Contagion's Scott Z. Burns to write Ridley Scott's Blade Runner 2?

There are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding Ridley Scott's return to his beloved 1982 film, Blade Runner. We don't know at this point whether it's a sequel, or a prequel, or some sort of spinoff set in the same universe. It's all up in the air right now, and chances are we won't learn more until well after the director finishes up with Prometheus. But one question may be on the verge of getting answered now, as Twitch reports that Scott Z. Burns is his pick to handle the script.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because you might've heard it during discussions of his latest hit film, Contagion. But he's shown a penchant for hard hitting writing before. I had my isssues with The Informant!, but the script wasn't one. He also had a hand in writing The Bourne Ultimatum. Next on his plate is Steven Soderbergh's 60s spy spoof, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 

The story notes that Burns is early talks for the job, and I'm sure Scott sees something in him similar to what he saw in Damon Lindelof when choosing him for the Prometheus job. And that is to look at the source material and take it in an unexpected direction. I haven't exactly been all that enthusiastic about another Blade Runner, but adding Burns would go a long way in getting me pretty juiced up for it, and I suspect that'll go for a lot of people.