Denis Villeneuve is easily one of the most exciting new talents to emerge in the last few years. The French-Canadian helmer’s been knocking around for a while, but made his international breakthrough with the Oscar-nominated “Incendies,” before moving into the English-language with the well-crafted “Prisoners” and the deeply unsettling “Enemy,” and he’s returned again this year with the cracking cartel thriller “Sicario,” currently doing the festival rounds.
Villeneuve’s already wrapped on his follow-up, sci-fi “Story Of Your Life” with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, but has his biggest gig to date looming on the horizon: he’s going to helm the sequel to seminal 1982 sci-fi “Blade Runner,” featuring original star Harrison Ford (and potentially Ryan Gosling, though it’s been quiet on that front for a while). And now he’s doing the press rounds for “Sicario,” which opens this week, Villeneuve’s revealed that the movie, will, in fact, answer one of the most debated questions in cinema history.
Speaking to Crave, Villeneuve confirms that the movie will reveal whether or not Harrison Ford’s Deckard is in fact a replicant, though he doesn’t yet give the game away. “Now that I am on the other side of the fence, I cannot answer,” he told the site. “I love mystery. I love shadows. I love doubts. I would just want to say to the fans that we will take care of that mystery. I will take care of it.”
On the one hand, Ridley Scott’s blessing for the project suggests that the film will stick with the Directors’ Cut’s suggestion that Deckard is a replicant. On the other, Harrison Ford is now in his 70s. Either way, Villeneuve admits to Collider that he’s nervous about the movie. “You have to respect what was done, so you have to find the right equilibrium between being faithful to the first one and bringing something new at the same time that will make sense to the ‘Blade Runner’ universe… it’s a deep fear. My first reaction was that it’s a fantastic idea, but it may be a very bad idea. I’m among the hardcore fans of ‘Blade Runner.’”
If there was any doubt that the film was in good hands, you can consider them dissipated. “Blade Runner” will start shooting next summer, for release in 2017, and “Sicario” goes on limited release this week.