In the blitz of remakes, reboots, prequels and sequels, a few films have stood sacred, with many of us convinced that Hollywood simply would. Not. Go. There. Well, it appears that one of those barriers has been well and smashed with Blind Side production company Alcon sending out a press release about buying up the rights to Blade Runner, announcing its intention to start work on prequels, sequels, spin-offs and a TV cartoon called Blade Runner Babies.
Okay, maybe not the last one, but Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosgrove, who run the Warner Bros.-based company, are busy negotiating with producer Bud Yorkin, the man who holds the key to Rick Deckard and co.
“We are honoured and excited to be in business with Bud Yorkin,” they said in the statement picked up by Deadline. “This is a major acquisition for our company, and a personal favourite film for both of us. We recognize the responsibility we have to do justice to the memory of the original with any prequel or sequel we produce. We have long-term goals for the franchise, and are exploring multi-platform concepts, not just limiting ourselves to one medium only.”
Yes, lots of use of the “favourite film” language meant to stave off the rush of negative emotion coursing through most fans' bodies right now. Of course, they’ve produced nothing so far, and it’s too early to judge, so maybe they’ll come up with something that honours and respects Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic while opening the world up to a whole new audience and… Nope, not going to go that far just yet either. There’s one bright spark in all of this – the rights don’t include the option to remake the original film, so we’ll be spared that ‘net flame war at least.
For now.