Did you know Dustin Hoffman was the original choice to play Deckard in the movie? Well he was, but he couldn't wrap his mind around the need to play the role as macho. Another fun fact is that the movie is loosely based on Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", but the title was bought by Ridley Scott. He acquired the title from Alan Nourse's book called "The Bladerunner."
There aren't any really meaty details about the sequel. We don't even know how far in the future the movie will be from the originals 2019 date.
Excerpt from the Wall Street Journal:
In an interview with Speakeasy, Scott said he is on board to direct a “Blade Runner” follow-up and has been interviewing writers who can help him with the screenplay. Scott says the new project is “liable to be a sequel.”
“I think I’m close to finding a writer that might be able to help me deliver,” Scott says, “we’re quite a long way in, actually.”
The original film was inspired by sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick’s novel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” and told the grim story of Rick Deckard, a “blade runner” who hunts down “replicants” — androids who long to live free lives. Scott says Dick, who he says was “stressed” when he met him, found a romanticism in his pessimism. And similarly, “Blade Runner” didn’t offer a romantic view of the future.
“That’s why I think I was so unpopular” when the film was released, Scott says, because at the core of the film is a story about mortality. “Even though people think it’s a cool Philip Marlowe film with Deckard played by Harrison Ford,” he says, “the film is very much about humanity.”
Scott says the new “Blade Runner” project is moving ahead “not with the past cast, of course.” No Deckard? “No, not really,” he says.