Denis Villeneuve is a French-Canadian film director born in 1967. He directed the highly-anticipated sequel to Blade Runner in 2017 and was under a lot of pressure to ensure this new film was innovative, whilst also remaining true to the esteemed original. Once released, the film achieved critical-acclaim and won two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects, both of which were influenced heavily by the film's director.
Villeneuve had a strong influence in deciding the cast of the film, with Ryan Gosling citing the director as a key reason for his involvement with the project. The director has been criticized for his representation of female characters in this film, as they are often perceived as being sexual objects. He responded to this criticism by saying that he is very careful about how he depicts women in films and says that the world of Blade Runner was intentionally unkind to women, in order to reflect the world we are living in today.
Opting for the same setting at the original, Villeneuve decided to set Blade Runner 2049 in a dystopian Los Angeles. Differing from the 1982 film, Villeneuve said that that the atmosphere would be more chaotic, and included a red and dusty Las Vegas, inspired by the 2009 Australian dust storm. The rough cut of the film was allegedly four hours long, which he then had to cut down to a more viewable length. He then showed the film to Ridley Scott, who had directed the 1982 film, and was now working as an executive producer on the 2017 film.
