Harrison Ford attends 'Blade Runner' at Target Presents AFI's Night at the Movies at ArcLight Cinemas on April 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California. (Photo : Getty Images/David Buchan)
The title and release date for the sequel of the 1982 sci-fi hit "Blade Runner" have been recently revealed. "Blade Runner 2049" will be in theaters on Oct. 6, 2017 instead of the previous slate of January 2018. However, plot points are still kept under wraps.
The year in the title 2049 reveals the timeline of the upcoming film, while the original was set in 2019 which was 30 years earlier. The 1982 "Blade Runner" tells the story of Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) who works as a Replicant Hunter.
Deckard was assigned to get rid of four Replicants who escaped from the colonies and returned to Earth. He went to replicant-maker company, Tyrell Corporation and met a replicant female Rachel (Sean Young) whom he fell in love with.
Among Ford's "Blade Runner 2049" co-stars are Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Ana de Armas, Barkhad Abdi, Jared Leto, Dave Bautista, Mackenzie Davis and Lennie James. The film will be directed by Denis Villeneuve whose credits include "Sicario" and the upcoming "Arrival."
Hampton Fancher returns as the screenwriter with Michael Green ("Alien: Covenant"). Fancher and David Peoples were the ones who turned the 1968 novel by Philip K. Dick "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" into the "Blade Runner" screenplay. He soothed Villeneuve's pre-production nerves in creating a sequel to one of the best sci-fi flicks in the past 50 years.
"He told me that 'Blade Runner' was a dream," Villeneuve told Entertainment Weekly. "We just have to dream again and not worry too much about logic. That removed so much pressure and gave me the key to move forward."
Alcon Entertainment's "Blade Runner 2049" will pick up from the events several decades following the original film. Los Angeles will still be the setting of the plot just like the Ridley Scott-directed original movie.
The upcoming "Blade Runner" sequel will offer virtual reality experience through VR firm Oculus. Alcon and Oculus will create content around the release of the sequel via Alcon Interactive, a new firm division which has entertainment lawyer Dan Offner as the Interim Head. The VR experience will be exclusively released on the Oculus platform, Deadline reported.
Here is a glimpse of the original "Blade Runner":
