Producer Says No Harrison Ford In BLADE RUNNER. Maybe.

On Saturday ScreenAnarchy broke word that the producers of Ridley Scott's upcoming return to the world of Blade Runner had engaged in early conversations with Harrison Ford regarding the film.

Not so! Says producer Andrew Kosove, who described that report to The Playlist as 'patently false'. Here's why you should take Kosove's public response with a grain of salt.

Kosove has, to date, issued two statements directly regarding Harrison Ford and his potential involvement with a new Blade Runner. In both cases he has launched his statements with a clear 'No, it's not happening, we're intending a reboot with fresh cast.' And in both cases he has ended with more of a 'Well, you know, maybe ...' intentionally giving himself wiggle room to back off of that position.

In an August interview with the LA Times Kosove said:

If you're asking me will this movie have anything to do with Harrison Ford, the answer is no. This is a total reinvention and in my mind that means doing everything fresh, including casting.

Which would seem pretty clear but for the fact that he led off that very sentence saying:

In no way do I speak for Ridley Scott.

In other words, Ridley may think differently in which case we go down a different road.

So what does Kosove say this time? The negative statement seems clear enough:

It is absolutely patently false that there has been any discussion about Harrison Ford being in 'Blade Runner' ... there is one clear mandate -- this movie will be entering the "Blade Runner" world fresh.

However, there is also this:

What we are trying to do with Ridley now is go through the painstaking process of trying to break the back of the story, figure out the direction we're going to take the movie and find a writer to work on it ... What Ridley does in 'Prometheus' is a good template for what we're trying to do ... In advance of knowing what we're going to do, I suppose you could say yes, he [Ford] could [appear in the movie]. But I think it is quite unlikely.

You see the split? On one hand, there is a "clear mandate" to enter the world fresh. One the other they are "trying to break the back of the story, figure out what direction we're going to take the movie" and, suddenly Ford could appear.

So, what's happening here? Simply put, Kosove is playing both sides.

If, as he claims, there is a "clear mandate" for the film to be a fresh reboot with fresh casting both statements end at that point. There is absolutely no reason to go further, Ford absolutely will not be in the movie. That Kosove continues tells you that something else is going on. Either they do not know yet if they want Ford to come back or - more likely - they do not know yet if they can get him.

If you take Kosove's statement that they are trying to crack the story and work out what direction they are going to go in at face value, ask yourself this: What is the process of doing that? How do you decide what direction you are going in? Well, you start by finding out what is possible and you begin that process by making a call to Ford to determine if he is willing to return and, if so, in what context and under what conditions. In other words, exactly what we reported has happened.

Kosove's statement that Prometheus provides the template for what they are doing with Blade Runner is also an interesting comment, Prometheus having just engaged in a months-long misinformation campaign with all involved denying any sort of direct links to Scott's previous Alien until the visual evidence to the contrary piled up to such a degree that they had to acknowledge what was already becoming obvious to many. While we do not know yet how connected Prometheus and Alien may be we know damn well that they are. And if that's what Kosove is aiming for here then we are categorically not looking at a totally fresh reboot of Blade Runner but something that links directly to the original film in some as-yet unspecified manner. Which would allow room not only for Ford to return but also Edward James Olmos and others, should they choose to walk that road.

Why is Kosove hedging his bets in his public comments? Beyond the obvious point that he simply may not know at this point the answer is that, at this point, speculation does more for them than news. Keep the fans on their toes and you keep them engaged.

Twitch has absolute confidence in our sources for the original story, sources which to date have a literal, one hundred percent accuracy rate. I'm not saying we've never gotten a story wrong, I'm not saying that these sources never will, but so far they never have. Wait a bit and see how this all shakes down before taking anything at face value. Either way, it's going to be interesting.