Sir Ridley Scott: “Blade Runner 2049 Bombed Because It Was Too Long”

The last few years’ filmography from Sir Ridley Scott has been….interesting….with some notable misses and at least one pleasant surprise, his movie magic prowess is world renowned.

Of course one the titles most synonymous with the Englishman is 1982’s seminal work, Blade Runner.  We got a sequel to that sci-fi noir this year from Oscar nominated director Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049.  Although the film did receive pretty strong scores from reviewers and fans, the box office numbers for the movie did not reflect positively for the title.

Several things have been pointed at as the cause of limited monetary returns for the feature, but Scott offered his thoughts on why it ‘bombed’.  In an interview for All The Money In The World with Middle Eastern outlet Alarabiya.net (the actual interview hasn’t been posted yet, but the quote was added to a piece about Villeneuve), reporter William Mullally brought up BR 2049 to Scott:

WM: “Blade Runner 2049 was a wonderful movie.”

Scott: “Yes.”

WM: “But it didn’t perform to expectations.”

Scott: “No.”

WM: “What would you attribute that too, personally?”

Scott: “It’s slow. It’s slow. Long. Too long. I would have taken out half an hour.”

This thought process is furthered in some very candid remarks from Scott via this interview with Vulture, also about All The Money In The World. Ridley also says the script for BR 2049 is mostly his:

Vulture: What did you make of the way Blade Runner 2049 was received?

Scott: [Whispers] I have to be careful what I say. I have to be careful what I say. It was fucking way too long. Fuck me! And most of that script’s mine.

Vulture: Really?

Scott: Yes!

Vulture: The story, or the script?

Scott:  I sit with writers for an inordinate amount of time and I will not take credit, because it means I’ve got to sit there with a tape recorder while we talk. I can’t do that to a good writer. But I have to, because to prove I’m part of the actual process, I have to then have an endless amount [of proof], and I can’t be bothered.   But the big idea comes from Blade Runner. Tyrell is a trillionaire, maybe 5 to 10 percent of his business is AI. Like God, he has created perfect beings that, for all intents and purposes, there is no telling the difference from humans. Then he says, “You know what? I’m going to create an AI. I’ll have a male and female, they will not know that they’re both AIs, I’ll have them meet each other, they will fall in love, they will consummate, and they will have a child.” That’s the first film. The second film is, what happens to the baby? You’ve got to have the baby, you can’t have the mother, so the mother has to inexplicably die four months after she breastfeeds. The bones are found in the box at the foot of the tree — that’s all me. And the digital girlfriend is me. I wanted an evolution from Pris, who is inordinately sexy in the original, right?

Vulture:  I would say iconically so.

Scott: I shouldn’t talk. I’m being a bitch.

Ridley’s All the Money In The World is currently in theaters now, and Blade Runner 2049 is available as of today on Digital format, with a physical DVD/Blu Ray/4K release coming in the new year.