Director and Blade Runner fan-boy Denis Villeneuve will get his own “J.J. Abrams + Star Wars moment,” as he helms the project, due out in theaters Oct. 6, 2017. According to the still-untitled film’s IMDB page, the follow-up film will return Scott as a co-writer, and once again star Harrison Ford. The movie adds other big names including Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, WWE wrestler Dave Bautista (Batista), Barkhad Abdi of Captain Phillips fame (“I am the captain now”), Ana de Armas (War Dogs), and Mackenzie Davis (The Martian).
Entertainment Weekly has acquired concept art from the film, pictured above and below:
The images match up perfectly with Villeneuve’s memories of the film after he first saw it in 1982, EW reports.
“I remember the opening sequence perfectly,” Villeneuve told EW. “That note of music; seeing Los Angeles in 2019; that smog; that darkness. It’s really the movie that gave birth to my desire to become a director.”
Though Villeneuve is in the diver’s seat this time, the plot will largely be guided by franchise mainstay Hampton Fancher — who initially convinced Philip K. Dick to green light his novel for the original Blade Runner movie — and Michael Green, a veteran TV, film, and comic book writer.
Villeneuve told EW the film will take place several decades after the original, still set in Los Angeles, but with a much darker future than the one the original film portends. Things have gotten way, way worse for humanity.
“The climate has gone berserk — the ocean, the rain, the snow is all toxic,” Villeneuve said.
He described the massive vehicle pictured above as a snow blower that hovers over streets and destroys snow.
“It’s a Canadian wet dream!” he told EW.
