STACK Template

freedom to bring his own distinctive vision to the

film, and if you’ve seen

Sicario

and

Arrival

, you’ll

agree he’s the perfect fit.

“The best thing about working with Ridley

was that he was far away,” he laughs. “He was

very generous with the source of inspiration

for the first movie, the main ideas and creative

process of it, and then he left me alone and said

‘it’s your movie, it’s your responsibility, and if you

need me I’ll be there'. It was a gift because I

could not work with him behind my back.”

You couldn’t make a

Blade Runner

sequel

without Harrison Ford, who agreed to return

on the strength of the script. “It deepened the

understanding of my character, with very strong

emotional relationships with the other characters

in the film. It had great depth and it was a

fantastic opportunity; I had to be involved.”

But when the question of whether or not

Deckard is a Replicant was dangled, he didn’t

bite, just glared. He did get the best line of the

panel, however, when asked by a fan if it was

his goal to reboot every major franchise there is.

“You bet your ass it is!”

Blade Runner 2049

is in cinemas

on October 5.

023

New footage and a timeline offered a tantalising teaser

as to what awaits Ryan Gosling’s cop in the hugely

anticipated sequel.

Blade Runner 2049

segment of the

Warner Bros. presentation opened with a

chronology of events that transpired during

the 30 years between Ridley Scott’s classic and

Denis Villeneuve’s sequel.

After an EMP turns LA into a disaster zone,

entrepreneur Neander Wallace (Jared Leto) offers

to help solve the food crisis. Replicants are

outlawed, leading Wallace to appeal legislation

to repeal the ban. Those who cannot afford to

leave for the offworld colonies are consigned to a

miserable existence on Earth.

The new footage screened left

Blade Runner

fans with a rush of nostalgia, as Gosling’s

character watched a memory from the Tyrell

archives involving Deckard and Rachel.

When asked why he wanted to make a

sequel to the sci-fi masterpiece, Villeneuve was

refreshingly honest: “I didn’t want anyone else

to f–k it up.”

“It was my favourite movie of all time growing

up and it’s part of the birth of my desire to be

a filmmaker,” he clarified. “I couldn’t say no. It

wasn’t an easy task, it was a huge challenge.”

Villeneuve added that Ridley Scott, who

serves as a producer, afforded him the creative

%/$'( 5811(5

ou need only look at the

number of cosplayers

dressed as Batman, the

Joker or Harley Quinn milling

about the Convention Centre

to realise the DC panel is a

big deal, and this year didn’t

disappoint them.

Justice League

is the next

big film out of the stable and

rode into Hall H with a lengthy

new trailer that revealed the

movie’s big bad – Steppenwolf

– along with J.K. Simmons’

Commissioner Gordon.

The Man of Steel was still

conspicuously absent, however.

Aquaman

is still shooting

in QLD and will follow later

next year. Director James Wan

introduced the first footage

via a video message and

apologised that there wasn’t

more to show. The clip featured

an impressive aerial shot of

an underwater army of manta

ray-like vessels passing

beneath a fishing boat,

before the camera dove

below the surface for a

closer look at this Atlantean

fleet.

“That’s Ocean Master’s

army. Black Manta ain’t got

nothing like that. That’s my

brother,” star Jason Momoa

let slip, after just getting off

a plane from Australia to join

the DC panel. Jet lag equals

spoilers, it would seem.

Wan added that the film

is an origin story. “I want

the audience to experience

Atlantis the first time Aquaman

experienced it as well. You get

to see a whole different world

we’ve never seen before that

is so strikingly original,” and

backed that up with some

striking concept art.

Momoa was joined on

stage by four of his Justice

League pals. Gal Gadot, Ezra

Miller, Ben Affleck and Ray

Fisher. Gadot is still basking

in the success of

Wonder

Woman,

and the love for her

solo outing was obvious from

the applause, which got even

louder when

Wonder Woman

was confirmed as part of the

upcoming slate of DC films

that also includes

Shazam, The

Flash, Batgirl, Suicide Squad 2,

and

Green Lantern Corps

As Ben Affleck put it: “It’s

a great time to be in the DC

Universe.”

Justice League

is in cinemas

November 26, with

Aquaman

due

Boxing Day 2018.

Aquaman

and

Justice League

were the main

attractions, and

the DCEU is

about to get a

whole lot bigger.

Aquaman

B&RPLF&RQBY LQGG