Everyone Wants Edward James Olmos
Sci-fi icon Edward James Olmos has a busy schedule in front of him. He will be dealing with androids and monsters, but not at once. First, he confirmed he is reprising his role as Gaff in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner 2049. Now it has been announced he has joined Shane Black’s The Predator.
Olmos originally shared the screen with Harrison Ford in the original 1982 Blade Runner. This time around he will be joining Ford plus Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, Dave Bautista, and Jared Leto with Ridley Scott returning as director. The script has been written by original screenwriter Hampton Green with Dave Green.
It was speculated that he might return as Gaff, an origami-folding police officer but all was silent from the actor’s party. Now he is free talk about it, stating before he and his team had to sign a seven-page non-disclosure contract.
Blade Runner is about a police officer who “retires” rogue replicants (androids) who want more life. He falls in love with a woman who turns out to be one of these replicants (Sean Young). Through the story, the audience is taking for a loop, trying to determine who is human and who is not, and if what the distinction is. It is based on Philip K. Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Even though Olmos’ screen time in Blade Runner was short, he had a definite presence in the story, which include the last lines spoken in the film, and perhaps the most memorable, “It’s too bad she won’t live. But then again, who does?” As for his role in the sequel, he says it will be “like it was in the original – I only had four scenes, in this I only have one. But again, it’s a poignant little piece of work.”
Blade Runner 2049 opens on October 6, 2017.
The next major franchise that Olmos is joining is Shane Black’s The Predator, the sixth installment of the series. He will be joining Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Jane, Jacob Tremblay, Yvonne Strahovski, Alfie Allen, and Sterling K Brown. Black, who appeared in the original movie, co-wrote the script with Fred Dekker.
Olmos will play an unnamed military commander, which shouldn’t be too much of a stretch since he portrayed Admiral William Adama in Ron D. Moore’s reboot of Battlestar Galactica from 2005-2009.
Even though the film has already started filming, the details on the story are still under wraps though the steadfast rumor is that it will take place in suburbia with the Predator slowly revealing himself to be a threat. The latest addition to the rumor is that the Predator will be genetically enhanced, which would put a fresh spin on the alien hunter.
The original Predator starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of a US special forces team that comes under attack from an alien entity who prizes the thrill of the hunt over everything else. It was followed by Predator 2 in 1990 before crossing over with Fox’s Alien franchise for two sequels, Alien vs. Predator and AvP: Requiem. Nimrod Antal directed a 2010 reboot Predators. As for The Predator, Black has stated this is a continuity of the first two movies and is not a full reboot. There is reference in the script for the singularity of the title.
The Predator will be released on February 9, 2018.
