Ryan Gosling will float across movie screens as Neil Armstrong in the adventure drama film First Man come October. The 38-year-old Canadian began his career as a 12-year-old on the US television show The Mickey Mouse Club. The show also featured the likes of upcoming superstars Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.

Gosling appeared in a movie for the first time in 1996. In the 2002 film, Murder by Numbers, he plays a teenager who murders out of boredom. The 2004 love story The Notebook (pictured) was a commercial success. In this film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel, Gosling plays Noah, who fights against all the odds for his great love, Allie.

Playing Lars, an introverted small town boy who falls in love with a sex doll in the 2007 Lars and the Real Girl, was regarded as Gosling's most daring performance at the time. A year earlier he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of a crackhead teacher in Half Nelson.

Gosling's good looks inevitably landed him several romantic lead roles. In the 2010 indie film Blue Valentine, he plays a young man, Dean, who marries Cindy (Michelle Williams) after she finds out she has fallen pregnant to her ex-boyfriend. The marriage is doomed to fail, however. Williams was nominated for an Oscar and Gosling received much critical praise.

The 2011 romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love sees Gosling as a womanizer who coaches a divorcee (Steve Carell, pictured left) he meets in a bar in how to flirt and pick up women. Unfortunately, Gosling's next conquest is that man's daughter, played by Emma Stone – and they inevitably fall in love.

In the political thriller by and with George Clooney, Gosling plays a power-hungry campaign manager who, in the course of a US presidential election campaign, is drawn ever deeper into a maelstrom of intrigue and betrayal until he finally gives up his ideals. The role netted Gosling his fourth nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Golden Globes.

The 2011 action drama Drive cemented Gosling's reputation as one of Hollywood's most adaptable working actors. He plays a stoic stuntman who works as a getaway driver for crooks at night. Drive was nominated for several best film awards, including a BAFTA

A year later, Gosling played a motorcycle stunt driver, Luke, in the gritty drama, The Place beyond the Pines — another collaboration with Blue valentine director, Derek Cianfrance. Luke robs banks to help support his ex-girlfriend (Eva Mendes) and their son – until one robbery goes horribly wrong. Fifteen years later, the drama runs its course when Luke's son meets his father's murderer.

In 2014, the Hollywood heartthrob debuted as a director in Lost River. His real-life partner Eva Mendes also stars in this partly autobiographical mystery drama about a single mother of two sons. Two years later, Gosling was back to acting instead of directing in the action comedy The Nice Guys (photo), playing the lead private detective role.

Gosling plays a cyber cop in the 2017 sequel to the 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner. As Officer K, he hunts artificial people through the smog of a futuristic L.A., Replicants who are destined to be wiped out because their unlimited lifespan has become unpopular with their creators.

Gosling was finally rewarded with a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination for Best Leading Actor that same year for his role as a dancing jazz pianist in la La Land. Will First Man be as successful? La la Land director Damien Chazelle is again helming the film adapted from a Neil Armstrong biography of the same name, while Josh Singer of Spotlight fame wrote the screenplay.

Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young: Those were the "Blade Runner" stars of 1982. "Blade Runner 2049" features Canadian Ryan Gosling and Cuban Ana de Armas in the leading rolls (pictured above in a spaceship). The new film links back to its predecessor, though it enlivens the story with new elements in hopes of attracting a new generation of movie-goers that is not familiar with the original.

Surprisingly, "Blade Runner 2049" is even gloomier than its predecessor. Despite its dark setting, the 1982 version also featured noticeably bright colors, such as in the above scene with artificial humans and puppets. The 2017 version is radical in its cool-toned visual construction. Pale yellows, blues and grays dominate, and there are many foggy and nighttime scenes.

The plot of "Blade Runner 2049" picks up 30 years after the events of its prequel. In the intervening years, the world was struck by atomic catastrophes and nuclear fallout. The viewer once again meets a Blade Runner (Gosling) – an officer who hunts artificial humans known as replicants. And, as in the 1982 film, the same question arises: What is the value of a human? And of a replicant?

The stakes are high when filming a movie sequel some 35 years after the original cult hit that, meanwhile, has earned millions of global fans. But in this instance the gamble paid off. The producers of "Blade Runner 2049" chose well in picking world-renowned French Canadian director Denis Villeneuve to make the film. Ridley Scott, director of the 1982 original, served as an executive producer.

The story that "Blade Runner 249" tells is as complex as it is simple. Complex, because the story picks up plot threads from the old film, varying them and developing them further. But also simple, because the new film fundamentally addresses the same questions as in 1982: How do humans deal with artificial intelligence? And how humanely do they interact with replicants?

In 1982, "Blade Runner" set the standard for artistic design and special effects, primarily through its imaginative vision of a near future set in global super cities. Far less of human life in such cities can be seen in the new film, in part because environmental pollution and nuclear catastrophes have wrapped the earth in an impenetrable fog.

Harrison Ford was at the pinnacle of his career in 1982. Five years before "Blade Runner," the American actor starred as Han Solo in "Star Wars," and in 1981 he played Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The producers and director of "Blade Runner 2049" placed a visibly older Ford once more before the camera, giving him a perfectly tailored role that leaves behind a strong impression.

However, the lead actor of "Blade Runner 2049" is Canadian Ryan Gosling, who is some 40 years younger than Ford. The two have to flee side-by-side more than once in the new film. Gosling most recently showed off his acting chops as a sensitive musician in the worldwide hit "La La Land." He gives a similarly convincing performance in "Blade Runner 2049" through reduced, sparse expressivity.

Over the past years, many experts and film connoisseurs warned against a "Blade Runner" sequel. Hollywood's attempts at new film installments often ended up as artistic shipwrecks. But the new "Blade Runner" is anything but the typical, heartless sequel spawned by the commercial machinery of Hollywood's biggest studios. It qualifies as a singular artistic cinematic work.