‘Blade Runner’ Scribe Hampton Fancher Returning For Ridley Scott-Directed Sequel

BREAKING: Hampton Fancher is in talks to join director Ridley Scott in developing a new version of Blade Runner for Alcon Entertainment. Alcon is acknowledging the film is a sequel, and that it takes place some years after the first film concluded. Fancher cowrote the original Blade Runner, based on the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Alcon Entertainment had the rights to the 1982 science fiction classic that starred Harrison Ford, but excitement on the project really escalated once Deadline revealed last August that Scott would come back and revisit the source material as director. Scott’s next film is Prometheus, a film that started as a prequel to his classic Alien, which he and Fox consider to be an original film. That’s different from Blade Runner, which at this point is being considered a sequel, even though Alcon has gone on record that the next movie won’t focus on Ford’s character, who hunted replicants until he fell in love with one. According to Alcon, Scott and Fancher intended Blade Runner to be the first in a series of films, but that didn’t happen. Now they are taking their crack at the second installment.

Scott is producing with Alcon cofounders Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, as well as Bud Yorkin and Cynthia Sikes Yorkin. Thunderbirg Films’ Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble are exec producing. Fancher is repped by APA.

Comments (26)

  • Interesting. But no David Peoples?

    Comment by JohnDoe — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 3:53pm PDT  Reply to this post
    • John Doe, what was your response when Lisberger, Boxleitner, and Bridges were announced for Tron Legacy? I bet it was something like “Interesting. But no Cindy Morgan?”

      Comment by Cuppajoe — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 4:08pm PDT  Reply to this post
      • That’s not quite fair. I wondered the same thing when I read it, and I’m not some drooling fanboy. David Peoples was a major part of the original creative team.

        Comment by Johnny Ringo — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 4:41pm PDT  Reply to this post
      • Seriously CuppaJoe? You’re trying to include ‘TRON: Legacy’ in your snarkass reply? REALLY? Only thing that sucked worse than your weak sauce retort was TRON: Legacy.

        Comment by M Three — Friday May 18, 2012 @ 2:32am PDT  Reply to this post
  • “DON’T FUCK THIS UP MITCHELLLL!!!!” -3 O’Clock High

    Comment by Jug — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 4:02pm PDT  Reply to this post
  • I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain… Time to die.

    Comment by Roy Batty — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 4:35pm PDT  Reply to this post
    • Hauer’s “tears in the rain” speech remains, for reasons that pass understanding, the most overrated hunk of pretentious clap-trap ever written by a screenwriter (or improvised by an actor, if we’re to believe Mr. Hauer).

      Comment by Classic Liberal — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 10:30pm PDT  Reply to this post
      • I agree that it’s pretentious, and I’d add that I find it juvenile and embarrassing coming out of the mouth of an adult. Internet legend would have it that Hauer wrote the speech himself, but apparently the truth is that he just edited it down from the original screenplay.

        Comment by damosuzuki — Friday May 18, 2012 @ 3:28am PDT  Reply to this post
      • The use of “pretentious clap-trap ever written” is, in itself, pretentious clap-trap.

        Joyless hipster is joyless.

        Comment by FlickDude — Friday May 18, 2012 @ 9:20am PDT  Reply to this post
      • You think that’s pretentious? Then you know NOTHING about screenwriting. That was a haiku of
        a much grander monologue that Fancher wrote and was equally amazing. The moments of a life, the spectacle, reduced to a few simple lines before an android, who hasn’t the experience or time to understand that life, expires. Incredible scene.

        Comment by JerzeeKow — Sunday May 20, 2012 @ 6:03pm PDT  Reply to this post
        • I’m with you. The speech is the highlight of the movie and underscores the irony that Hauer’s character has more humanity than Ford’s automaton.

          Comment by mrjimmie — Sunday May 27, 2012 @ 7:56pm PDT  Reply to this post
  • This is great news. Blade Runner belongs to Fancher every bit as much as it belongs to Ridley Scott. I don’t think Fancher would have come aboard unless he had a juicy idea or two. This should be interesting.

    Comment by Spinner — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 4:45pm PDT  Reply to this post
  • Yeah, what about David People’s, you know, the guy who also wrote Unforgiven and 12 Monkeys? Ah, he wrote Blade Runner too.

    Comment by People's fan — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 5:49pm PDT  Reply to this post
  • Guess this proves Deckard wasn’t a replicant. Harrison Ford is like 80 years old and replicants don’t age like old action stars.

    Comment by Jack Flack — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 6:11pm PDT  Reply to this post
  • Was Ridley Scott so scared by the reaction of body of lies and robin hood that he felt the need to flee back to his older films in an effort to be cool again? First not-alien with prometheus (which admittedly, looks amazing) but a new blade runner is pushing it. Plus the fact that he stubbornly declares “He is a replicant! He is! He is! He is!” at the expense of any other interpretation, makes me think he may have lost understanding of his own masterpiece.

    Comment by Mrsmith — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 6:14pm PDT  Reply to this post
  • Michael Bay to direct. One explosion every 2 minutes.

    Comment by Cicero — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 6:58pm PDT  Reply to this post
  • Dear Ridley Scott,

    For cryin’ out loud, don’t!

    Sincerely,
    The (Relatively) Sane Part of Your Fanbase

    Comment by Rob J. — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 9:37pm PDT  Reply to this post
  • Alcon will screw this up and they now have Ridley and his massive ego to help them screw it up. The only thing that makes sense would be to do a real sequel with Ford returning as Deckard. That would be worth making and spending money to see. Ridley should focus on Prometheus II and forget this nonsense.

    Comment by Deadline Replicant Cyborg Clone — Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 11:56pm PDT  Reply to this post
  |  More Comments

Post a Comment

Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, don't get your facts wrong, and don't bore me.