Blade Runner 2 has been in the planning stages for years, and it appears that some of producer Ridley Scott's long-simmering ideas will finally be making it to the big screen. The script for the new film was reportedly done back in August 2014, and new details have emerged about how that film's opening scene will unfold.
Scott recently attended the American Film Institute Festival, and he shared what Mtime reports is a different glimpse into the Blade Runner universe than the dystopian cityscapes that usually spring to mind. As he's hinted at before, Scott says Blade Runner 2 will begin with a scene similar to one planned as the opener of the 1982 film, the action taking place on an expansive "factory farm" of "plowed, dry dirt."
The landscape sounds more barren than the rolling countryside of Deckard (Harrison Ford) and Rachael's (Sean Young) happy ending in the theatrical release of Blade Runner. Scott declares the scene will have a Grapes of Wrath vibe, complete with a solitary white cottage next to a dead tree held together with wires.
Scott had this to say about the film's opening scene:
"Behind it at a distance of two miles, in the twilight, is this massive combine harvester that’s fertilizing this ground. You’ve got 16 Klieg lights on the front, and this combine is four times the size of this cottage. And now a spinner [a flying car] comes flying in, creating dust. Of course, traditionally chased by a dog that barks, the doors open, a guy gets out and there you’ve got Rick Deckard. He walks in the cottage, opens the door... smells stew, sits down and waits for the guy to pull up to the house to arrive. The guy’s seen him, so the guy pulls the combine behind the cottage and it towers three stories above it, and the man climbs down from a ladder--a big man. He steps onto the balcony and he goes to Harrison’s side. The cottage actually [creaks]; this guy’s got to be 350 pounds. I’m not going to say anything else--you’ll have to go see the movie."
The original script had Deckard shoot the guy he was waiting for, and the big reveal was the victim was not a human but a replicant. It's likely the final version for Blade Runner 2 will play out in a similar way, launching viewers immediately into the action.
Unless it's meant as a flashback, it also puts the audience right back into the same antagonistic universe as the first film. Since Scott was hoping to maintain the same moody, dark atmosphere for the sequel, this opening confrontation shouldn't include too much over-the-top action.
"I'm not just doing a sequel with lots of action and see how far we [have come] with the special effects. Because you can't really. With Blade Runner, we landed on a somehow very credible future. It's very difficult to change that because it's been so influential with everything else."
Filming on Blade Runner 2 is set to begin this summer. The film stars Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling, and will be directed by Denis Villeneuve (Sicario).