Blade Runner 2049 is almost out, and it has received much critical acclaim, settling in at 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Overall, the consensus seems to be that director Denis Villeneuve’s record remains unsullied, and that this sequel may even surpass its predecessor in terms of quality.

We can now look back on this as a successful sequel — at least in terms of quality — but of course, like all movies, it was a winding road to production. It was originally set to be helmed by Ridley Scott himself, but it eventually shifted to the capable hands of Villeneuve. Speaking with CinemaBlend, Villeneuve discussed how the script for the film changed when he hopped on board.

“I’d say that the main story stayed the same. The core of the story, I protected it. But there’s a lot of it that came… when I read the screenplay the first time it was a work in progress, and it was a screenplay written for Ridley Scott. And I’m a very different director than Ridley. We have very different sensibilities. So I brought back the screenplay closer to me. So it’s the same story told in a slightly different way.”

When asked to get more specific about how the story changed to fit his own vision, director said:

“I would say that it’s very striking for me that there are some scenes where I would think to myself, ‘I know exactly how Ridley will do it; it would be great. But me? I can’t. I don’t know. Me personally, it would look fake if I were to try to do that. And so I brought the story back to be something more intimate, obviously, but with a bit more realism — where things are seen more from the scope of the main character’s point of view. I brought back the violence and the action closer to what I felt Ridley had done in the very first movie. We’re trying to bring a level of realism to it. And I’m not saying that Ridley would have done it differently, but I brought the story to a more simple version of what I had read before.”

If there’s one thing we can say about Villeneuve’s work, be it Prisoners or Arrival, it’s that it’s all very personal. No matter how complex or simple the subject matter, he has a way of bringing it all back to its emotional core, which is wonderful to hear from a director.

Blade Runner 2049 is out tomorrow!

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.

SOURCE: CinemaBlend