Harrison Ford Won’t Return for Bladerunner Sequel
Following his Alien prequel Prometheus, Ridley Scott is once again set to return to his back catalogue of classic sci-fi noir for a planned sequel to Blade Runner. The original film followed a rough edged detective in a grim dystopian future who reluctantly accepts a final assignment hunting down a group of dangerous escaped androids. It was based on the novel “Do androids dream of electric sheep?” written by master sci-fi author Philip k. Dick.
Harrison Ford was reportedly in early talks to join the film in some capacity. Despite Ridley Scott’s claim that the sequel would be made “not with the past cast, of course,” and producer Andrew Kosove, already said last year:
“…if you’re asking me will this movie have anything to do with Harrison Ford, the answer is no. This is a total reinvention, and in my mind that means doing everything fresh, including casting.”
Responding to the rumours Alcon Entertainment has confirmed whatever Ridley Scott’s new Blade Runner turns out to be, Harrison Ford almost certainly won’t be in it. Andrew Kosove again confirms
“It is absolutely patently false that there has been any discussion about Harrison Ford being in Blade Runner. What we are trying to do with Ridley now is go through the painstaking process of trying to break the back of the story, figure out the direction we’re going to take the movie and find a writer to work on it. The casting of the movie could not be further from our minds at this moment. It’s like asking if we’re going to make the sky red or blue. There has been no discussion about it. In advance of knowing what we’re going to do, I suppose you could say yes, [Ford] could [return],” Kosove admits. “But I think it is quite unlikely.”
“What Ridley’s doing in Prometheus is a good template for what we’re trying to do,” Kosove says. “He created something that has some association to the original Alien, but lives on its own as a standalone movie.”
If he did feature as his original character it might finally put an end to decades of fan debate about whether or not his character Deckard was actually supposed to be an android himself. Ford has always maintained that Deckard was human while Scott has confessed he always envisioned him as being an android.
The original film is notoriously ambiguous on this point. Despite the fact that there have been seven different versions of the film released over the years none of them ever killed of the debate. Perhaps one way or another, this new film might finally do just that.
The Muppets Attack Fox News
This is a Muppet News Flash… Easily the most satisfying news story of the past week has been Jim Henson’s beloved puppet creations Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy hitting back at Fox News during a London press conference.
Last year Fox Business commentator Eric Bolling accused the new Muppet movie of brainwashing children with a dangerous liberal agenda because the villain Tex Richman is a greedy oil tycoon who wants to tear down the Muppet theatre to drill for oil. Apparently this is clearly anti-capitalist propaganda. After all if there’s one vulnerable group that needs protecting from the vicious rage of 8 year olds it’s clearly the multi-billion dollar global oil industry.
While in London promoting the new film Kermit tried to diffuse the controversy by joking about the fact the Muppets spend much of the film driving around in gas guzzling Rolls Royce. But never one to be upstaged, the ultimate diva Miss Piggy remarked that the Fox news allegations were “Almost as laughable as calling Fox News… News!”.
Everyone from Time magazine to broadcasting rivals CNN ran the story, with a certain sense of glee. The best part is that Fox has no way out; it’s a war they simply cannot win. If you attack adorable puppets you look mean. If they actually hit back at you then your allegedly serious major news network has just been ridiculed by a talking sock with googly eyes. Match point Muppets.
The new Muppet film is out in the UK on February 10th and we urge you to run as fast as your little frog flipper feet will carry you to go see it for more comedy gold from those dangerous liberals