Blade Runner 2 concept art shows a beautifully bleak future Los Angeles

Nearly 35 years later, Blade Runner remains a pinnacle of cinematic set design and atmosphere. That means the sequel starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford has a lot of smog, rain, and sizzling neon to live up to. We can finally see how Blade Runner 2's visual direction will compare, thanks to a new set of concept art published by Entertainment Weekly.

Director Denis Villeneuve says that big vehicle on the left is a snow-destroying machine. Taking place in future Los Angeles a few decades after the original Blade Runner, “the climate has gone berserk - the ocean, the rain, the snow is all toxic" Villeneuve said.

And here's the second piece of art, which shows the polluted LA skyline at night. Super-bright billboards dominated by massive human faces are still in vogue, I see.

"That note of music; seeing Los Angeles in 2019; that smog; that darkness. It’s really the movie that gave birth to my desire to become a director," Villeneuve told EW about the opening scenes of the 1982 original. It's clear he has plenty of respect for the source material. But Hampton Fancher, the screenwriter of the original film, encouraged him to take it in his own direction.

"[Fancher] told me that Blade Runner was a dream. We just have to dream again and not worry too much about logic. That removed so much pressure and gave me the key to move forward."

Directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Mackenzie Davis, Ana de Armas and Harrison Ford, Blade Runner 2 will be released in cinemas on October 6, 2017.

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Images: Entertainment Weekly