The original 1982 Blade Runner -- with a mélange of essential ingredients, including a cyberpunk aesthetic, film noir story structure, sci-fi conceits and epic visual landscape -- was born of multiple minds.

Most notably, the concept began with noted sci-fi author Philip K. Dick, whose 1968 novella Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? laid down the template. Actor-turned-screenwriter Hampton Fancher came next, as he built out the screen story by adding its noir elements; filmmaker Ridley Scott (Alien) contributed his staggering cinematic vision for a dystopian near-future and ever deeper layers of meaning, aided by late-coming screenwriter David Webb Peoples.

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The result was Blade Runner, which, while initially not a box office sensation, went on to become a widely admired and profoundly influential film that continues to grow in regard.

So when it came to concocting a plan for Blade Runner 2049, a sequel more than three decades after the original’s daring, haunting view of the future, another top-flight team of creators was called upon. First aboard were two of the originators: It was Scott’s decision to try to create a worthy follow-up that put the project in motion, and it was Fancher’s story structure -- something he’d been noodling with over time, until Scott’s invitation came -- that provided the architecture of the film.

Next to the table was screenwriter Michael Green, an early collaborator on what became Scott's Alien: Covenant, who would be nearing a triumphant career moment with the 2017 releases of Logan and American Gods. First in collaboration with Scott and then with Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villenueve, Green constructed a tale that revived all the essential elements of the original while also heading into new, uncharted directions.

Disappointing opening weekend box office aside, glowing reviews have shown that Blade Runner 2049 fits neatly alongside its successor in the pantheon of great, weighty sci-fi films. Fancher and Green, who never actually worked directly together, joined CBR to explore how each contributed to the greater whole.

CBR: One of the things that I really enjoyed about this film is how true to its film noir roots it was. It felt that if you take away the sci-fi trappings, like the original, there’s still a very solid film noir story there. Tell me what you love about layering that aspect of it into the sci-fi environment.

Hampton Fancher: For me, it was just that I didn't know anything about sci-fi to start with, or even to end with. The source material didn't interest me that much because I wasn't ever involved in sci-fi, but there was a place to stand in the noir and the Raymond Chandler. I was reading Raymond Chandler a lot right then with film in mind because he was so terse and everything was kind of flat and feckless – although he's kind of rich too.

I thought, "Ah, that's the key to this thing, and the hero, etc." It was still from the beginning. That was the ingredient that allowed me to go on with it. It was the voice in more ways -- metaphorically as well of the principle, if it were, was the noir. It was a thrill, because it was Raymond Chandler, and it was easy then. It had the voice, the character -- and the character of the film as well.

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And Michael, you've spent your career sort of marrying fantastic genre to very grounded, human stories, so tell me about bringing that talent of yours to this project.

Michael Green: Pure joy. Sometimes you get to walk into the toy store and they say, "Play with anything you want." This was one of those cases. My background is probably the opposite of what Hampton just described, which is for me, sci-fi/fantasy, was my playground always and noir was a massive hole in my reading. And I realized that when starting on this, I realized I'd just not read the people ... it was a category that it was one of those “I'm going to get to,” and today was the day to start.

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I got to read for the first time Chandler and [Dashiell] Hammett and [James M.] Cain and let that inform me. Even more than classic noir films. I won't get specific which, but there is one particular book that became a structural totem because it actually dealt with an investigator unearthing a many decades old case and how to keep it fresh and present, which was going to be the foundation of this.

For me there's always a totem book I'm reading or two, while writing something, and I never want to share which, just because I feel like it's trade secrets, but it was such an indulgence that I felt that this project was absolutely worth giving into, making sure to read while writing. Sometimes you're chasing a deadline, don't have that kind of time, but I made sure just to keep my head occupied with the right words.

How much of an influence was Philip K. Dick in the process?

Green: I hope I won't disappoint to many by saying very little. There are a lot of science fiction writers I love. I have a hard time accessing Do Androids Dream [of Electric Sheep?] specifically, and some of his other novels as well. I think the prose is beautiful, the ideas are amazing, but it's one of those things that I always read intellectually instead of being able to experience emotionally.

He was of a generation of subculture that I was not a part of and was always more fantastical that it existed than anything that I can really speak to from experience. I enjoy him like unpacking a time capsule and really marveling at the pieces inside it.

And Hampton, you were the guy who recognized the cinematic value of Dick's story early on.

Fancher: Well it was one idea. I was looking for a vehicle, and it was rather cold-blooded on my part. Because that's what I'd been lacking in everything I'd been trying. I didn't have through lines. I didn't have McGuffins. I didn't have plots, and I was Antonini all the way. It was like, "That's my way into wherever the gold is." It was that one thing, and that's all, and the idea that science fiction was going to become popular in the near future. And so I didn't have any love of Dick at all. I was never a fan.

Green: I want that as a pull quote. You never had any love of Dick.

Fancher: Not penis, or science fiction.

Green: There's time.

Did you interact much with him? Did you get a sense of who he was?

Fancher: I interacted three times with him, at his house each time, and I was after him to cooperate with me and he wasn't going to do that. I didn't know why he wasn't doing that, and I took it personally.

He acted like he liked me and he invited me back. And I always had a woman with me, and he liked to talk. We did have reading in common, we liked certain authors and he was a very brilliant guy and he was fun. And he was fucking crazy. He was, really.

Green: How do you think you sold him, finally? What do you think made him finally agree to give you the rights?

