Apparently, the co-writers of Eagle Eye — Travis Wright and John Glenn — have been working pretty seriously on a treatment for a Blade Runner sequel for a couple of years, according to Slashfilm. They told an audience during a Q&A after an Eye screening that they've already been in touch with original Runner producer Bud Yorkin (or possibly are already working with him). And they've been working with a "previsualization team" on some hunter action sequences for when they pitch this to the studio. And Slashfilm notes that Wright and Glenn have worked with Ridley Scott's brother Tony on some projects in the past, so they may have an "in" with the Ridley.

Let's hope reason prevails and whoever actually owns the rights to Blade Runner sees what a prodigious waste of money a sequel would be. There are some stories that just don't need to be continued. The only thing that would make this more horrifying is if Harrison Ford turned out to be interested in reprising his role somehow.

Addendum: This is what I get for rushing off to a screening of Blindness and not checking back on the comment thread of this post. Apparently Glenn popped up and said the Blade Runner sequel was shelved ages ago, and he doesn't know why it's still being talked about.

[Slashfilm]

The plot follows the family of John and Aileen Crowley whose children are suffering from this rare genetic disease. Pompe is in in fact so rare that there was little to no research on it. When his children were diagnosed, John Crowley quit his job and started his own biotechnology company with his life savings trying to find a cure. The relentless pursuit of a cure leads him to Ford's doorstep. Crowley is written by The Water Horse scribe Robert Nelson Jacobs, who was inspired by an article about the family in the Wall Street Journal and the later book The Cure. Tom Vaughan (What Happens in Vegas) is in negotiations to direct and Ford will also be producing the film. [Variety]

Download the Indy trailer in HD here.

We were skeptical going in, but I have to say that Harrison doesn't look bad at all, and we didn't even mind the jokes about him getting creaky with age. Ray Winstone looks decent as fill-in material for Sallah/Marcus Brody, and Cate Blanchett's Russimatrix look is going to inspire some costumes come Halloween. We just hope the final film isn't laden with CGI, and there are a couple of shots in this that look a bit too close to that for comfort. After all, this does have the Lucasfilm name on it, so you know George will try to cram in as much CGI as possible.

Both issues of the Dark Horse companion comic will have variant covers. One will be drawn by Drew Struzan, and the other by Hugh Fleming, but it isn't clear who created this piece. Since Struzan designed the teaser poster, this could be Fleming's artwork, since the style looks fairly different. But only the crystal skull knows for sure. Plus you'll notice three different Indianas on this image, something they haven't done since Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Maybe they just really want you to know that Harrison Ford is definitely in this movie. [Ain't It Cool News]

You've basically got two ways to show that something is really, really old in a movie. One is tons of dust, the other is an assload of cobwebs. Indiana Jones normally has both in spades, but they've gone above and beyond for this new movie.

Consider the evidence: in that opening scene in Raiders, he hauls ass through some massive webs before hitting the dirt in front of the Hovitos tribe. What's he covered in? Those same webs. In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom he ventures down into insect-infested catacombs which include what? Giant spiders and cobwebs. In Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade has to again venture into cobwebby catacombs under Venice, and later deal with both a cobwebby Knight of the First Crusade, and his dad's cobweb-addled mind. Look for a final showdown in Indiana Jones and the Giant Spiders From Mars to finally put an end to this issue.

This reminds us of the exchange from the last movie, which we've altered a bit:

Indy: "That belongs in a musuem!"
Panama Hat Man: "So do you! With a ton of cobwebs for effect!"

• 
  
• "I know the critics are going to hate it," he says. "They already hate it. So there's nothing we can do about that. They hate the idea that we're making another one. They've already made up their minds."

  Have we? Granted, we think Harrison might be too old. Sure, we're not certain how this will do without familiars like Marcus Brody and Sallah. Yes, we love to playa-hate on things. But deep down we all hope this rocks and takes us back to that special place we were at when we saw Raiders for the first time. We don't want to hate this movie, we want to love it.

• 
  
• "The fans are all upset. They're always going to be upset. 'Why did he do it like this? And why didn't he do it like this?' They write their own movie, and then, if you don't do their movie, they get upset about it. So you just have to stand by for the bricks and the custard pies, because they're going to come flying your way."

  People at last year's Comic-Con were peeing in their pants when Karen Allen got introduced as Marion. Literally. The smell was overwhelming. Call me nuts, but I think the fans are excited about this thing.

• 
  
• Lucas didn't mention this one, but a potential reason we're already starting to dislike this film is the inclusion of Shia Lebeouf as "Mutt," and probably the offspring of Indy and Marion (Karen Allen), although no one is officially confirming that. He irritated the crap out of us in Transformers, and we have a really itchy feeling that he'll do the same here. However, we're willing to backpocket that and chalk it up to rampant speculation. For now. Mostly because of this picture of him (bleh) sitting in the massive warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark (rad).
• 
  
• 'And then (spoiler warning) Lucas gets a little more (spoiler alert) specific: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will apparently nudge our hero away from his usual milieu of spooky archaeology and into the realm of (spoiler Code Red) science fiction.'

  Sorry Georgie, but this sounds like a reason we'll love Indy IV. We're tired of him going after religious artifacts with supernatural powers. Give us Indy and something all science-y and steampunk-y and we'll love it. But the Area 51 aliens? Ouch.

• 
  
• Not that he mentions it, but another reason to like Indy IV is Cate Blanchett in this Russian dominatrix outfit. Me-yow.
• 
  
• The Vanity Fair author drops this quote from himself near the end of the piece: "No one outside of the filmmakers will know for sure until May 22, but it would be pretty cool if it turns out that Emperor Palpatine had dropped a crystal skull on Earth. Or maybe one was left behind by the skinny dudes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Or maybe it's, like, E.T.'s cell phone. :)"

  If it turns out that anything from the Star Wars universe had anything to do with the Indiana Jones world, then fans are going to march to George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, burn it to the ground, and then piss into the ashes before trekking down the Spielberg's slightly harder to find domicile and chugging gallons of water on the way in hopes of repeating the process.

  This goes triple as Harrison Ford hops into a classic 1950s car and drives to an American Graffiti-esque diner in this movie.

• Keys to the Kingdom [Vanity Fair]

Peoples mentions he was brought in to work on the Blade Runner script after the studio had exhausted Hampton Fancher with multiple drafts. Then Hauer came in and added some of his own stuff to People's pages, ad-libbing the famous "tears in the rain" off the cuff. Nice to know that an ad-lib led to one of the most memorable lines from the film.

Peoples went on to write Ladyhwake, also starring Rutger Hauer, Unforgiven for Clint Eastwood, and the time-traveling viral classic, Twelve Monkeys. Looks like having Rutger Hauer drop in a few lines wasn't such a bad thing.

Sammon's remarks, which came during a recent interview about his updated book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner are sure to cause involuntary shudders and waves of nausea amongst fans of the original. Although the film is based on Philip K. Dick's classic Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, author K.W. Jeter has written three novels as sequels to the movie. These novels have generally been panned by critics, and only enjoyed by rabid Blade Runner megafans who long for a return to this dystopian vision of the future, while the rest of us would like to see this film remain untouched, sequel-wise.

Ridley Scott hasn't made a sequel to any of his films, and would rather move on to new territory than revisit somewhere he's been before. Let's hope Sammon's words are just wishful thinking.

Blade Runner II? {SciFi Scanner]