‘Blade Runner 2049’: Sony Debuts New Footage at CinemaCon

Sony Motion Picture Group chairman Tom Rothman has one message for those who think fans won’t be rushing to the theaters to see “Blade Runner 2049”: “Netflix, my ass.”

The studio chief dropped the zinger while debuting new footage of the “Blade Runner” sequel to exhibition industry professionals at CinemaCon, with star Ryan Gosling on hand. The extended preview that the actor brought with him to Las Vegas stunned the crowd, featuring an apocalyptic Los Angeles and Las Vegas filled with snow, dust storms, and dazed looking androids, all of it created in Budapest. There were also several visual callbacks to sequences and sets from the first picture that are sure to tickle fans.

Rothman, for his part, called the film “cool as s—,” and Gosling told the crowd of theater owners that the team behind Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049” tried to keep CGI to a minimum.

“Every location was real,” said Gosling. “Every set was there…It was a fully functioning, living, breathing world.”

The new footage showed more of Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard and Gosling’s Officer K, as well as a creepy look at Jared Leto, playing a manufacturer of replicants with a daddy complex. In one shot, Leto lovingly caresses a naked android, who appears to have been doused in amniotic fluid.

Robin Wright and Ana de Armas also star in the film, which hits theaters on Oct. 6. Ridley Scott, who directed the first film, executive produced “Blade Runner: 2049.” Villeneuve, an Oscar-nominee for “Arrival,” takes over directing duties. Sony co-financed the production with Alcon, and will distribute the picture internationally. Warner Bros. is handling the domestic rollout when the film debuts on Oct. 6, 2017.

The footage, which also included shots of a bloodied, haunted-looking Gosling and de Armas as a skittish replicant who appears to have captured his heart, received loud applause. Theater owners and executives leaving the auditorium at Caesar’s Palace where the footage screened cited the preview as the highlight of a presentation that also included looks at “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.”

“Prepare to start going steady with the edge of your seats,” Gosling quipped.

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