Acclaimed filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has become one of the finest directors in Hollywood over the last five years – with Incendies, Sicario, Enemy, Prisoners, and Arrival he has climbed to the very top of the most in-demand directors and has now been given the keys to the Blade Runner kingdom.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, Villeneuve has been working on the long-awaited sequel to Blade Runner with executive producer Ridley Scott and is set to unleash the film next week with critics already calling it a masterpiece and throwing many exemplary notices at it.
In addition, Villeneuve has agreed to direct a new version of Frank Herbert’s Dune, the acclaimed novel that David Lynch made in the 1980’s only for it to be a huge financial flop. If all that wasn’t enough, he may have another big reboot/remake on the horizon.
Variety is reporting that Sony is courting Villeneuve to take on their long-gestating remake of Cleopatra, which has been in the works at the studio for many years with many writers and directors rumoured to have been involved but so far it has laid dormant. Over the years, James Cameron (Avatar), Paul Greengrass (Jason Bourne) and David Fincher (Gone Girl) have been linked to the director’s chair with Brian Helgeland (Legend) and David Scarpa (The Day The Earth Stood Still) handing in drafts of the screenplay.
In addition, Angelina Jolie has long been linked to the lead role over those years with some suggestions that she wanted to direct the film as well but thus far nothing has come to fruition.
Blade Runner 2049 opens on October 5th.
