Ryan Gosling is in negotiations to star in Alcon Entertainment’s sequel to Blade Runner, to be directed by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) and executive produced by Ridley Scott. Harrison Ford will co-star as Rick Deckard, the role he portrayed in the original directed by Scott.

Principal photography is set to start in summer of 2016. Hampton Fancher (co-writer of the original) and Michael Green have written the original screenplay based on an idea by Fancher and Scott.

The story takes place several decades after the conclusion of the 1982 original. Story details, as well as Gosling’s character, are not being revealed.

Gosling will be seen next in Shane Black’s The Nice Guys opposite Russell Crowe, and in Terrence Malick’s Weightless. He is currently in production starring opposite Christian Bale, Brad Pitt and Steve Carrell in The Big Short.

Villeneuve’s upcoming feature film Sicario, a drug-trafficking drama starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro from Black Label Media, has been recently announced in Competition at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Villeneuve previously worked with Kosove and Johnson as the director of Alcon’s critically acclaimed Prisoners.

Alcon Entertainment acquired the prequel and sequel film, television and ancillary franchise rights to the iconic science-fiction thriller Blade Runner in 2011 from producers Bud Yorkin and Cynthia Sikes Yorkin, who will serve as producers on the sequel along Alcon Entertainment co-founders and co-CEO’s Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson.

Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble, CEO’s of Thunderbird Films, will serve as executive producers.

Released by Warner Bros., Blade Runner was adapted by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples from Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” and was directed by Ridley Scott following his landmark Alien. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Visual Effects, and Best Art Direction).

Blade Runner was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993 and is frequently taught in university courses. In 2007, it was named the 2nd most visually influential film of all time by the Visual Effects Society.

(Photo Credit: WENN.com)