'Blade Runner 2' will be released earlier than expected in 2017.
Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford's sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 classic was initially due to come out in cinemas on January 12, 2018, but Alcon Entertainment has announced the date has been bumped up to October 2017.
The news will delight fans of the science fiction fantasy - which originally starred the veteran actor and depicted a dystopian Los Angeles in which genetically manufactured beings called replicants were used for dangerous work in Earth's colonies in outer space.
Ridley is on board as an executive producer with 'Sicario' director Denis Villeneuve helming the sequel from a screenplay by the original film's co-writer, Hampton Fancher, and 'Green Lantern' co-writer Michael Green.
Filming for the sequel - which will also star House of Cards' actress Robin Wright - will begin in July.
Plot details for the film are being kept under wraps, but it is believed to be set several decades after the first movie, in which Harrison played a burnt-out special police operative Rick Deckard, known as a Blade Runner, who takes on one last assignment.
Speaking previously about the script and Harrison's involvement, Ridley said: "It's written and it's damn good. Of course it involves Harrison, who is a survivor after all these years. So yes, that will happen."