Trivia / Blade Runner 2049

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• Ability over Appearance:
  • Denis Villeneuve originally didn't want Dave Bautista to play Sapper, as he felt the actor was too young for the role. However, after seeing Bautista's screen test, he changed his mind.
  • Niander Wallace was originally written as a Bowiesque character to be played by the man himself before his death in January 2016. Jared Leto was cast due to having a similar rock star presence despite being very different from the kind of ideal they were originally planning for the character.
• Acclaimed Flop: The film cost $150 million to produce (very ambitious for a sequel to a film that was itself an Acclaimed Flop) and opened to a lousy $32 million in North America, well below the openings of comparable titles TRON: Legacy and Mad Max: Fury Road, which both had meager openings to begin with. This was despite the film having little direct competition (it easily topped the weekend in its first frame). It only barely surpassed the original film's inflation-adjusted box office total (though it fell short when you include the original's various re-releases), and failed to top director Villeneuve's previous film Arrival, even though those films had lower production value and much heavier competition (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Doctor Strange (2016), respectively). Regardless, the film retains a high critical approval rating, received an "A-" CinemaScore despite box office pundits suggesting it was too "challenging" for audiences, and was nominated for five Oscars (in technical categories), winning two. It did not do particularly well internationally either, notably bombing in China when it opened against Geostorm.^note In an odd case, though it earned more on its opening weekend, it actually lost its first weekend in Japan to the KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode movie as Blade Runner 2049 sold less tickets than Kira Kira. The film eventually grossed $259 million worldwide, with an estimated $80 million loss. Villeneuve was disappointed by this, since while he knew the film may be remembered fondly in the years to come like the original, he wanted people to watch it in theaters because it was an experience specifically to be appreciated on the big screen. That the film was critically acclaimed was seemingly enough for Warner Bros. to greenlight Dune.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Harrison Ford was a skilled carpenter before he went into acting, and the wooden animal toys he makes for his and Rachael's child are likely a reference to that fact.
  • The baseline test K takes that evaluates emotional responses was actually an idea of Ryan Gosling's that made it into the final script, based on an acting exercise he uses. Two versions were filmed, the one that appears in the movie, and a much longer version written entirely by Gosling himself. See What Could Have Been.
• All-Star Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, and Jared Leto.
• B-Team Sequel: Ridley Scott was said to be helming this film himself back in 2011, but his work on Prometheus, The Counselor, Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Martian and Alien: Covenant resulted in him taking a step back into an executive producer capacity only.
• Career Resurrection: This along with House of Cards (US) and Wonder Woman (2017) helped bring Robin Wright back into the spotlight.
• Channel Hop: Warner Bros. released the movie domestically, like they did the first film, but Columbia Pictures handled international distribution.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Ridley Scott (who directed the first film and pitched some ideas that ended up in the script of 2049) said, in hindsight and as bluntly as ever, that he found the final product to be "too fucking long" and "too slow-paced".
  • Rutger Hauer disliked the movie as well, claiming that it "had no soul".
• Darkhorse Casting: Denis Villeneuve deliberately chose actresses for the main female roles (Luv, Joi, Ana, and Mariette) who weren't well known in the United States or had only recently experienced a Career Resurrection (Robin Wright).
• Defictionalization: Johnnie Walker issued a tie-in version of their Black Label blended Scotch whisky called "The Director's Cut" in the same shape as the prop Deckard has.
• Distanced from Current Events: The red carpet premiere for this movie at The Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California was cancelled the day after the Las Vegas shootings prior to the 7PM screening and after-party for invited guests.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • During the fistfight between K and Deckard, Harrison Ford accidentally hit Ryan Gosling in the face - their looks of surprise are real!◊
  • In order to portray the blind character of Niander Wallace Jared Leto decided to fit himself with opaque contact lenses that actually made it impossible for him to see anything.
