Blade Runner 2049

Fans of director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins are undoubtedly stoked for Blade Runner 2049, the upcoming sequel to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic. Those same fans probably wouldn’t mind if either of those guys made a movie that clocked in at almost three hours long. Blade Runner 2049 might be putting that theory to the test, as Villeneuve’s latest film is rumored to have the longest runtime of any blockbuster since Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar.

One of the more intriguing new characters in Blade Runner 2049 is Niander Wallace, played by professional cringe-inducer Jared Leto. Though the exact nature of his role — beyond “vaguely unnerving dude who makes Replicants” — remains to be seen, Niander appears to be a key figure in Denis Villeneuve’s highly-anticipated sequel. He’s also the subject of this new short film, which takes place in 2036 and is the first of three prequels that will help shed some light on the events that occurred over the 30 years between films.

The latest Blade Runner 2049 poster doesn’t give us any clues about who’s a replicant and who’s not, or what androids dream about, or what this war that they keep mentioning in the trailers is all about, but it is a very cool-looking retro-style let’s-stack-all-the-stars-on-top-of-each-other image tinted in extreme shades of orange and turquoise. Love it.

The international TV trailer offers a view new glimpses at Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming film.

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As they often do when a much-beloved film property gets revived after decades spent dormant, fans have had plenty of cause to fret while Blade Runner 2049 has neared its release. Will there be a voiceover? (No.) Will the film definitively answer the question of whether Deckard is a replicant? (Also no.) Will the soundtrack rule? (It certainly seems that way.) And yet so many questions still remain in advance of the film’s wide release. Today will resolve one big one, however, and assuage quite a few fan worries with it.

Director Denis Villeneuve believes the noirish touch has no place in his new vision.

Here’s an anecdote about Hans Zimmer for you. When I was in grad school, through several months of trial and error, I learned that I could write to one soundtrack and one soundtrack only: Zimmer’s score for Interstellar. I would listen to the entire album on repeat - minus the final track with the Dylan Thomas poem, of course - and crank out hour after hour of academic writing. I’ve often joked that Zimmer is the reason I finished my degree, but if we’re being honest with each other, it may be closer to the truth than I’m comfortable admitting.

Despite the fact that Blade Runner 2049 is only the second movie in this franchise - can we call it a franchise if there’s only two friends? I’m asking for a friend - you’ll be completely forgiven if you’ve lost the thread on the events leading up to this film. Not only will the time jump between Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 probably leave a few fans in the dust, the first film was never particularly forthcoming with its own mythology, asking fans to piece together some of the political and technological events that led to the replicant revolution. Like the best science fiction, it was a movie that contained multitudes, even if it wasn’t always compelled to share them.

If you watch a lot of movie trailers you may have noticed a new trend in film advertising, one that is quickly coming to rival the rise of sad covers of pop songs or Imagine Dragon soundtracks: The use of the phrase “visionary director” to hype a particular filmmaker’s involvement in a movie. Though the phrase has appeared occasionally in coming attractions throughout the years, it seems to have risen substantially in popularity in the last couple months. There were two “visionary” trailers in just the last week.