Tag: Blade Runner Black Lotus

Posted on in News

Live-Action ‘Blade Runner’ Series In The Works & Might Land 10-Episodes

There was some expectation that after Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, a sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 landmark sci-fi film Blade Runner, we’d get more live-action stories set in that fantastic universe but when Blade Runner 2049 didn’t light the box office on fire that seemed to be put on ice.

Director Denis Villeneuve had teased interest in returning to the franchise tackling a new story that wasn’t a direct sequel to 2049. Eventually, an anime series Blade Runner: Black Lotus from Japan was produced and recently debuted on WarnerMedia’s Adult Swim.

However, Ridley Scott has revealed a live-action Blade Runner series in the works at Alcon with the pilot written and is eyeing a 10-episode run. Scott mentioned this on BBC Radio 4’s Today this Monday.

“We’re already into having written the pilot for Blade Runner and the bible, so we’re already presenting Blade Runner as a TV show, which will probably be the first 10 hours.”

The original Blade Runner is loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electic Sheep? and was adapted by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. It’s considered one of the most visually striking films ever made.

We’re still in the dark about who is writing the pilot and if it’ll land at HBO Max or elsewhere. It’s also unknown if we’ll continue on Earth as Los Angeles has been the primary setting or if we’ll finally explore the multiple off-world colonies. One of the biggest mysteries of the franchise is what the off-colonies look like along with how Replicants are forced into labor and warfare.

I have to assume WarnerMedia would be involved given rights holders Alcon had Warner Bros. distribute Blade Runner 2049 and Black Lotus at Adult Swim. Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series Raised By Wolves debuted at HBO Max’s launch and had been one of their most popular originals, leading to a season two order.

BLADE RUNNER – Deckard (Harrison Ford) is forced by the police Boss (M. Emmet Walsh) to continue his old job as Replicant Hunter. His assignment: eliminate four escaped Replicants from the colonies who have returned to Earth. Before starting the job, Deckard goes to the Tyrell Corporation and he meets Rachel (Sean Young), a Replicant girl he falls in love with.

BLADE RUNNER 2049 – Officer K (Ryan Gosling), a new blade runner for the Los Angeles Police Department, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos. His discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former blade runner who’s been missing for 30 years.

SOURCE: BBC

Posted on in Television News

‘Blade Runner: Black Lotus’ Anime Series Taps ‘Matrix 4’s Jessica Henwick, ‘The Wolverine’s Will Yun Lee & More For Voice Cast

Alcon Entertainment and Crunchyroll had teamed together for an anime series that takes place within the cyberpunk universe of Blade Runner. The dystopian alternative future where man has created a disposable workforce with Replicants, artificial humanoids that are mainly used as slave labor, sex workers, and soldiers on the off-world colonies with a limited lifespan.

The show called Blade Runner: Black Lotus has seasoned Japanese directors Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) and Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) working on all 13 episodes with Shinichiro Watanabe (The Animatrix, Blade Runner Black Out 2022, Cowboy Bebop) set as a creative producer.

Deadline now says the English and Japanese voice cast will consist of Jessica Henwick, Arisa Shida, Will Yun Lee, Shinshu Fuji, Samira Wiley, Takako Honda, Brian Cox, Wes Bentley, Josh Duhamel, Taiten Kusunoki, Peyton List, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Stephen Root, Hochu Otsuka, Barkhad Abdi, Takayuki Kinba, Gregg Henry, Masane Tsukayama, Henry Czerny, Akio Nojima, Jason Spisak and Kazuki Yao.

Here is a rundown of who they’ll be playing.

Henwick/Shida voice Elle, a female replicant created for a secret and unknown purpose. Lee/Fuji voice Joseph, a mysterious figure who owns a spare parts junkyard in Los Angeles. Wiley/Hona voice Alani Davis, a fresh LAPD recruit. Cox/Hashi voice Niander Wallace Sr, founder and CEO of the Wallace Corporation. Bentley/Koyasu voice Niander Wallace Jr, brilliant scientist working for his father. Duhamel/Kusunoki voice Marlowe, a deadly Blade Runner. List/Sakakibara voice Josephine Grant, the wife of the police chief. Root/Otsuka voice Earl Grant, Police Chief of the LAPD. Abdi/Kinba voice Doc Badger, a black market dealer. Henry/Tsukayama voice Senator Bannister, a politician with strong feelings on replicant production. Spisak/Yao voice Hooper, a journalist in the pocket of the Wallace Corporation.

While Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve has teased a Blade Runner 3, there aren’t any concrete plans for a third feature film despite how well-received the last installment was.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Blade Runner’: Jared Leto Still Wants To Reprise Villain Niander Wallace For A Prequel Project

Back in July, Jared Leto mentioned a desire to explore Niander Wallace‘s origin when interacting with a fan. Wallace was the puppet-master villain of Blade Runnder 2049 and runs the company that has taken over Replicant production from the Tyrell Corporation.

LETO: “Maybe we can do a Niander Wallace origin story one day. Would be interesting to see where this mad man came from. He must have had some history. I have some ideas…”

Jared is still very much interested in returning to Wallace while speaking with Jake’s Takes (spotted by The Playlist) this month.

LETO: “You know, with every character I play, I don’t know if it’s because I work so intently and I tend to dig really deep and put a lot of time and energy into it, but when I’m done playing with them, done playing the parts, I do miss them a little bit. And you do all this work anyway, it would be kind of nice to go back and explore other [characters]. Like Niander Wallace in Blade Runner, I would love to play that part again as a prequel or something.”

Wallace’s fate is unknown at the end of the film has he zipped off-world in a ship to one of the many human colonies. It could be interesting to see if he had a hand in those colonies and potentially the off-world wars that have been referenced in both movies.

Leto isn’t the only mulling over the idea of a return to the Blade Runner Universe, as director Denis Villeneuve told Empire last year he’d like to make a non-sequel that is disconnected to the first two movies.

VILLENEUVE: “It’s such an inspiring place, the Blade Runner world. The problem is have is the word ‘sequel’. I think cinema needs original stories. But if you ask me if I’d like to revisit this universe in a different way, I can say yes. It would need to be a project on its own. Something disconnected from both other movies. A detective noir story set in the future… I wake up sometimes in the night dreaming about it.”

The only official continuation of the franchise that has been in the works is an anime project for Crunchyroll and Adult Swim titled Blade Runner: Black Lotus with a debut sometime in 2021.

SOURCE: JAKE’S TAKES

Posted on in Film News

Jared Leto Wants To Return To The World of ‘Blade Runner 2049’ With An Origin Story For Villain Niander Wallace

Last week, actor Jared Leto took to Twitter suggesting that he’d like to return to the role of Niander Wallace, the overreaching villain of Blade Runner 2049. He seems to want to tackle an origin story about Wallace.

LETO: “Maybe we can do a Niander Wallace origin story one day. Would be interesting to see where this mad man came from. He must have had some history. I have some ideas…”

Wallace’s fate is unknown at the end of the film has he zipped off-world in a ship to one of the many human colonies. The villain is behind the latest version of the disposable workforce with his version of the Replicants. 

Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve has teased in the past he’d like to return to the world of Blade Runner as well, but suggested he wouldn’t be interested in making another sequel. 

A Blade Runner live-action series might not be out of the realm of possibilities as Villeneuve is producing and expected to direct the pilot for the Dune spinoff series for HBO Max titled Dune: The Sisterhood and there is already an animated series set in the universe of Blade Runner coming soon with Blade Runner: Black Lotus. 

SOURCE: JARED LETO