'Blade Runner' Sequel Adds Barkhad Abdi to Cast

Barkhad Abdi, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his screen debut in 2013’s Captain Phillips, is the latest actor to join Alcon Entertainment’s Blade Runner sequel, whose cast includes headliners Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford and Robin Wright.

Denis Villeneuve is directing the follow-up, set several decades after the 1983 original, with filming scheduled to begin next month. The pic was written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green, and succeeds the initial story by Fancher and David Peoples based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Alcon co-founders and co-CEOs Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove are producing, with Thunderbird Films CEOs Frank Giustra and Tim Gamble serving as executive producers. Ridley Scott and Bill Carraro also will executive produce.

The film will be released by Warner Bros. in North America, and Sony Pictures Releasing International will distribute in all media for all overseas territories.

Abdi, repped by SMS Talent, most recently appeared in Bleecker Street Media’s thriller Eye in the Sky alongside Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul.