Ridley Scott to return to 'Blade Runner'

by Michael Edwards

All the recent chatter has been about his return to the 'Alien' universe in prequel/spin-off 'Prometheus' but, according to reports from Deadline, it's not the only seminal sci-fi Ridley Scott is returning to.

Alcon Entertainment, the company behind 'The Blind Side' and, slightly more appropriately, 'The Book of Eli' bought the rights to produce 'Blade Runner' prequels/sequels in March. It might not have been such big news were it not for Scott's recent decision to sign on to the project.

In his 1982 original, Harrison Ford starred as retired cop Richard Deckard, a man who specialised in hunting down rogue androids known as replicants. But he is roped into one last job, and finds it disrupted when he begins to have feelings for one of a new batch of the quasi-automatons.

We're eagerly awaiting news of the scripting process, as very little has been said about the story so far. In fact, we don't even know yet whether the ‘follow-up’ will be a prequel, sequel or spin-off.

What we do know is what Alcon co-head Andrew Kosove told The Hollywood Reporter:

"We are very fortunate that Ridley Scott has decided to come back to one of his seminal movies... And with Ridley, I can tell you it will be fresh and original." He also said that he did not expect Harrison Ford to return as the retired replicant-hunter.

That's not to say Deckard won't make an appearance at all. After all, the original novel (Philip K. Dick's 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?') was followed up by several books starring the detective, and attempted to reconcile the differences between the universes created by Scott and Dick. Though we don't envy anyone faced with the task of stepping into Harrison Ford's shoes.

But, as with 'Alien' spinoff 'Prometheus', we wouldn't put it past Scott to wipe the slate clean and helm a whole new story set in the 'Blade Runner' universe.