Tag: Blade Runner 2099

'Blade Runner 2099': Amazon Cyberpunk Spinoff Series Adds 'Civil War' & 'Annihilation' Cinematographer Rob Hardy
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‘Blade Runner 2099’: Amazon Cyberpunk Spinoff Series Adds ‘Civil War’ & ‘Annihilation’ Cinematographer Rob Hardy

Amazon Prime Video and Alcon are behind a new spinoff streaming series set within the world of “Blade Runner” (50 years after the events of “Blade Runner 2049”) that has Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”) attached to star in an undisclosed role and has “Shōgun” director Jonathan van Tulleken involved on “Blade Runner 2099” as well.

The Ronin can confirm that Rob Hardy (“Mission: Impossible – Fallout”) has joined the crew of “Blade Runner 2099” as a director of photography. Hardy is likely best known as the cinematographer of a bunch of Alex Garland movies such as “Ex Machina,” “Annihilation,” the FX series “DEVS,” the folklore horror pic “Men,” and his most recent film, “Civil War.”

Based on the Philip K. Dick novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” the original 1982 film focused on a group of replicants who have escaped the off-world colonies to Earth, where their presence is considered illegal. Authorities have sanctioned their termination by hiring a retired Blade Runner, Deckard, to quickly silence the situation by killing them on sight once they’ve been confirmed as replicants and not the humans they’re pretending to be. After being introduced to a non-violent replicant who isn’t aware they are one, Deckard decides to whisk off with her toward the end, leading the hunter to become the hunted.

We haven’t seen the nine off-world colonies in the main two movies (they have been teased/shown in tie-in shorts), and it would be quite the jump for the franchise for events to transpire in a non-Earthbound setting.

'Blade Runner 2099': Michelle Yeoh To Star In Amazon's Cyberpunk Spinoff Series
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‘Blade Runner 2099’: Oscar-Winner Michelle Yeoh To Star In Amazon’s Cyberpunk Spinoff Series

Amazon Prime Video is riding high after their latest series “Fallout” has become their second biggest viewed show on the streaming service behind “Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power,” and one of their other ambitious projects looks to help expand the “Blade Runner” universe with “Blade Runner 2099.”

Best Actress Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”) is the first actor to join the limited cyberpunk series, according to various trade reports, including one from Variety. That would suggest that Yeoh is taking a lead role, but there aren’t any concrete plot or character details about who exactly the actress is playing in “Blade Runner 2099.”

The world of “Blade Runner” hails from the Philip K. Dick novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” but properly fleshed-out thanks to Ridley Scott in 1982 with the original movie and then Denis Villeneuve’s sequel “Blade Runner 2049.” As the title would suggest, there is going to be a 50-year time jump with this new streaming series, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed we’ll finally see some of these off-world colonies (nine colonies established back in 2049).

While both feature films have had a huge influence from both Japanese and Chinese atheistic, we really haven’t seen what these Asian countries look like in this universe. However, there is the assumption that various Asian countries like Japan are behind the effort to populate the off-world colonies, and Earthbound nations might be just as sparse as the United States.

One of the other impressive hirings for the spinoff series is director Jonathan van Tulleken, who most recently worked on the massive FX hit streaming series, “Shogun,” and helmed two episodes.

Yeoh has made her presence in Hollywood’s genre realm well-established going back to the 1990s when she joined the James Bond franchise with “Tomorrow Never Dies,” which nearly led to her own spinoff film but ultimately didn’t materialize. Some of those other genre projects include “Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” Danny Boyle’s sci-fi thriller “Sunshine,” “American Born Chinese,” “The Witcher: Blood Origin,” had a brief cameo in “Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.2,” “Morgan,” “The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor,” and James Cameron’s highly-anticipated “Avatar” sequels to the two previous multi-billion dollar successes.

An exciting development on a streaming project that could help add to the “Blade Runner” mythology.

SOURCE: VARIETY

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‘Blade Runner 2099’: Amazon Taps ‘Shōgun’ Director Jonathan Van Tulleken As New Helmer For Their Ambitious Cyberpunk Spinoff Series

While we’ve all been anticipating any sort of casting update concerning Amazon‘s live-action “Blade Runner” spinoff series “Blade Runner 2099,” there has been a bit of a creative shake-up as Deadline reports that “Shōgun” director Jonathan Van Tulleken has joined the sci-fi thriller streaming series and there is an expectation that filming might finally begin in Prague around the spring/summer of this year after multiple production delays. Moving from its original production home of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Van Tulleken will replace the series’ previous director Jeremy Podeswa of “Station Eleven,” who is said to have exited over “scheduling issues.” His mature samurai series reboot, “Shōgun,” is already getting some major buzz from critics ahead of its late February debut on Hulu and on Disney+ internationally.

Welcome to 'Blade Runner' year, now where are my damn off-world colonies | Mashable

As the title suggests, the Amazon series will take place 50 years after the events of Denis Villeneuve‘s impressive sequel “Blade Runner 2049” which starred Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Jared Leto, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, and Robin Wright. Silka Luisa is the writer and showrunner with Michael Green (“Blade Runner 2049”) serving as an executive producer. Details are unknown, but in 2049 it’s revealed that there are nine off-world colonies none of which we have explored in live-action, so far. Given the 50-year time jump there is the potential for “Blade Runner 2099” to explore both Los Angeles and these off-world colonies that have been consistently teased over the last 40+ years. They are considered a hellish place for replicants as they’re used as slave labor in various mining operations and end up being also used as pawns in various off-world wars. In “2049,” there were hints of a replicant uprising being planned that could see Wallace’s new wave of androids rebelling against their human overlords across the galaxy.

The series hails from Alcon Entertainment and Ridley Scott’s production company Scott Free Productions. Scott as you might remember helped launch the “Blade Runner” franchise in 1982 with the first film (A loose adaptation of the Philip K. Dick story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”) becoming a bit of a cult smash on home video after a disastrous theatrical release which could be due to the horrendous voice-over element from Harrison Ford that would be removed from subsequent television and director cuts of the cyberpunk classic.

“Shōgun” looks to be just as big of a technical giant for a director to execute which could be a strong reason why Van Tulleken was selected as the new helmer. Now, with a director firmly set, the next phase will be filling out the show’s cast.

SOURCE: DEADLINE