Ridley Scott: BLADE RUNNER 2049 Was ‘Way Too Long’

In a new interview with Vulture, All The Money In The World director Ridley Scott says...well, all kinds of things, really. He throws some not-so-subtle shade at Kevin Spacey, he takes a much-deserved victory lap for completing All The Money's reshoots in time to meet its Christmas Day release date, and - in a truly eyebrow-raising moment - he even drags Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 for being "way too long." Yes, once again, Sir Ridley is all out of fucks to give. 

Asked what he thought about the general reception to Blade Runner 2049, Scott says:

"(Whispers) I have to be careful what I say. I have to be careful what I say. It was fucking way too long. Fuck me! And most of that script’s mine."

He then goes on to explain his contributions to the screenplay (warning: the following contains Blade Runner 2049 spoilers): 

"I sit with writers for an inordinate amount of time and I will not take credit, because it means I’ve got to sit there with a tape recorder while we talk. I can’t do that to a good writer. But I have to, because to prove I’m part of the actual process, I have to then have an endless amount [of proof], and I can’t be bothered.

But the big idea comes from Blade Runner. Tyrell is a trillionaire, maybe 5 to 10 percent of his business is AI. Like God, he has created perfect beings that, for all intents and purposes, there is no telling the difference from humans. Then he says, “You know what? I’m going to create an AI. I’ll have a male and female, they will not know that they’re both AIs, I’ll have them meet each other, they will fall in love, they will consummate, and they will have a child.” That’s the first film. The second film is, what happens to the baby? You’ve got to have the baby, you can’t have the mother, so the mother has to inexplicably die four months after she breastfeeds. The bones are found in the box at the foot of the tree — that’s all me. And the digital girlfriend is me. I wanted an evolution from Pris, who is inordinately sexy in the original, right?"

So, a lot to unpack here. There's the question of whether or not Blade Runner 2049 really is "fucking way too long" (I would argue that it isn't, but Scott's probably onto something in terms of the general audience reaction to that 2:44 runtime), there's the question of how much credit Scott deserves for the 2049 screenplay (he "can't be bothered" to establish that credit, but apparently he still wants to get the word out), there's the outta-left-field detail about Rachael having died after breastfeeding her baby for the first time (we don't recall this being mentioned in the movie, do you?). It's a lot to take in!

But y'know what? It's hard not to admire Ridley Scott's nerve here. At 80 years old, ya boi is out there knocking out films at the rate of a man half his age, and he's still got absolutely zero interest in biting his tongue. Even if you don't agree with his approach, you gotta admit that hearing anyone in Hollywood speak with this level of candor is refreshing. 

Anyway, Vulture's whole interview with Scott is worth reading. Head on over there to give it a look, or hit the comments section below to agree or disagree with Sir Ridley Scott about Blade Runner 2049. He definitely won't be reading your responses, but it might make you feel better, anyway.