Denis Villeneuve talks the pressures of directing ‘Blade Runner 2’

The film in production and a release date of October 6th, 2017 has been set – so the pressure must be on for director Denis Villeneuve as he attempts to bring a sequel to Blade Runner to screens.

The director has been speaking with The Hollywood Reporter about Blade Runner 2, and spoke about the pressure of bringing the film to the screen.

“First of all, it’s not possible to live up to the original,” he told the trade. “It’s Ridley Scott. It’s a masterpiece. It’s one of the best sci-fi films, one of the best films in the past 50 years. 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.”

The director did have high praise for one of his lead actors in Ryan Gosling though…

“I must say, the thing I can say is that Ryan Gosling is insanely good,” he added. “I’m very impressed by that actor. It’s the first time I’ve worked with him and I never had someone that was as much a trooper, as dedicated, as precise and engaged. I feel that he is a real partner with me. I said to him, ‘You know, we are going to do it together and it’s like walking in a dark room with a lighter trying to find the way out. It’s a huge room and we are alone and it’s dark and it’s cold.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I understand exactly.’ But we have a lot of fun. It’s funny because very often we say that nobody realizes that a bunch of Canadians took over Blade Runner. We are, like, covert, nobody knows. I knew he was a great actor, I didn’t know how brilliant – he’s really an intelligent person, very clever, very provocative mind, he’s bringing a lot to the project right now, a lot, in a positive way. I’m very excited about it.”

Blade Runner 2 will star Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Lennie James, and Jared Leto. More as it comes our way.