Denis Villeneuve talks Blade Runner 2049 retrospect in Dune II interview
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/dune-part-two-denis-villeneuve-directing-timothee-chalamet-zendaya-1235837162/share
Blade Runner 2049 was the first time you played in somebody else’s cinematic sandbox. Were you ever able to ignore the shadow of Blade Runner?
No, never. Blade Runner is one of my favorite films, and it’s absolutely a masterpiece. Ridley Scott is one of my favorite filmmakers, and even though he had given his blessing, it was very important for me to hear it and see it in his eyes that he was OK with me doing the movie at the time. But I was constantly thinking about the original film as I was making Blade Runner 2049. It was impossible not to. So 2049 was really a love letter to the first film, but it was by far one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever done, and I don’t think I will ever approach someone else’s universe again. I still wake up sometimes at night, saying, “Why did I do that?” I’d declined a few other projects of that scale, but at the time, I said to myself, “It’s a crazy project, but it’s worth the risk of losing everything.”