In case you haven't heard, Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 is arriving in theaters on a tsumani-sized wave of buzz. The film has been praised as sci-fi masterpiece that is in every way worthy of its predecessor, not only sculpting an amazing noir detective story, but capturing it with some of the greatest cinematography you'll ever see. This impressiveness was most definitely not lost on star Ryan Gosling, who is stunned by the balances that the film is able to strike -- from the intimacy of the character work vs. the breadth of the setting; to the relationship between this new story and the one in Ridley Scott's 1982 predecessor. The actor recently told me,
I thought it was such a compelling character. As massive as the world is, as massive as this film is, interesting as it is conceptually, there's these very intimate, personal, emotional storylines as well. So it's operating on this kind of amazing scale, and this character, there's such a complicated journey that he goes on. And it's just amazing to me that the film could honor the original in the way that it did, and the storylines, and the questions, and the themes, and yet still accommodate this very different character and story that felt totally enmeshed in the DNA of the original. And yet it still felt original in its own right.
Paired with co-star Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling participated in the domestic press day for Blade Runner 2049 in Los Angeles last month -- and part of my interview with them featured Gosling lavishly complimenting the vision behind the blockbuster. The actor is certainly no stranger to making fantastic movies, but he clearly had a deep appreciation for what this new film offered for him as a performer and a fan.
In Blade Runner 2049, scripted by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, Ryan Gosling plays the lead role as Officer K -- a Blade Runner operating in rainy, neon-lit Los Angeles. While completing one of his missions hunting for a rogue replicant, he stumbles upon a secret long kept buried, and discovers that it holds consequences for the whole world. Given a new assignment from his superior officer, Lt. Joshi (Robin Wright), begins an investigation that leads him to the actions of Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), and his actions back in the year 2019 (a.k.a. the events of the first film).
As we've seen so many times before, there are so many ways that a 35-year-later sequel can go wrong -- but as Ryan Gosling points out, Blade Runner 2049 avoids many of those traps. It doesn't get trapped trying to do the exact same thing all over again; it references the original without ever feeling forced; and it neither gets lost in the aesthetically brilliant world, nor leaves it behind in favor of a tighter story. To borrow Gosling's adjective, it's amazing.
You can watch Ryan Gosling discuss his thoughts on the vision of Blade Runner 2049 by clicking play on the video below.
Blade Runner 2049, which co-stars Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Dave Bautista, and Mackenzie Davis, arrives in theaters this Friday, October 6th, and if you're excited about the film, we highly recommend sticking around these parts. We'll have interviews, features and more coming your way in the next few days, so stay tuned!