• Meaningful Release Date: 6 October 2021 is the birthday of the "special" child and the date of death of Rachael) in the movie. The film has been released on 6 October 2017, ten years and one day after "Blade Runner: final cut" premiered and just over 35 years after the release of the first film.
• Production Posse: Villeneuve teams up once again with:
  • Cinematographer Roger Deakins, who previously worked with him on Prisoners and Sicario.
  • Pierre Gill, who was his cinematographer on Polytechnique and came back to serve as the second unit DP on this film and Arrival.
  • Editor Joe Walker, who had worked with Villeneuve on Sicario and Arrival.
  • David Dastmalchian, who previously had a minor role in Prisoners, comes back to play another bit role as Coco, the LAPD forensic officer.
  • Jóhann Jóhannsson, who worked on Villeneuve's previous films, was set to compose the soundtrack but his work was eventually scrapped. He passed away a few months after the film's release.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Denis Villeneuve fell in love with the original film way back in 1982, at the age of fifteen, and it has influenced his decision to become a filmmaker. Now, he is helming the sequel.
  • Mackenzie Davis used to cosplay as Pris.
• Release Date Change: The film was initially set to be released on January 12, 2018, but was then moved up to October 6, 2017 much to the surprise and excitement of fans.^note  Except maybe those of a certain other film that comes out the same day.
• Refitted for Sequel: The opening scene in which K confronts Sapper Morton is a near exact remake of a scene written and storyboarded but never filmed for the original film.
• Role Reprise:
  • Harrison Ford returns to one of his most well-known roles 35 years later. As does Edward James Olmos, if only briefly, and Sean Young as a copy of Rachael (by coaching the motion-capture actress).
  • The Brazilian dub also brought back Deckard's voice actor, who also counts as The Original Darrin given he was replaced for the Final Cut.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, the late José Lavat reprised his role as Deckard from the 2003 dub of the first film. So did Laura Ayala as Rachael and Humberto Vélez as Gaff.
• Sequel Gap: The film got released 35 years after the original. In fact, it came out two years before the setting of the original movie.
• Throw It In!:
  • K’s reaction when he discovers that his presumably implanted memories are indeed real wasn't in the script. While a reason for this is currently unknown, it was improvised anyway. Ditto with Ana’s tearful reaction.
  • Deckard actually landing a punch on K in the casino fight was an actual impact that was not intentional, the strobe lights in the scene made Ford misjudge where Gosling was at and clocked him in the chin. The surprise reaction from both of them fit the tone of the fight and remained in the film.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Christopher Nolan was an early rumored contender for the director's chair.
  • Emily Blunt (who previously starred in Villeneuve's 2015 film Sicario) almost had a role as one of the female leads but had to turn it down due to her pregnancy at the time.
  • The production team originally wanted David Bowie to play the role of Niander Wallace. However, he died in January 2016 before they could even approach him for the role, and Jared Leto was cast instead. The director's reasoning for casting Leto, who is vastly different in appearance compared to someone like Bowie, is that he wanted Wallace to have a rock-star like quality to him — something that Bowie and Leto both shared. Ed Harris and Gary Oldman were also considered.
  • The film was to be scored by Jóhann Jóhannsson, who previously scored several films of Denis Villeneuve. He actually started working on it, and it sounded closer to Vangelis than what Hans Zimmer composed, as the teaser and trailer showed, but he left production for undisclosed reasons and his contributions were removed. Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch replaced him. Villeneuve later hinted that this was because Johansson’s score was more orchestral whereas Villeneuve wanted to go back to the electronic style of Vangelis, something both Villeneuve and Johansson agreed was the best course of action.
  • The Baseline Test was originally going to be much longer. Ryan Gosling wrote an eight minute-long version of the scene that the editors cut down to its more aggressive, hostile form in the film proper.
  • Book Ends: Although it's not hinted at in the film itself, the script's version of the final scene has Joe see a "ghost" of Joi as he dies, who asks him "Will you read to me?" like she did back in their first scene together in his apartment.

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