Ridley Scott Describes The Opening of BLADE RUNNER 2

Here's a cool bit of news I missed from this year's AFI Film Festival. I reviewed a handful of movies from the event, finishing up last week with the world premiere of The Big Short, but one of the non-screening events that took place was a discussion with director Ridley Scott. Chinese publication Mtime was there, and they relayed some cool quotes from Scott as he talked about the opening scene of the long-gestating Blade Runner 2, which he's producing next year. Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins are collaborating on the film (their third film together, after Prisoners and Sicario), and Ryan Gosling is set to star. Mtime journalist Todd Gilchrist provided an English translation to /Film:

We decided to start the film off with the original starting block of the original film. We always loved the idea of a dystopian universe, and we start off at what I describe as a ‘factory farm’ – what would be a flat land with farming. Wyoming. Flat, not rolling – you can see for 20 miles. No fences, just plowed, dry dirt. 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 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 the cottage, opens the door, sits down, 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’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.

As /Film points out, this scene was originally intended to be the opening scene of the original movie, and the scene continued with Deckard shooting the man, who is revealed to be a Replicant when Deckard rips his jaw off. Holy cow, that sounds like a hell of an opening scene. It'll be interesting to see whether or not Villeneuve decides to stick with Harrison Ford's Deckard being the guy in that scene, or if the movie might kick off with the younger Ryan Gosling getting into the action early (the scene could be rewritten with his new character replacing Deckard there). Either way, I'm very excited about this collaboration and I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do with a sequel to one of the most beloved sci-fi films of all time.