There's no doubt that Hollywood is enjoying a renaissance period tied to iconic sci-fi films made in the 1970s and '80s. Star Wars, of course, made its valiant return with The Force Awakens to wrap up 2015, and Ridley Scott pressed ahead last year with his Alien prequel Alien: Covenant, which is set for May release. Scott will also return in October – but in executive producer mode – as Arrival helmer Denis Villeneuve directs the long-awaited sequel to Scott's 1982 classic Blade Runner with Blade Runner 2049.
Sony Pictures debuted some new footage of Blade Runner 2049 Wednesday night, in a CinemaCon event attended by star Ryan Gosling.
According to Variety, the scene was part of an extended preview described below:
"The extended preview that the actor brought with him to Las Vegas stunned the crowd, featuring an apocalyptic Los Angeles and Las Vegas filled with snow, dust storms, and dazed looking androids, all of it created in Budapest. There were also several visual callbacks to sequences and sets from the first picture that are sure to tickle fans ... The new footage showed more of Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard and Gosling’s Officer K, as well as a creepy look at Jared Leto, playing a manufacturer of replicants with a daddy complex. In one shot, Leto lovingly caresses a naked android, who appears to have been doused in amniotic fluid."
Gosling also pointed out to the crowd the use of practical sets in Blade Runner 2049, which is becoming increasingly important in films as viewers are becoming less fooled by CGI vistas.
“Every location was real. Every set was there…It was a fully functioning, living, breathing world.”
The pending release of Blade Runner 2049 comes at an exciting time for Sony, as it also teased footage at CinemaCon of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The first two are particularly monumental events because the seemingly endless 35-year wait for the sequel to Blade Runner is finally coming to fruition (and with Ford, to boot); and Spider-Man: Homecoming marks Spidey's long-awaited debut as a solo film in the MCU after Tom Holland's short but memorable turn in Captain America: Civil War last year.
Still, with as much anticipation as there's been for the Spider-Man arrangement between Sony and Disney/Marvel Studios, Variety says theater owners and executives leaving the auditorium actually considered the new footage of Blade Runner 2049 – not Spider-Man or Jumanji – as the highlight of Sony's presentation; an observation that bodes well for the picture when it's released in the fall.
Next: Blade Runner 2049: Edward James Olmos Returning as Gaff
Source: Variety
