Yesterday it was confirmed that original Blade Runner writer Hampton Fancher is going to be working with director Ridley Scott on fleshing out a storyline for Scott’s upcoming sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic. Alcon Entertainment and Scott are keeping their lips sealed on any plot details, but have confirmed the film will take place “some years after the first film concluded,” according to a statement released on Thursday. The 1982 masterpiece was an adaptation of the 1968 Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, and Scott and Fancher will be revisiting this original source material to build the story for the sequel.
Philip K. Dick’s original storyline follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids, and the novel is set in a post-apocalyptic near future, where Earth and its populations have been damaged greatly by Nuclear War during World War Terminus. Most types of animals are endangered or extinct due to extreme radiation poisoning from the war. To own an animal is a sign of status, but what is emphasized more is the empathic emotions humans experience towards an animal. Deckard is faced with “retiring” six escaped Nexus-6 brain model androids, the latest and most advanced model. Because of this task, the novel explores the issue of what it is to be human. Unlike humans, the androids possess no empathic sense. In essence, Deckard probes the existence of defining qualities that separate humans from androids.
Ridley Scott is producing with Alcon’s Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove as well as Bud Yorkin and Cynthia Sikes Yorkin. Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, who run Thunderbird Films, are executive producing. Fancher is repped by APA and attorney Matt Saver. No word yet on whether or not Vangelis is returning to score the sequel, but I certainly hope so.
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