For a film that might wind up costing its producers somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 million, and that Ridley Scott called it “too fucking long,” Denis Villeneuve is having the last laugh. “Blade Runner 2049” has notched five Oscar nominations, including Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Production Design (to the director’s regret, it didn’t earn a nod for Best Score). But, if Villeneuve had to go through the experience of making the huge sci-fi sequel again, would he do it? Probably not.
Chatting with The Telegraph, Villeneuve was candid about ‘2049’ and his experience making the film. “Let’s just say it would not be a good idea for me to make a movie like that twice,” he stated. “When you’re working on a film you’re in a bubble, and it was only when I came out that I realized we had made a monster.”
The filmmaker also expressed his changing views about Warner Bros‘ highly secretive marketing campaign around the movie. Shortly after the film opened, Villeneuve defended the studio’s decision to keep the movie under wraps as long as they did, in an effort to build a mystique around the secrets of “Blade Runner 2049.”
“I liked the idea that you were supposed to learn it as the movie goes on,” he said in October. “As a cinephile, one of my best experiences was when I was on a film festival jury. I had to watch 20 movies without knowing anything about them. You don’t know the genre, you don’t know the country, you don’t know the story. You don’t know if you’re about to look at a comedy or a horror movie!”
“… people want to know too many things before. They should read about the movie after they see it, not before,” he added.
Villeneuve has changed his tune, the director admitted that on the film’s first press tour, “….I was really tired of talking about the film with journalists who hadn’t seen it.”
“And [Warner Bros.] wanted it to be a total secret, like Star Wars,” he added. “They didn’t want anyone to know a thing about it.”
The director revealed he wanted to screen the movie earlier and have a more open attitude towards the marketed. However, Warner Bros. got cold feet when after a single advance screening, news of Sean Young‘s cameo leaked. From then on, they kept a lid on the flick.
Whether or not a few more breadcrumbs would’ve helped the movie commercially is up for debate, but it certainly seems like the fascination around “Blade Runner 2049” only continues to grow.