Amazon will shoot the series Blade Runner 2099 in Prague, filmmakers can spend up to a billion here

Like on Tuesday informed server Deadline.com, a sci-fi series called Blade Runner 2099 will be produced by Amazon Prime Video. The first two episodes are to be directed by Jonathan van Tulleken, who last worked on the historical miniseries Shogun.

The crew was originally supposed to start work last summer in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where they secured 4.1 million pounds, roughly 121 million crowns, through film incentives. However, due to a strike by Hollywood screenwriters and actors, the project was delayed, and after several postponements, the authors chose Prague instead of Belfast’s Harbor Studios. According to Deadline.com, filming in the Czech capital will begin in April. “We are extremely happy that such series are still being produced in the Czech Republic,” Helena Bezděk Fraňková, director of the State Cinematography Fund, commented on the news for Aktuálně.cz.

According to the ČTK agency, it will be one of the most demanding comparable projects in the Czech Republic. It will include extensive constructions in most studios of the Barrandov studio. According to its director Petr Tichy, the creators could spend up to a billion crowns in the Czech Republic. The first series will be filmed in the Barrandov studios until November.

Tichý says that the contracts have already been signed, but it is still too early to talk about specific conditions and the exact amount of the investment. “At the moment, we don’t even have information on what buildings will be built, how many filming days there will be, we are really at the beginning. We will find out everything during March,” he explains.

According to him, however, the amount could be close to what foreign crews spent in the Czech Republic when filming the series Carnival Row or the Wheel of Time. “They will be very similar numbers. We are definitely talking about hundreds of millions of crowns, or even that they will leave a billion crowns in the Czech Republic. It will certainly be one of the biggest projects this year in our country,” adds Tichý. The second row of Carnival Row, for example, cost 1.4 billion crowns.

Jeremy Podeswa was originally supposed to direct the new Blade Runner in Ireland, but the calendar changed in connection with the Hollywood strike, so he will be replaced in Prague by Jonathan van Tulleken. According to British BBC authors will have to return the incentives received in Northern Ireland. It is not yet known what amount of support they could draw in the Czech Republic.

The series is supposed to take place in the same sci-fi world that he introduced to the audience in 1982 first part Blade Runner. In this film directed by Ridley Scott, a company produces replicants who are indistinguishable from humans, but are banned from entering Earth. A special police team called Blade Runner oversees the implementation of the order. When one member is maliciously killed by a replicant, a former member of the same unit played by Harrison Ford is called back into action to investigate the incident.

Based on the book by Philip K. Dick, the film had a budget of $30 million, grossed $41.7 million worldwide and was a moderate success. As the years went by, his popularity grew.

After more than three decades, a sequel called Blade Runner 2049 was created, which was filmed by Denis Villeneuve in 2017. In addition to Ford, it featured Ryan Gosling, Jared Leto or actresses Ana de Armas and Robin Wright. The film already cost up to 185 million dollars, worldwide sales approached 260 million dollars, which, for example, according to the British newspaper Guardian meant disappointment.

However, the second part had a good critical response. Therefore, the producers decided to try to set a TV series in the world of Blade Runner instead of a third feature film. It is now being produced for Apple by Alcon Entertainment, which has owned the rights to the Blade Runner brand since 2011, and Scott Free Productions, which is Ridley Scott’s company. He will be one of the producers.

Deadline.com names screenwriter Silka Luisa, who is signed to the series, as the main creator of the series The girl who glittered.

The Guardian newspaper in connection with the upcoming series the year before he wrotethat it should have a “provocative” story and probably read ten episodes.

The title of Blade Runner 2099 suggests that the novel will be set in the period of about half a century after the second part. It seems so unlikely that the characters played by Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling will reappear in it.

“It takes place much later. In my view, it revolves around ideas from Aldous Huxley’s The End of Civilization,” he said about the Ridley Scott series. He was referring to a dystopian science fiction novel from the 1930s known in English as Brave New World.

It will not be the first Hollywood sci-fi series filmed in Prague. A miniseries was created in the Czech capital at the turn of the millennium there, the last time Apple made a big-budget Foundation based on the books of Isaac Asimov. The filming of its second series employed more than 4,000 people in the Czech Republic, in addition to the filmmakers, also companies providing services such as accommodation, catering and security, stated website of the Czech Film Commission. According to him, the authors of the Foundation received an incentive of 300 million crowns, but spent over 1.5 billion crowns on Czech territory. Looking ahead, the third series of the Foundation should also be established in the Czech Republic.

A few years ago, the famous Hollywood actor Adam Sandler appeared in Prague, playing in the Netflix feature film based on the book Kosmonaut z Cech. It will premiere in a few weeks. Netflix also filmed the big-budget action film The Gray Man in the Czech capital. Previously, the action thrillers Mission: Impossible and Bourne’s Identity, the comic book Hellboy or the Bond film Casino Royale were also shot in Prague, the ČTK agency adds.

Video: Trailer z filmu Blade Runner 2049