Amazon Studios is moving forward with their highly-anticipated Blade Runner 2099 TV series, landing TV director Jeremy Podeswa (Game of Thrones, Station Eleven).
The 60-year-old director – who has earned four Emmy nominations for his work on Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire and The Pacific – has been slated to direct the pilot and serve as both a producing director and an executive producer, via THR.
The series was first announced back in February 2022 with original Blade Runner director Ridley Scott serving as an executive producer.
Scott’s original 1982 classic Blade Runner was set in a dystopian Los Angeles in 2019, with the 2017 follow-up Blade Runner 2049 set 30 years later.
This new series will be set 50 years after the events of Blade Runner 2049, which was directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Director: Amazon Studios is moving forward with their highly-anticipated Blade Runner 2099 TV series, landing TV director Jeremy Podeswa (Game of Thrones, Station Eleven)
Dystopian: Scott’s original 1982 classic Blade Runner was set in a dystopian Los Angeles in 2019, with the 2017 follow-up Blade Runner 2049 (above) set 30 years later
Silka Luisa (Shining Girls) is writing and serving as showrunner and executive producer of the new series.
The original report from February 2022 indicated that Scott may direct one of the episodes of the series though it’s unclear if that will happen or not.
The show was given the green light in September 2022, though it’s still unclear when production may begin.
Blade Runner 2099 was given the green light by Amazon back in September, with the studio indicating the series would uphold the same themes as the first two beloved films.
‘The original Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, is considered one of the greatest and most influential science-fiction movies of all time, and we’re excited to introduce Blade Runner 2099 to our global Prime Video customers,’ said Vernon Sanders, head of global television, Amazon Studios in a statement from September.
‘We are honored to be able to present this continuation of the Blade Runner franchise, and are confident that by teaming up with Ridley, Alcon Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, and the remarkably talented Silka Luisa, Blade Runner 2099 will uphold the intellect, themes, and spirit of its film predecessors,’ Sanders added.
Blade Runner 2049 writer Michael Green will be joining the show as a ‘non-writing executive producer’ with Tom Spezialy – who won an Emmy for his work on HBO’s Watchmen – has joined the writing staff and will also serve as an executive producer.
The project will hail from Alcon Entertainment, which acquired the rights to the Blade Runner franchise in 2011, along with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions.
Films: Blade Runner 2099 was given the green light by Amazon back in September, with the studio indicating the series would uphold the same themes as the first two beloved films
Alcon founders Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove will also serve as executive producers alongside Ben Roberts, David W. Zucker, Clayton Krueger, Cynthia Yorkin, Frank Giustra, and Isa Dick Hackett, the daughter of author Philip K. Dick whose 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was adapted into the original Blade Runner.
The original Blade Runner is set in a dystopian society where human-like robots known as ‘replicants’ are manufactured by the Tyrell Corporation for work on distant space colonies.
The original story is set in 2019 Los Angeles, as a fugitive group of replicants have escaped their colony and made it back to Earth.
The plot follows former LAPD officer Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), whose former job was as a ‘blade runner,’ hunting down these vigilante replicants.
He’s brought back into the fray when four replicants made it back to Earth illegally.
The film also starred Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hannah and the legendary James Hong.
While Blade Runner only earned $41 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, it would ultimately become recognized as a classic in later years.
Blade Runner 2049 brought back Harrison Ford as Deckard with Ryan Gosling, Dave Bautista and Ana de Armas, earning $267 million from a $150 million budget.
Harrison and Ryan: Blade Runner 2049 brought back Harrison Ford as Deckard with Ryan Gosling, Dave Bautista and Ana de Armas, earning $267 million from a $150 million budget
