I think Blade Runner is setup to be great.
It's got a great director in Villeneuve. Deakins as DP. Gosling is a tick. Harrison Ford is a tick. I've rated Jóhannsson's scores in Sicario and Arrival (didn't notice it in Prisoners). It's got one of the original screenwriters, along with a promising one - who can probably be judged more after the upcoming Alien movie.
If nothing else; it's going to look amazing with Deakins and Villeneuve.
I'm just a tad concerned by the writing team.
IMO the writing will be the hardest part to get right. There are a lot of competing priorities for a movie like this. Blade Runner is such a sci-fi classic that there'll be an urge for the writing to contain as much gravity as the original. That will be an extremely tough ask and possibly a mistake, because in this cynical day and age, it's difficult to get away with stuff like the 'tears in the rain' speech without being met by a chorus of snickering. The other thing they'll want it to be, I think, is for it to be commercially viable. However great and and independent an original film might be, a sequel isn't going to be made for the purposes of losing money. I think that's why they've brought in Michael Green, whom as you mentioned is doing the new Alien movie, but also Logan. So his next few movies read like they're all sequels/reboots with emotional/philosophical gravitas. Clearly Hollywood has a lot of faith in him to take on such big projects, but I haven't seen any of his other work so far. He's worked on a lot of shows like Gotham, Smallville and Heroes, none of which I have any interest in, and which suggest to me that the producers are mining his geek appeal for all they're worth. For what it's worth, the one movie he has written before was Green Lantern, which by all accounts was unmitigated trash.
For me, as the veteran of all of 4 of Villeneuve's 9 feature films so far, I think the director is someone that could benefit from better writers than he's worked with in three of his last four movies. They've all been good movies, to be sure, but with the exception of Enemy, they've all left me wanting something more in terms of emotional/intellectual payoff. I think this has been due to consistently under-delivered third acts, which haven't done justice to the generally gripping and beautifully made first two acts. I hope Michael Green will be able to deliver a screenplay worthy of the name.
