Ridley Scott Reveals The Opening Of 'Blade Runner 2'

Blade Runner 2 is aiming to shoot this summer. Years ago the sequel didn't sound like such a great idea, especially after some Alien fans felt burnt by Ridley Scott's return to the Alien universe, Prometheus. Once Scott stepped out of the director's chair for Blade Runner 2, replaced by director Denis Villeneuve (Sicario), the sequel gained more interest from fans. Not all fans, of course, but nobody should write off seeing the third collaboration between Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins, especially after Sicario.

Still, Scott remains heavily involved in the project, and once again, he's teasing the sequel's opening sequence.

Read more about it after the jump.

Around two or three years Scott ago revealed the opening shot of Blade Runner 2, which is based on the original opening that was scrapped from the 1982 sci-fi film. You can see one of the initial storyboards above, which features the likeness of Dustin Hoffman, the first choice for Rick Deckard (ultimately played by Harrison Ford).

Scott recently participated in a discussion on filmmaking at the AFI Festival. Mtime attended the event, where the director elaborated on what to expect from the opening of Blade Runner 2. A journalist who attend the Q&A, Todd Gilchrist, sent us over this English translation of Scott's remarks.

Here's what Scott had to say:

We decided to start the film off with the original starting block of the original film. We always loved the idea of a dystopian universe, and we start off at what I describe as a 'factory farm' – what would be a flat land with farming. Wyoming. Flat, not rolling – you can see for 20 miles. No fences, just plowed, dry dirt. Turn around and you see a massive tree, just dead, but the tree is being supported and kept alive by wires that are holding the tree up. It's a bit like Grapes of Wrath, there's dust, and the tree is still standing. By that tree is a traditional, Grapes of Wrath-type white cottage with a porch. Behind it at a distance of two miles, in the twilight, is this massive combine harvester that's fertilizing this ground. You've got 16 Klieg lights on the front, and this combine is four times the size of this cottage. And now a spinner [a flying car] comes flying in, creating dust. Of course, traditionally chased by a dog that barks, the doors open, a guy gets out and there you've got Rick Deckard. He walks in the cottage, opens the door, sits down, smells stew, sits down and waits for the guy to pull up to the house to arrive. The guy's seen him, so the guy pulls the combine behind the cottage and it towers three stories above it, and the man climbs down from a ladder – a big man. He steps onto the balcony and he goes to Harrison's side. The cottage actually [creaks]; this guy's got to be 350 pounds. I'm not going to say anything else – you'll have to go see the movie.

In the originally scripted opening scene, Deckard introduces himself, and then shoots "the man." The Blade Runner rips the jaw off the dead body, revealing it was a replicant he killed, not a human. Since this replicant in the sequel is going to be 350 pounds, and based on how Scott described the tension in the buildup, it'll probably lead to a fight sequence, but it would be refreshing to see if they maintain the simplicity of the original opening: a man walks in, Deckard blasts him, and then it's revealed the protagonist shot a machine.

Harrison Ford stars in Blade Runner 2 alongside Ryan Gosling (The Big Short), the latter of whom just confirmed to Collider the sequel is next in his schedule.