Earlier this summer, it was announced that 12-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins would be working on Blade Runner 2, a comforting thought for those who were skeptical about a sequel. Whether the film is good or bad, necessary or not, we at least know that Blade Runner 2 will look fantastic. Though we know that Deakins will reunite with his Sicario and Prisoners director Denis Villeneuve for the film, we still don’t know much about what this new Blade Runner will be. Our own Matt Singer caught up with Deakins (who’s at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting Sicario) and asked Deakins about the film who said the sequel is “definitely going to happen” and is an “entirely separate movie” from the 1982 original.

Much of the success of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner film can be owed to the texture and gorgeous visuals shot by the late, great Jordan Cronenweth. Deakins would seem to have his work cut out for him, but Deakins, a legend in his own right, isn’t worried about that.

Deakins concedes the look of the original was “really superb” but that won’t impact who he shoots Blade Runner 2:

I’m not gonna do shafts of light coming through a window with rain just for the sake of doing shafts of light and rain.

He couldn’t reveal any of the details of the film’s plot, but did say that Blade Runner 2 will “stand by itself.”

“Obviously, it has elements that connect it to the original, but it’s going to stand alone by itself as a movie […] This script is not the old script. It’s not a remake. It’s another take on the story. It’s a progression.”

While Deakins and Villeneuve collaborating for what would be their third movie is exciting enough, many fans of the original are still left scratching their heads as to why they’re even making another Blade Runner movie. Deakins explains:

I love science fiction, I absolutely love science fiction […] I did think twice about it, because Blade Runner, the original is so wonderful, but […] there’s so few good science fiction films out there, that it deserves another. They made about 20 Planet of the Apes and they still haven’t made one as good as the original. They only ever made one Blade Runner, so I think we can do another one.

The untitled Blade Runner sequel is scheduled to hit theaters in 2017.

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