Sony Motion Picture Group chair Tom Rothman had one word for those doubting fans won’t be rushing to see Blade Runner 2049: “Netflix, my ass.”
The chief appeared while debuting new footage of the “Blade Runner” sequel to exhibition industry professionals at CinemaCon, along with star Ryan Gosling,
The extended preview stunned the crowd, featuring an apocalyptic Los Angeles and Las Vegas filled with snow, dust storms, and dazed looking androids–all shot in Budapest.
There were also several other visual callbacks to sequences and sets from the first picture.
Rothman called the film “cool as s—.”
Gosling told the crowd of theater owners that the team of Oscar nominee Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 kept CGI to a minimum.
“Every location was real,” said Gosling. “Every set was there. It was a fully functioning, living, breathing world.”
The new footage showed more of Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard and Gosling’s Officer K, as well as a look at Jared Leto, playing a manufacturer of replicants with a daddy complex, caressing a naked android.
Robin Wright and Ana de Armas also star in the film, which hits theaters on October 6.
Ridley Scott, who directed the first film, executive produced “Blade Runner: 2049.”
Villeneuve, an Oscar-nominee for Arrival, took over the directing.
Sony co-financed the production with Alcon, and will distribute the picture internationally.
Warner is handling the domestic release when the film debuts, October 6, 2017.
The footage included shots of a bloodied, haunted-looking Gosling and de Armas as a skittish replicant who appears to have captured his heart.
Theater owners and execs cited the preview as the highlight of the resentation that also included looks at Spider-Man: Homecoming and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
“Prepare to start going steady with the edge of your seats,” Gosling joked.
