Wide Screen

Harrison Ford in talks for ‘Blade Runner’ sequel?

·Blogger

February 6, 2012 at 10:36 a.m.

Audiences tend to get burned when great filmmakers decide to revisit the films that defined their careers. The "Star Wars" prequels and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" are perfect examples of why directors should not return to the well.

So when Ridley Scott ("Gladiator," "Black Hawk Down") announced that he would be returning to direct a new film set in the "Blade Runner" universe, people had good reason to be worried. However, over the weekend some news broke that might ease fan fears slightly — or perhaps increase them ten fold.

Twitch reports that Harrison Ford, star of the original "Blade Runner," is in early talks to appear in Scott's sci-fi follow-up. Ford, who got his start in the genre with little-known movies like the "Star Wars" trilogy," has come home to roost in recent years with appearances in sci-fi flicks like "Cowboys & Aliens" and the upcoming "Ender's Game." "Blade Runner" is easily one of Ford's most iconic roles; it would be like reprising the role of Han Solo in a new "Star Wars" movie (don't even think about it, George!). While the report offered no details about whether or not Ford would be reprising the role of Rick Deckard, a few things can be gleaned from the fact that Scott would even consider him for the film.

The original "Blade Runner" told the tale of a bounty hunter (Ford) hot of the trail of four escaped Replicants, bio-engineered beings made to resemble humans and used for deep space mining and military applications. The Replicants were designed to be faster, stronger, and smarter than humans, and part of what made the first film so great was the ambiguity about whether or not Deckard was one of these creations himself. Obviously the appearance of an aged Ford in a "Blade Runner" sequel would throw any of that mystery out the window, since Replicants are designed to only live about four years. Either Deckard wasn't a Replicant or Scott has something very different in mind.

"Blade Runner" was a landmark of the science fiction genre, and is easily one of Scott's best films in a career full of great movies. A critical and box office failure at the time of its release, the film has gone on to claim a cult status unheard of even amongst cult films. Most critics now laud the film as a visionary effort, a groundbreaking movie that defined great science fiction in cinema.

Along with his 1979 sci-fi horror film "Alien," Scott set the bar pretty high for subsequent filmmakers. "Alien" would spawn a number of sequels and spinoffs (including Scott's own prequel film "Prometheus"), but "Blade Runner" remained a one-off (not counting Paul W. S. Anderson's terrible spiritual successor "Soldier"). Ford's potential involvement in the sequel certainly heartening, but sometimes it's just better to leave things alone. Science fiction fans will find out if Scott still has his genre chops when "Prometheus" is released this summer.

Update, Feb. 7, 8:53 a.m. ET: Producers of the new "Blade Runner" film now tell Deadline that Ford is not in talks to join the production.

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