the world created by Dick in the book. The “Future Noir” story followed “Blade Runner” Rick Deckard. A retired Los Angeles police officer in the year 2019, Deckard is brought back in for one more assignment – to “retire” 6 replicants who have returned to Earth to find their creator. Replicants are sentient androids who have a fixed lifespan – 4 years. They were created to be workers (read slaves) in the offworld colonies. And now these six want more life from their creator, an industrialist/scientist named Dr. Eldon Tyrell. The film beautifully asks the question, “what does it mean to be human”?
The film boasts a steller cast including Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hannah, William Sanderson, Brion James, Joanna Cassidy and James Hong. It also features some fantastic sets designed by futurist Syd Mead and location shots in such buildings as the legendary Los Angeles “Bradbury Building”. Built in 1893, the Bradbury building’s construction was inspired by the 1888 science fiction utopian novel, ‘Looking Backward’ by Edward Bellamy. It has also been used in numerous films and television series such as ‘Wolf’, ‘Chinatown’, ‘Lethal Weapon 4’ and the Harlan Ellison written episode “Demon With A Glass Hand” for ‘Outer Limits. ‘Blade Runner’ also featured a very unique and otherworldly sounding score from composer Vangelis and visual effects from Douglas Trumbull.
