The movie's producer who also consulted on the story says of why the film bombed, 'It was f***ing way too long... And most of that script's mine.'
- Dec 28, 2017
AceShowbiz - Ridley Scott has shared his opinion on why "Blade Runner 2049" flopped on box office, despite mostly positive reviews from critics. While he executive produced the neo-noir sci-fi movie starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, he didn't hold back when talking about what caused the movie's lackluster performance.
"I have to be careful what I say. I have to be careful what I say," he initially said when asked by Vulture about the problem with the Denis Villeneuve-directed movie, though he couldn't seem to restrain himself eventually. "It was f***ing way too long. F**k me!" As he consulted on the story, the filmmaker added, "And most of that script's mine."
Scott then explained, "I sit with writers for an inordinate amount of time and I will not take credit, because it means I've got to sit there with a tape recorder while we talk. I can't do that to a good writer. But I have to, because to prove I'm part of the actual process, I have to then have an endless amount [of proof], and I can't be bothered. But the big idea comes from 'Blade Runner'."
On how the first film shaped the sequel, he shared, "But the big idea comes from 'Blade Runner'. Tyrell [played by Joe Turkel] is a trillionaire, maybe 5 to 10 percent of his business is AI. Like God, he has created perfect beings that, for all intents and purposes, there is no telling the difference from humans. Then he says, 'You know what? I'm going to create an AI. I'll have a male and female, they will not know that they're both AIs, I'll have them meet each other, they will fall in love, they will consummate, and they will have a child.' That's the first film."
He continued, "The second film is, what happens to the baby? You've got to have the baby, you can't have the mother, so the mother has to inexplicably die four months after she breastfeeds. The bones are found in the box at the foot of the tree - that's all me. And the digital girlfriend is me. I wanted an evolution from Pris, who is inordinately sexy in the original, right?"
Scott has long maintained that Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard is a replicant, though the screenwriters may disagree with Scott. In an interview for the movie, Hampton Fancher previously said, "I always [believed] he's not a replicant. I thought if he's a replicant, the game's over. I think he doesn't know, also. So to make him a replicant-Ridley from the beginning [said] he's a replicant, and I from the beginning said he's not, or we shouldn't know if he is, I don't know if he is."
