got on just fine. “Denis brings enormous craftsmanship, cogent thoughts
about storytelling,” says the star. “He is very direct and straightforward
with the actors on the set. He either deeply loves it. Or thinks it is dog doo.”
Quebec backwater of
Trois-Rivières can put a crimp on a 14-year-old’s craving for movies. For
the headstrong Villeneuve, ‘fanzines’ such as Fantastic Films and Starlog
were his only contact with the outside world. He has a clear memory of the
day Blade Runner made the cover of Starlog: a sombre-looking Deckard on
the case. He knew immediately that this was grown-up science-fiction.
“The aesthetic impact of that film... My God,” he recalls. “That was
the moment when I was starting to dream about being a filmmaker.”
Cut to Los Angeles, 2013, and a meeting with Alcon about Prisoners.
After a while, producer Andrew Kosove apologetically told Villeneuve that
he had to cut their conference short: “Ridley Scott is waiting for us. We
want to do a sequel to Blade Runner.”
“I was like, ‘Whoa!’” laughs Villeneuve, giving it his best Keanu. As
a fan it sounded both insanely exciting and a really bad idea. He would
keep bugging them, the crazy geek: “Don’t screw it up!”
A year later, during his shoot for Sicario, he met Kosove again for
lunch. This time the producer slid an envelope across the table, marked with
the codename ‘Queensborough’. “This is the Blade Runner sequel,” he said
slowly. “We want you to consider directing it.”
Villeneuve found himself in tears. Yet he hesitated. Could he handle
the pressure? Could he live up to his 14-year-old raptures? To his surprise,
he found out the answer was yes. “I realised I could do this.”
A few tweaks to the script aside, he had one stipulation: he needed
Scott’s blessing. “I had to have Ridley out of the way,” he explains.
“Otherwise you feel like a vandal in someone else’s building. This movie
had to be faithful to the poetry of the first movie, but have its own identity.
Thankfully, he gave me full freedom.”
Nevertheless, watching the first dailies felt very strange. “It was Blade
Runner... but from me.”
calling for a younger Blade
Runner in Officer K, someone with the same grave disposition as Deckard
and a glint of deadpan humour like Ford, only one name had sprung to
mind — Ryan Gosling.
“The part was written for Ryan right from the start,” confirms
Villeneuve. “He was perfect.”
Gosling had likewise been 14 when he first watched a VHS of the
original, borrowed from his uncle’s video store in London, Ontario.
“It wasn’t clear how I was supposed to feel when it was over — it felt
so truthful even though it was a heightened reality,” he says. The star
of Drive said yes the same day he finished the script, unaware he was the
only potential K.
Even when Scott handed the reins to Villeneuve, Gosling’s enthusiasm
never waned. He had loved Prisoners, loved Sicario, and they were both
Canadian boys, shocked to be handed the legacy of this film. When they
first met in New York, Villeneuve leant forward conspiratorially and said to
his fellow countryman, “In my Blade Runner, it snows.”
Ultimately, Gosling helped develop the script — not only in terms of
his character, but the overall narrative arc. He arrived in Budapest early to
acclimatise to the Blade Runner world and get into the head of his director,
who he describes as “humble and soft-spoken but fearless”. They often
found themselves imagining Scott sitting in the corner as they discussed
a scene.
Gosling and Ford’s relationship was to prove more like that of school
kids. “They were always picking on each other,” laughs Ana de Armas, who
plays Joi, K’s lover. “Harrison would park his trailer in front of Ryan’s. The
next day Ryan would decorate his trailer with pot plants. After that,
Harrison would put out a red carpet. It just grew.”
On Ford’s very first day, word travelled around set like electricity — he’s
here. The studio that day, not unusually, was sheathed in mist, transforming
everyone into silhouettes. Gosling stared in vain, trying to make out that
famous profile. “Then he just appeared out of the mist...”
After that everything felt more real.Left: One man (or is
he?) and his dog.
Right: Director Denis
Villeneuve on set
— forgot the keys to
the Spinner?
Below: K gets
the point.
Far right: Joi (Ana de
Armas) clad in her fur
(or is it?) coat.