Alcon Entertainment Readying 'Blade Runner' for the 21st Century

30 years ago, the film was considered a failure. Now it's a franchise.

Don't worry, sci-fi aficionados, Alcon Entertainment is only securing the rights to sequels, prequels, TV adaptations, and spin-offs. In other words: No remakes.

This is a big grab for a company that's most successful film is "The Blind Side," which was a huge box office success and earned Sandra Bullock an Academy Award. The closest they've come to an effects-heavy release is "The Book of Eli," which is only a stepping stone on the way to creating the world director Ridley Scott established in 1982.

"We're at a very preliminary stage where we're still formulating strategy as to whether we'll hire a filmmaker or a writer first and whether we'll do a prequel or a sequel," Alcon co-founder Andrew Kosove said. He then joked, "The one thing for sure is that neither Broderick [Johnson, his producing partner] or I will direct."

The original film, based off the Philip K. Dick novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", was about a Blade Runner, played by Harrison Ford, who hunts down genetically-engineered robots who have escaped their position establishing off-world colonies. The film dealt with familiar science fiction themes, asking if artificial intelligence would have a soul, and if that would mean humans were gods. You know, your typical summer trip to the movies. I'm sure "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" will address similar concerns.

Alcon will no doubt have to change the film's setting somewhat. The original took place in a 2019 Los Angeles, and while that's still eight years away, it's hard to imagine it'll suddenly start raining nonstop. Oh, yeah, and we probably won't have robots that look exactly like humans, either.