Alcon Entertainment has an offer out to
Harrison Ford to reprise his role as Rick Deckard in its sequel to “Blade Runner,” to be directed by the original’s helmer,
Ridley Scott.
Hampton Fancher, co-writer of the screenplay of the iconic 1982
sci-fi film, and Michael Green are the screenwriters. The story in the
sequel is being kept under wraps other than being set several decades
after the conclusion of the original — which took place in a dystopian
2019 Los Angeles.
Alcon has been working on the project for over three years, since
announcing in early 2011 that it had secured film, TV and ancillary
franchise rights to produce prequels and sequels.
In August 2011, Scott committed to direct. Green came on board to work with Fancher a year ago.
“We believe that Hampton Fancher and Michael Green have crafted with
Ridley Scott an extraordinary sequel to one of the greatest films of all
time,” said Alcon toppers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson. “We
would be honored, and we are hopeful, that Harrison will be part of our
project.”
It’s unusual for producers
to make a public offer to a high-profile actor. There was no immediate
response from representatives for Ford, who is set to reprise his Han
Solo role in Disney’s “Star Wars Episode VII.”
In the original “Blade Runner,” Rutger Hauer played the leader of a
group of escaped “replicants” — genetically engineered androids used for
work on Earth’s off-world colonies — who are hiding out in a 2019
version of Los Angeles. Ford’s Rick Deckard character is a “blade
runner,” a police officer who kills replicants when necessary.
The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993.