https://www.instagram.com/p/BZE6lG9Hd9r/
The third and final Blade Runner short film in a series leading up to the premiere of Blade Runner 2049 this October premiered today. The anime short directed by Cowboy Bebop‘s Shinichiro Watanabe, is scored by none other than electronic producer Flying Lotus. You can watch the film in its entirety today over at Crunchyroll.
In a series of tweets earlier this month, Flying Lotus explained how he got involved with the project and his excitement around getting to work with Watanabe.
https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/908548515843862529
https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/908548865846009857
https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/908549740752547841
https://twitter.com/flyinglotus/status/908551400182882305
Perhaps taking a page from The Matrix , or just because he wanted to embellish the Blade Runner universe a bit more, director of the upcoming Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve commissioned the three short films with the intention of filling in the gaps between the original film and Villeneuve’s sequel.
In the introduction for the anime, Villeneuve says:
“I have been given the amazing opportunity to direct Blade Runner 2049, which picks up 30 years after the first film. With that in mind, I decided to ask a couple of artists that I really respect to create three short stories that dramatize some key events that occurred after 2019, when the first Blade Runner takes place. But before 2049, when my new Blade Runner story begins.”
Two other shorts have already been released, Blade Runner 2036, and Blade Runner 2048. Both were directed by Luke Scott, son of the original Blade Runner director, Ridley Scott.
As for Blade Runner 2049, composer Jóhann Jóhannsson was originally pegged to score the film, but was removed part way through production and the task was left to Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch.
El-P was also asked at one point to submit his own idea for the score. Just this week he posted a snippet of the finished piece to give fans an idea of what his involvement in the film would have sounded like.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZXlj8RlLkJ/
Blade Runner 2049 arrives in theatres on 10/6.