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Fancher: I never got the rights. I found out later he had already sold those rights to someone else but never told me. So he was trying to get me to do Ubik and one other one. He gave me the books, he said, "Here is what you want to do." He would never talk about Androids. Then I found out after the fact that some French company at that point, in 1975 and '76, had already had that.

Then in '77, Brian Kelly, my dear friend, and one of the executive producers of this film, now dead, he was in a bad place and he didn't have any money -- he had a little bit of money, and all he knew was film and he thought maybe if, like I thought before him, if he could option a property, he might turn it into a film that he could produce and then make a living and have a profession and all that.

I didn't know what to tell him. I couldn't help him. I'm in the same fix, but I said to him, thinking it wouldn't lead to anything, that try Philip K. Dick and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and I sold that idea to him. I said, "That's a good idea," but I didn't think he'd actually get there. But, he went and talked to Dick and he got the rights for $2,000 for a year and a year option. So then I found out much later that the French option had run out, whoever that French company was, and so Brian got it.

Green: $2,000 was a good deal.

Fancher: Everything I've ever optioned was never more than $5,000. They need money, poor authors.

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The original film delivers such a tangible world, such a visionary view of the future. People like Michael and I grew up with it now embedded in our DNA: That's how we think of the future. When you thought about evolving it 30 years forward, tell me creatively what kind of stirred up in both of you to get it a future vision of a future we already know.

Fancher: The idea of the future … I dreamed up or asked questions of scientists or whatever. I had certain ideas maybe, but it was the story. The storyline didn't have a lot to do with the place, although then you had to write the place, and that was difficult for me. In the old Blade Runner, there was Heavy Metal [magazine] it was a comic book I got. I had certain ideas, visual ideas. In this one, I was certain about LA, and definitely a certain Vegas. It was fun to write those two places, but it was just dreaming.

Green: I think “dream” is the right word. When you're writing a story, you tend to deal in tangible specifics so you can tell people what needs to physically be there and you can describe and indulge in adjectives. You can even stuff it with additional things that you see, but the visual style for the film, you can't talk about it from a writing perspective alone.

You have to talk about the contributions of Denis and of Ridley from the earliest stages, when just talking about what a character motivation in a scene would be in an outline, why we would even have this scene from those earliest stages, and you would see in Ridley -- and anyone who's worked with him can attest -- there'll be a physical change in him when he can see something versus when he can't. When he can, he starts drawing it and then it suddenly becomes real and then your descriptions of that place begin to suit the artist's eye.

Similarly, when working on the script with Denis and physicalizing it to how he would see it, it just kept evolving as he dreamt more. I mean literally dreams -- he'd be coming with actual dreams. Then, of course, he would spend his time working on what the look of the film would be, very, very specifically with Roger Deakins. And that's very much part of their process, where they go through and see the film, shot for shot, working with storyboard artists and painting it out quite literally, so that when Denis showed me the storyboards that he'd come up with, with Roger, based on scenes on a page, my only reaction was, "Thank you – This is better than what I could have imagined. Not even what I did imagine."

To make this film, it took the combined talents of so many gifted artists and it's why the film is what it is. Films don't become this rich and this specific and this visionary by accident.

Fancher: You reminded me of something: is that there's a really important thing that transpires with such directors as these two guys. I've just worked [directly] with Ridley. I call that “osmosis.” They have something in their minds visually and that gets transplanted to the writer. Not through a lot of description, but just poetic allusions or something. You just feel it from their bodies and then you start to see what that is and you can make a scene out of it, a physical scene, a real scene.

It's a poetic transference that happens and it's in the heart and mind of Ridley, for instance. He can say it – like that scene with Sapper [Morton, played by Dave Bautista in Blade Runner 2049]. There was no scene with Sapper in the original Blade Runner. I did write one, and it did wind up in the new movie.

Sapper was supposed to be in the original Blade Runner?

Fancher: It wasn't, but it tried to be. One time Ridley asked me a rhetorical question about the script. He said, "What did Deckard do before he was going after Nexus Sixes? He was after Nexus Fives and Fours -- Sapper Morton, hence." I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "I see a stove… I see soup…" That's all he said.

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"Soup?" But the way he said it, and I wrote the whole scene right then, and it got into this film finally. But, it was based on him saying “soup.” You can say “soup” to me and nothing happens. But Ridley had an idea, and he did it to me, and the next day I came in with a scene. He said, "Fucking fantastic, this works."

Did the two of you get to collaborate directly or was it more of a handing-off?

Green: We met a few months after the film wrapped.

Fancher: I'm a Johnny-come-lately to Michael Green.

Green: And I've been a fan of his for many, many years. I felt remiss because we hadn't had a chance to meet, so...

Fancher: You called me.

Michael, what did you admire about Hampton's storytelling, both in the original and what you got to jump off from here?

Green: Hampton -- I will say this is as pure compliment -- is a poet screenwriter. He's a poet who happened to turn his talents to screenwriting. Everything that comes out of his pen is lyrical, is a tone poem and sets mood and voice for the rest, it's moving into an apartment complex he built in his mind. I enjoy reading him, and he builds worlds.

Hampton, what did you find you liked about how Michael interpreted your story?

Fancher: I read the script. I haven't seen the movie!

Green: You heard it first.

So I suppose you could hate it…

Fancher: [Laughs] I don't think so. I went to the first one thinking that. I thought I was going to hate it, and I loved it.


Directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling, Blade Runner 2049 is now in theaters.