Blade Runner paved the way for many a sci-fi movie. In fact, with Blade Runner being one of the best movies ever made overall, it’s no wonder that we’re still seeing the effects of its futuristic android storyline today.
As a Star Wars creative and director of some of the best monster movies in recent years, Gareth Edwards’s next movie, The Creator, is set to take the idea of cinematic robots and combine it with a prevalent fear of AI technology. In order to create a strange, otherworldly depiction of robotic beings, he had a special trick he used with his actors.
“I really wanted the AI in the movie to be completely human,” Edwards explained [via ComicBook.com]. “Like even the robots are very naturalistic. I stopped telling people at a certain point whether they’re a robot or not because you notice that people, when they think they’re a robot, they start acting a bit different and pushing things a little bit more. And so I would get everyone to play it like they were human.”
“No one knew who was going to be AI and who wasn’t in the scene and do it like a normal, contemporary movie that’s not science fiction,” he added. “And then in post, with ILM, the more naturalistic someone was the more interesting, the more thrown away they were just [looking bored], I’m like, ‘Make that guy I robot because that would be really fun.’ You never see that in movies.”
If that sounds familiar to another of the best robot movies, you’d probably be thinking about the aforementioned Blade Runner from 1982. During the time of its release, it was never quite confirmed whether Harrison Ford‘s Deckard is a replicant or not.
In the real world, the official party line leans towards Deckard being synthetic. At least, that’s the case in Ridley Scott‘s head. Harrison Ford has gone on record in the past saying that he believes Deckard is a human. No matter what you choose to believe, it can’t be denied that the ambiguity is one of the most enduring parts of the movie. In fact, we think it’s this that firms it up as one of the best science fiction movies ever made.
It looks like Gareth Edwards might have thought so too, since this use of ambiguity in a very practical on-set way certainly evokes the Blade Runner phenomenon. Frankly, we think it’s a good move. Whether it works out or not, however, remains to be seen when The Creator eventually hits theaters in September.
For more otherworldly science fiction, take a look at our guides to the Dune 2 release date and the Poor Things release date. Or, for something on a smaller scale, see what we know about the Stranger Things cast or visit the Star Trek series. Speaking of Star Trek, we also spoke with Anson Mount and Rebecca Romijn, a conversation you won’t want to miss.
To see what else Ridley Scott has cooking, see what we know about the Napoleon release date and Gladiator 2 release date. And, for all other adventures, take a look at all the new movies of 2023.