Blade Runner 2049 Director Confirms the Film is Rated R, and Discusses Lack of Green Screen

Earlier this week, the teaser for Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 film, was released to give us a first look at Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford's encounter. Now, director Denis Villeneuve has confirmed that the cyberpunk film is getting a rated R. Speaking to Screen Daily, the director said:

"My producers are finding it fun to remind me that it will be one of the most expensive R-rated independent feature films ever made."

Most studios are focused on going for the PG-13 route so they can target a larger audience and earn more money, For instance, Total Recall, Robocop, and Predator films were once rated R that eventually got PG-13 follow-up films. It's good to know that they're taking a risk in this one, and it shows that their vision for the film isn't just driven by money. Deadpool was able to succeed despite its R rating, so I don't see why the sequel to one of the classic sci-fi films won't gain a significant audience.

Villenueve also revealed that they've used little green screen work during the shooting of the film:

"I can count on my fingers the amount of times we put a green screen on set. Most of the movie was done on camera, me and [cinematographer] Roger Deakins worked very hard to do it that way. My actors were not walking on green screens all day long. CGI is a strong tool for backgrounds and extensions but what is around the actors needs to be as real as possible. When I watch a movie that's mostly CGI, I'm disengaged."

Great stuff! I'm excited to see what they pulled off without the magic of green screen, and from what we've seen in the teaser so far, it looks like the film is focused on brining real environments to life.

Synopsis:

Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling), unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.

Blade Runner 2049 also stars Ana de Armas, Robin Wright, Jared Leto, Barkhad Abdi, Lennie James, Mackenzie Davis, and Sylvia Hoeks, and will hit theaters on Oct. 6, 2017.