'Why Did I Do That?': Dune Director Still Hates His Sci-Fi Gem With 88% on Rotten Tomatoes
The director still has nightmares about one of his most popular works.
10 years ago, Denis Villeneuve was just entering the international stage, and today he is considered one of Hollywood's most important directors, whose name has become a guarantee of quality.
Villeneuve received an offer to film a sequel to the cult Blade Runner in the early 2010s. The director understood that the script was reminiscent of his earlier films in its exploration of identity and memory, but suggested that he wait with the project.
He first decided to direct the much smaller Arrival in order to understand the production of a big-budget sci-fi movie.
Blade Runner 2049, released in 2017, occupies a special place in the list of Villeneuve's films: and it's not even that it's the director's most popular project.
It is also a movie that combines his favorite directorial techniques and motifs. Meditative storytelling, suspense before action, a hero on a quest, and the environment as a means of artistic expression.
Blade Runner 2049 Failed at the Box Office
And although the film won two Oscars, it wasn’t a commercial success: Blade Runner 2049 failed at the box office, earning only $257 million against a budget estimated at $150-185 million.
However, the opinions of critics and ordinary viewers were unanimous – the film has an 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating from both.
Blade Runner 2049 Still Gives Denis Villeneuve Nightmares
Villeneuve himself remembers making Blade Runner 2049 with a shudder. According to the director, Ridley Scott 's Blade Runner is a masterpiece, and that level of responsibility weighed on him and made it the most difficult project he's ever done:
“I don’t think I will ever approach someone else’s universe again. I still wake up sometimes at night, saying, “Why did I do that?”
Sequel Was Almost As Good As the Original
But despite all this and the fact that the sequel was thirty years late, it was almost as brilliant as the original.
Villeneuve's film doesn't push the boundaries of the genre the way Scott's film did, but it is a terrifying and delightful dive into a world of possible futures.
Blade Runner 2049 expands on the futuristic and existential ideas of the previous film, offering new imagery, new concepts, new technologies, new approaches to already familiar material.
The atmosphere of a grim future in the sequel is as hopeless as ever. The world in which replicants fight for the right to be considered human has gained new details. The investigation of the main character, maneuvering between the authorities and a dangerous corporation, is fascinating.
The camera pans are mesmerizing, the soundtrack gives you goosebumps, and Harrison Ford is still going strong, even if he's not around much here.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter