Ridley Scott is a busy man these days. His Biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings is about to dominate the conversation for the next few weeks; he is currently preparing to direct a movie of the “MacGyver Meets Robinson Crusoe in Space” novel The Martian with Matt Damon as well as a sequel to Prometheus. He also has a full slate as a producer, including a planned Tom Hardy swashbuckling rogue adventurer thing. Scott is so busy, in fact, that it turns out he will not be directing the much-anticipated sequel to his 1982 sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner.
Speaking to Variety, Scott commented that he will be serving as the film’s producer, but that he will be letting someone else sit in the Director’s Chair. “When ‘The Martian’ wraps later this winter,” Variety reports, “Scott already has a fair idea what he’ll be doing next, though it likely won’t be the much-anticipated ‘Blade Runner’ sequel he developed with the original film’s co-screenwriter, Hampton Fancher. ‘We talked at length about what it could be, and came up with a pretty strong three-act storyline, and it all makes sense in terms of how it relates to the first one,’ says Scott, who adds that fans can expect to see Harrison Ford back in the saddle as the futuristic gumshoe Rick Deckard. ‘Harrison is very much part of this one, but really it’s about finding him; he comes in in the third act.’ Per Scott, that Alcon Entertainment production should go before the cameras within the next year, but with someone else directing (he’ll produce).” Fans of Blade Runner should be happy that Scott is at least staying on as producer, but what director working today could match the attention to detail that he brought to the set?
