Alcon Deny Harrison Ford in Blade Runner 2 Talks
Producer/financier has labelled claims as being 'patently false' and no casting decisions are likely until they have hired a screenwriter.
Alcon Entertainment have 'adamantly' denied recent reports that Harrison Ford had entered talks to reprise his replicant-hunter Rick Deckard in the currently developing Blade Runner 2. Producer Andrew Kosove, the co-head of Alcon who are producing/financing Ridley Scott's return to the sci-fi film world he created in 1982, told Deadline; "It is absolutely patently false that there has been any discussion about Harrison Ford being in Blade Runner," "To be clear, what we are trying to do with Ridley now is go through the painstaking process of trying to break the back of the story, figure out the direction we're going to take the movie and find a writer to work on it." In other words, they are a long, long, long way from nailing down exactly how this film is going to shape up. 'Painstaking process' is not a term you would use when the concept has already been hammered out and as we keep saying they haven't got a writer yet and no casting decisions are likely to be made before they have some semblance of a screenplay. Kosove also likens their proposed approach to Ridley Scott's Prometheus and its relationship to the Alien saga where it is a film set in the same universe but not really a prequel/sequel; What Ridley does in Prometheus is a good template for what were trying to do. He created something that has some association to the original Alien, but lives on its own as a standalone movie. Deadline asked Kosove point blank as to whether he could see Ford resurfacing for the sequel, he didn't fully rule it out but said it was unlikely; In advance of knowing what were going to do, I supposed you could say yes, he could. But I think it is quite unlikely. Twitch.com, usually extremely reliable in scoops, had reported earlier in the week that Scott, the original lead of Blade Runner, had entered talks to make a comeback which we all found unusual for two reasons. One, that we had been told previously that the proposed follow-up would be "a total reinvention." and two, that Ford has distanced himself from Blade Runner at every opportunity he has had in the three decades since a cut he didn't agree with was released. For many these films like a project where the lead star doesn't want to return and the original director/producing team doesn't want him. So early days for now and Alcon have said previously not to expect Blade Runner 2 (which probably won't be called that) to start shooting until mid-2013 for a release 2014, and we expect Scott to probably make The Counselor or another movie before he tackles this world again. Whenever it does happen, Warner Bros will distribute and it will be one of the biggest talked about films of that particular year.