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May 15, 2014

Harrison Ford Offered Role in ‘Blade Runner’ Sequel

General

Dave McNary / Variety

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.

The 2011 deal with producer Bud Yorkin gave Alcon the film, TV and ancillary franchise rights for “Blade Runner” prequels and sequels. Yorkin will be a producer on the sequel with Kosove and Johnson and Cynthia Sikes Yorkin will co-produce. Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, the CEOs of Thunderbird Films, will exec produce.

Fancher and David Peoples adapted “Blade Runner” from Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

Scott directed in his third film following “The Duelists” and “Alien.” The film was nominated for  Academy Awards for visual effects and art direction.

Alcon fully finances its films and has an output deal with Warner Bros., which distributed the original “Blade Runner.”

“Blade Runner” was the first of Dick’s works to be adapted into a film by Hollywood, setting the stage for “Total Recall,” “A Scanner Darkly,” “Minority Report,” “Paycheck” and “The Adjustment Bureau.”

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