Folks, sometimes the stars don't align for a smartly crafted
blockbuster. "Blade Runner 2049," despite incredible reviews, is
crashing and burning at the Box-Office. You say "but $30+ million opening
weekend, that's pretty solid" I say, the budget of the film, depending on
who you speak to, was anywhere between $150-$170 Million. Its tally total of
$82M so far just doesn't cut it. Despite the A- CinemaScore grade, and the 88%
score on Rotten Tomatoes but what we're looking at right now is a risk that
didn't pay off. A $150M art-house sequel to a cult film with a running time
stretching close to the three-hour mark. How did we not expect this?
The film's editor Joe Walker, imagine the task of editing this
film, recently spoke to Provideo Coaliton, the juiciest tidbit for me
was the fact that Villeneuve initially had a four hour cut of "2049."
Even more intriguing was Walker having to divide the movie into two parts. He
even says the thought of releasing both halves separately crossed through
both his and Villeneuve's mind:
"That break revealed something about the story – it’s in two halves.
There’s K discovering his true past as he sees it and at the halfway mark he
kind of loses his virginity (laughs). The next morning, it’s a different story,
about meeting your maker and ultimately sacrifice – “dying is the most human
thing we do.” Oddly enough both halves start with eyes opening. There’s the
giant eye opening at the beginning of the film and the second when Mariette
wakes up and sneaks around K’s apartment. We toyed with giving titles to each
half but quickly dropped that. But what does remain is that there’s something
of a waking dream about the film. That’s a very deliberate choice in terms of
visuals but also the kind of pace they were striving for on set and the
hallucinatory feel in the cut – it’s the kind of dream where you tread
inexorably closer to the truth."
Villeneuve said from the beginning that the studio had the final
say on the released cut of the film, but, just to be clear, he no doubt
was in full creative-control and working in collaboration with everyone, and
has mentioned that he released the envisioned cut that he wanted of the film.
Whether or not his intention for a 4-hour cut was vetoed by the WB is up for
debate but it would have, financially, been even more of a disaster for the studio.