Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford and Denis Villeneuve met with Korean press via video conference Monday evening at CGV Yongsan in central Seoul for the upcoming neo-noir “Blade Runner 2049.”

The actors and director were calling in from Berlin, Germany.

Director Villeneuve addressed the Korean letters visible in the trailer clip.

“There are a lot of influences from Korea and Japan as well, in the first Blade Runner,” Villeneuve said. “In the second one, we added influences from Eastern Europe and India as well. But we still wanted to feel reminiscence of the first movie, specifically as K is doing investigation going through different layers of time.

“That’s what I loved about the first ‘Blade Runner,’ it has a relationship with the past even if it’s in the future.”

 
The film features Gosling as Officer K, a new blade runner for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Officer K discovers the truth behind a secret that could throw humanity into chaos. Seeking answers, he sets out to find Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, a former blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.

“You know in this new film, the job of a Blade Runner is different than it was in the original. It’s more complicated. It’s also much more isolated and Blade Runners are treated like outcasts in the society they live in. They sort of live in the shadows. It’s a lonely and harsh existence. The ways he tries to find joy amongst that misery was interesting,” said Gosling of his character.

“I am a huge fan of the original film. After I had had the opportunity to read the script and to meet with Denis, as much as I was excited to be part of the legacy of the film, I was very excited to be a part of this original new film, which is rich, complicated, with so many incredible new concepts.”

Comparing “Blade Runner 2019” with his previous work, last year’s hit musical film “La La Land,” Gosling said, “I think the difference is that I got punched less (in ‘La La Land’).”


Ford reprises the role from 35 years ago. The original “Blade Runner” film was directed by Ridley Scott in 1982. Scott produced Villeneuve’s upcoming sequel.

“Well I got a telephone call from Ridley Scott who asked me about four years before I got the script, that there was an idea to create a script for another chapter in the ‘Blade Runner’ story. I was asked if I would be interested, and I said of course, if we had a script that extended the audience’s understanding of the character -- that deepened the story."


The film is helmed by Canadian director and writer Denis Villeneuve, whose works include last year’s sci-fi movie “Arrival,” the crime-thriller “Sicario” (2015) and the thriller “Prisoners” (2013).

The 163-minute film is set to premiere in Italy on Oct. 4 and to hit local theaters on Oct. 12.

(doo@heraldcorp.com)