Blade Runner purists look away now, but Warner Bros-based financing and production company, Alcon Entertainment (The Blind Side, The Book of Eli), are in final discussions to secure film, television and ancillary franchise rights to produce both prequels and sequels to the iconic 1982 science-fiction thriller, Blade Runner.
Alcon is negotiating to secure the rights from producer-director Bud Yorkin, who will serve as producer on any future Blade Runner movies. The franchise rights would be all-inclusive, but exclude rights to remake the original. The Company, however, may produce projects based on situations introduced in the original film.
Alcon heads Brokerick Johnson and Andrew A. Kosove said: “This is a major acquisition for our company, and a personal favorite film for both of us. We recognize the responsibility we have to do justice to the memory of the original with any prequel or sequel we produce. We have long-term goals for the franchise, and are exploring multi-platform concepts, not just limiting ourselves to one medium only.”
At the moment things are at a very early stage, with Alcon’s head honchos merely saying they’re in preliminary planning as what they want to do with the rights. They’re currently unsure whether it’s a prequel or sequel they’re after, or if they plan to hire a writer or director first. Indeed it’s the sort of deal where it wouldn’t be shocking if, despite sounding great for the production company, it faces so many problems a movie never gets made. Any attempt to mess around with Blade Runner is bound to be met with fierce opposition, so they may find things trickier than they expected.
At the moment, we’ll just have to wait and see.