Roger Deakins to Shoot 'Blade Runner 2'

If its an impossible task to get people excited about a sequel to a movie that's 33 years old, the makers behind Blade Runner 2 are giving it their best shot.

With Harrison Ford already signed-on to return, original director Ridley Scott executive producing as well as coming up with the story along with original writer Hampton Fancher (who co-write the script), Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) directing and Ryan Gosling in-talk to co-star, we now get news that 12-time Academy Award nominee Roger Deakins will serve as the film's cinematographer.

If you have no clue who Roger Deakins is or what a cinematographer does, I suggest you go watch either Skyfall, The Shawshank Redemption or pretty much any Coen Brothers movie.  When you see how beautiful those films look in terms of lighting and shadows, that's what Roger Deakins does (his best work is widely regarded as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford).  He's a master in terms of making a shot for a film look gorgeous and it's pretty much why he's regarded as the greatest cinematographer of all time (oh, and he's coincidentally never actually won an Academy Award, just lost 12 times).

Deakins has previously worked with director Villeneuve on both 2013's Prisoners and this year's Sicario, but it seemed like a long-shot the 65 year-old would want to work on a sequel to a film that came out back in 1982.  I guess he does.

Read below for the official press release on Deakins joining the film, which is set to start shooting next summer for a likely 2017-2018 release.

Twelve-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins will join director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Incendies) on Alcon Entertainment’s sequel to BLADE RUNNER, it was announced by Alcon co-founders and co-CEO’s Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson.

Deakins, who will be presented with the Pierre Angénieux Excellens in Cinematography Award at the Cannes Film Festival on May 22 reteams with Villeneuve on what will be their third feature collaboration, having previously worked together on Alcon’s Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal as well as Villeneuve’s upcoming film Sicario, a drug-trafficking drama starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro from Black Label Media, which is in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Deakins received his latest Academy Award nomination this year for his work on Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken. He was previously nominated for Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo, The Man Who Wasn’t There, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men and True Grit; Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption; Martin Scorsese’s Kundun; Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Stephen Daldry’s The Reader, which he shared with Chris Menges; and, more recently, Prisoners and Sam Mendes’ Skyfall.

Film is scheduled to start principal photography in summer of 2016. Hampton Fancher (co-writer of the original) and Michael Green have written the original screenplay based on an idea by Fancher and Ridley Scott. The story takes place several decades after the conclusion of the 1982 original. Harrison Ford will reprise his role as Rick Deckard.

Villeneuve previously worked with Kosove and Johnson as the director of Alcon’s critically acclaimed Prisoners.

Kosove and Johnson state: “Roger is an extraordinary talent and we are very excited that Denis and Roger have chosen to continue their collaboration in bringing the sequel to BLADE RUNNER to the big screen.”

Alcon Entertainment acquired the film, television and ancillary franchise rights to BLADE RUNNER in 2011 from producer Bud Yorkin to produce prequels and sequels to the iconic science-fiction thriller. Yorkin will serve as a producer on the sequel along with Kosove and Johnson. Cynthia Sikes Yorkin will also produce.

Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, CEO’s of Thunderbird Films, will serve as executive producers. Ridley Scott will also executive produce.

Among its many distinctions, BLADE RUNNER has been singled out as one of the greatest movies of all time by innumerable polls and media outlets, and overwhelmingly as the greatest science-fiction film of all time by a majority of genre publications.

Released by Warner Bros., BLADE RUNNER was adapted by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples from Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” and was directed by Ridley Scott following his landmark Alien.” The film was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Visual Effects, and Best Art Direction).

BLADE RUNNER was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993 and is frequently taught in university courses. In 2007, it was named the 2nd most visually influential film of all time by the Visual Effects Society.

Source: Alcon Entertainment