Los Angeles (AFP) – Warner Bros. released the official full-length trailer for long-anticipated sci-fi sequel “Blade Runner 2049” on Monday at an event in Los Angeles with stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford.
Denis Villeneuve’s follow-up, set some 30 years after the events of cult classic “Blade Runner” (1982), sees Ford reprise his role from Ridley Scott’s original as Rick Deckard, a Los Angeles cop who hunts rogue androids.
“The character is woven into the story in a way that intrigued me. There’s a very strong emotional context… I think it’s interesting to develop a character after a period of time, to revisit a character,” said Ford, 74, at a discussion panel at the IMAX headquarters.
Gosling, 36, leads a cast of newcomers including Robin Wright and Jared Leto, who appears to be a manufacturer of the androids — or “replicants” — of future Los Angeles, and opens the trailer caressing a newborn, naked android.
“Every civilization was built off the back of a disposable workforce, but I can only make so many,” says Leto, 45, wishing the android a “happy birthday.”
Wright, 51, appears to be some kind of authority figure, laying down the law.
“There is an order to things. That’s what we do here — we keep order,” she says.
The footage was praised by movie websites, which noted Villeneuve’s success in emulating the gritty, dust-covered cinematography of the original.
But it reveals nothing of the plot beyond the official set-up from the studio publicity, which says a new “blade runner,” LAPD Officer K (Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what’s left of society into chaos.
K’s discovery leads him on a quest to find Deckard, who has been missing for 30 years.
The trailer follows an early teaser released in December, and more extensive footage shown at CinemaCon, the Las Vegas convention for theater operators, in March.
“Prepare to start going steady with edge of your seats,” Gosling joked as he introduced bleak scenes from Los Angeles and a snow-bound Las Vegas, all of which were filmed in Budapest.
Gosling who was two when the original came out, told the panel in Los Angeles he didn’t see it for at least another 10 years.
“The first film made me question what it meant to be a human being. It made me question my ability to recognize the hero from the villain,” Gosling said.
The trailer also offers a fleeting glance at US wrestling champion turned action hero Dave Bautista, 48, who told AFP in a recent interview he thought the new movie was better than the original.
“And I’m saying that because I think the script is better, it’s deeper,” said Bautista, whose own contribution remains a tightly-guarded secret.
“I think it’s a better story, I think it’s told in a better way, and I think it just answers a lot of questions. It’s going to be great.”
“Blade Runner 2049” is due for release on October 6.
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