Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista has joined the cast of Alcon’s Blade Runner sequel, the story of which takes place several decades after the conclusion of the 1982 original. The former wrestling and MMA star now joins Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford and Robin Wright in the sci-fi project, being directed by Denis Villeneuve, the acclaimed filmmaker behind drug drama Sicario. Other plot details are being kept under wraps, but it is known that the story takes place several decades after the conclusion of the 1982 original, and that Ford is reprising his role as replicant hunter Rick Deckard. Hampton Fancher (co-writer of the original) and Michael Green wrote the new screenplay based on an idea by Fancher and Ridley Scott. Principal photography is scheduled to begin in July with Warner Bros. distributing in North America and Sony Pictures Releasing International handling the rest of the world. Bautista was last seen as the heavy in the James Bond movie Spectre and is due to reprise his role as Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, due out in 2017.
