Alcon Entertainment and Ridley Scott Productions’ limited series Blade Runner 2099 for Prime Video will shoot at the Czech Republic’s Barrandov Studios in Prague from June.
The series is being directed by Jonathan van Tulleken, who will executive produce the first two episodes. Tulleken recently directed the first two episodes of FX’s Shōgun.
Ridley Scott, who directed the original 1982 Blade Runner and executive produced Blade Runner 2049 for Warner Bros, is executive producing alongside series writer and showrunner Silka Luisa. Further executive producers are Michael Green, Alcon co-founders Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, Alcon’s head of television Ben Roberts, Scott Free’s David W Zucker and Clayton Krueger, Cynthia Yorkin, Frank Giustra, Isa Dick Hackett, as well as Tom Spezialy who was part of the writers room, and Richard Sharkey.
The Czech production service company on board is Film United.
The 10-part series had been in pre-production at Belfast Harbour Studios, but production was halted due to WGA strikes in May 2023 before being scrapped entirely in October 2023.
”Northern Ireland Screen is extremely disappointed that Blade Runner 2099 will no longer be produced in Northern Ireland,” said Richard Williams, chief executive of NI Screen, at the time. ”We are conscious that these difficult decisions do happen in the screen industry, particularly with the most expensive projects which carry the greatest expectations.”
Blade Runner 2049, the 2017 feature film directed by Denis Villeneuve was shot in Hungary, at Origo Studios in Budapest and Korda Studios in Etyek; on-location shoots took place at Stock Exchange Palace, Szabadság in Budapest.
The Czech Republic has hosted recent high-end TV series such as Apple TV’s Foundation and AMC’s Interview With The Vampire.