Sicario's Denis Villeneuve has a very high profile gig directing the Blade Runner sequel but he was busy with another sci-fi film when he got that job. He recently got to talking about the challenges moving so quickly from Arrival to Blade Runner and how the pressure affects his work.
Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner star in Arrival, which looks like an interesting take on the old “aliens land on Earth” story but apparently Villeneuve barely had time to wrap up that film before he jumped into Blade Runner. And it's not a position any creator probably wishes they were in, regardless of the project.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke to the director, who was around for just 24 hours to talk to the press about Arrival, and even admitted he was elsewhere. “My life is 100 percent Blade Runner right now,” he told them, “so I”m in the future I”m not with you anymore.”
That sounds…slightly stressful to say the least.
“The truth is, I finished [Arrival] because they were waiting for me, literally. I was starting prep [for Blade Runner], as I was finishing Arrival. I took the time to finish it, I finished the movie but it”s like I gave birth to something and I didn”t see its face,” he said. “I didn”t touch it, I didn”t smell it: I don”t know. I didn”t have the time to make my own opinion about it. I don”t know if I like it or not.”
He added that he hopes one day he can have a “beautiful moment” with the film when nothing else is attached. Ok, now I just want to give him a hug.
The Blade Runner sequel is set for a October 6, 2017 release and boasts a cast that now includes not just a returning Harrison Ford but also Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Halt and Catch Fire's Mackenzie Davis, Guardians of the Galaxy's Dave Bautista, Lennie James, Hiam Abbass, David Dastmalchian, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Barkhad Abdi, Carla Juri, and the recently announced Jared Leto.
Villeneuve told THR he plans to sleep a lot when Blade Runner is finished because he isn't doing that much of it now. “Very often I wake up in the middle of the night, and I know I”m doomed, because I know I won”t go back to bed, because I”m too excited, there”s so much work,” he said. He also admitted he knows it's impossible to live up to the original film:
For me, what terrorizes me right now is what I”m doing is taking Blade Runner and making it my own, and that is horrific. To realize that when I look at the dailies, it”s not Ridley Scott, it”s me, and that it”s different. It”s still the same universe, we are still in the same dream, but it”s mine, so it”s like I have no idea how you people will react, I don”t know. It has its own life.
Villeneuve isn't giving anything away about the plot or characters but told them he's “very impressed” by Gosling and said Ford is “one of the nicest human beings” he's ever met.