You won’t see iPhones in ‘Blade Runner 2049’, director says – CNET

When you’re re-creating one of sci-fi’s most influential visions of the future, the first thing you’ve got to ask is: How do you deal with the stuff it got wrong?

Ryan Gosling looks to the future in “Blade Runner 2049”.

Stephen Vaughan

That was the question facing director Denis Villeneuve and the team behind “Blade Runner 2049”, a belated sequel to the 1982 classic directed by Ridley Scott and designed by Syd Mead. The original film conjured a high-tech future of biomechanical androids, space travel and flying cars. But it also saw people calling each other on pay phones.

In the future world of “Blade Runner”, “there was no Steve Jobs“, smiles Villeneuve when we meet in a London hotel suite to discuss the new film. “Apple didn’t exist in the first movie. People didn’t have cell phones.” 

Villeneuve, the Oscar-winning French-Canadian director of “Arrival” and “Sicario“, is a thoughtful man, considering each question carefully before replying in his slightly gravelly, French-accented voice.