Today, there are few directors who measure up to Denis Villeneuve. From slamming him on top of the table with Prisoners (2013)the Canadian director has been climbing positions on the Hollywood mountain, becoming a specialist in science fiction.
Your demonstration with The Call (2016) was vital for Warner Bros to choose him as director of Blade Runner 2049, sequel to the legendary Ridley Scott film.
Denis Villeneuve He knew where he was getting into. Make a sequel to a film as beloved as blade runner It is not an easy task. Rather, it is “step on sacred ground‘, as Christopher Nolan said.
And then the movie arrived. While critics praised Blade Runner 2049, the box office dictated the opposite (curiously, similar to what happened with the original film in 1982).
The sequel to blade runner, led by Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, was a commercial failure. With a large budget of 185 million (My dear), It only managed to raise 259 million dollars Worldwide.
Years after the premiere, while preparing the first part of Dune, Denis Villeneuve gave an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, reported by Business Insider.
”It’s a miracle I’m still here”
What hurt the most about the failure of Blade Runner 2049 was that, In the United States, the film did not reach $100 million at the box office.. It doesn’t matter that it later accumulated 259 million globally, because the damage had already been done.
However, Warner continued to trust Denis Villeneuve. The proof is that Dune and Dune: Part Two have been great box office and audience successes, and they have already given the green light to Dune’s Messiah.
It is striking that, A few years ago, I thought it was a miracle to still be in Hollywoodafter the fiasco of the film released in 2017.
”The miracle for me about ‘Blade Runner 2049’ is this: I’m still making movies and you’re still talking to me. I put myself in enormous artistic danger. That was walking, as Christopher Nolan once told me… walking on sacred territory”.
In reality, Villeneuve is not talking about the film’s box office, but rather its approach. As a sequel to a science fiction masterpiece, the Canadian director He believes he took too much risk by accepting the project..
”It was sacrilege what I did. They told me: ‘Don’t do that.’ Just the fact that I’m still here making movies, for me… at least I didn’t get kicked out of the filmmaking community, it was a dangerous game.”.
Fortunately, the commercial failure of Blade Runner 2049 did not separate us from Villeneuve, and today Today he has managed to resurrect the Dune universe in the cinema. It’s great news, even though Dune 2’s popcorn bucket is so gross.
If everything continues its course, Dune’s Messiah will be the next film directed by Denis Villeneuve, after the great success that the second installment has achieved in theaters. And, if you want to give a second chance to Blade Runner 2049you can find it on Netflix.
