British commuters' freesheet The Metro spoke with Ridley Scott this week to tie-in with Prometheus's Blu-ray and DVD release, as you might have guessed, the conversation turned to the possibilities for Prometheus 2 and Blade Runner 2.
Describing Prometheus as having "evolved into a whole other universe", he sums up the end of his sci-fi horror epic this way:
"You’ve got a person [Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw] with a head in a bag [Michael Fassbender’s ethically questionable android David] that functions and has an IQ of 350. It can explain to her how to put the head back on the body and she’s gonna think about that long and hard because, once the head is back on his body, he’s dangerous."
Readers of our exclusive in-depth interview with Prometheus' original screenwriter, Jon Spaights, will know that "dangerous" barely covers it – David has the potential (or did, anyway), to be an extraordinary character, a scientific and rational destruction bringer. Say what you like about Prometheus, there are some fascinating possibilites about where to go next. Like, say, "paradise"...
"They’re going off to paradise but it could be the most savage, horrible place," Scott adds. "Who are the Engineers?"
As for Blade Runner 2, The Metro approached the question as if the idea of a sequel was just a rumour. Scott was quick to dismiss that idea:
"It’s not a rumour – it’s happening. With Harrison Ford? I don’t know yet. Is he too old? Well, he was a Nexus-6 so we don’t know how long he can live [laughs]. And that’s all I’m going to say at this stage."
Make of that what you will, especially with Scott's tongue obviously firmly embedded within his cheek (following on from something similarly jokey earlier in the year), but it's an emphatic confirmation that the Blade Runner follow-up is go.
Then there's the indication from Scott that the **Blade Runner **sequel's protagonist should be female, as well as the news that the original's writer, Hampton Francher, is also on board the project – but nothing is fully confirmed as yet.
Prometheus is out on Blu-ray and DVD now.