We’ve got the storyboards to prove it.
Blade Runner 2 has been in development for some time now and almost ready to go into production. We know that Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Sicario) will be directing, the brilliant Roger Deakins (Skyfall) will be the cinematographer, and the screenplay is written by Hampton Fanchor (Blade Runner) and Michael Green (Green Lantern). It’s also heavily rumored that Harrison Ford will return as the protagonist of the original film, Deckard, and Ryan Gosling will be the lead.
Well, it seems we know something very substantial about the film thanks to its producer, Sir Ridley Scott. Speaking at the recent AFI festival, he described the very first scene of the film.
What did Sir Ridley say?
Here’s his description:
“Turn around and you see a massive tree, just dead, but the tree is being supported and kept alive by wires that are holding the tree up. It’s a bit like The Grapes of Wrath; there’s dust, and the tree is still standing. By that tree is a traditional, Grapes of Wrath-type white cottage with a porch. Behind it at a distance of two miles, in the twilight, is this massive combine harvester that’s fertilizing this ground. You’ve got 16 Klieg lights on the front, and this combine is four times the size of this cottage. And now a spinner [a flying car] comes flying in, creating dust. Of course, traditionally chased by a dog that barks.
The doors open, a guy gets out and there you’ve got Rick Deckard. He walks in to the cottage, opens the door, smells stew, sits down and waits for the guy to pull up to the house to arrive. The guy’s seen him, so the guy pulls the combine behind the cottage and it towers three stories above it, and the man climbs down from a ladder – a big man. He steps onto the balcony and he goes to Harrison [Ford]’s side. The cottage actually [creaks]; this guy’s got to be 350 pounds. I’m not going to say anything else – you’ll have to go see the movie.”
So, how is this connected to the first movie?
It’s almost shot for shot a deleted version of the first film’s intro. Back before David Peoples (Unforgiven) performed a rewrite of the script, Hampton Fanchor’s draft had a first scene almost beat for beat like the one Sir Ridley described above. In fact, if you watch the latest Blade Runner blu-ray, there’s a section that talks about the deleted scene that has storyboards:
“Turn around and you see a massive tree, just dead, but the tree is being supported and kept alive by wires that are holding the tree up.” / “And now a spinner [a flying car] comes flying in, creating dust. Of course, traditionally chased by a dog that barks.”
“Grapes of Wrath-type white cottage with a porch.”
“The doors open, a guy gets out and there you’ve got Rick Deckard. He walks in to the cottage, opens the door, smells stew, sits down and waits for the guy to pull up to the house to arrive.”
“He steps onto the balcony and he goes to Harrison [Ford]’s side. The cottage actually [creaks]; this guy’s got to be 350 pounds. I’m not going to say anything else – you’ll have to go see the movie.”
What happens after that?
In the original script? Deckard blows him away, removes his jaw, and we see he’s actually a Replicant.
So, if what Sir Ridley says is true… they’re bringing back this scene for the sequel. How it fits into the story is another question entirely. We’ll have to wait and see.
