Even after 40 years the original Blade Runner movie holds up very well.
To say the movie was ahead of its time is an understatement.
Director Ridley Scott is still turning out superior movies his latest being "Napoleon".
The videos and articles below help us appreciate and undertand the director and his movie.
Video from wolfcrow
Why Blade Runner Still Looks Like a Billion Bucks!
"In this video, we're going to discuss why Blade Runner still looks a billion bucks, even after all these years. Bladerunner has been around for over 40 years and it's still one of the most iconic and visually stunning films ever made. The visual effects still look incredible and the story is still gripping. In this video, we'll discuss the reasons why Blade Runner is still so popular and why it continues to hold our attention even after all these years." from video introduction
Ridley Scott's Blade Runner: The Making of a Sci-Fi Classic
Interviews with screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, industrial designer Syd Mead, production designer Lawrence C. Paull and director Ridley Scott. Articles & Interviews by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier for Starlog magazine, November 1992 issue.
OF ELECTRIC SHEEP
Hampton Fancher fashioned a script from Phil Dick’s novel
Co-writer Hampton Fancher is also credited as executive producer of Blade Runner because he is the man who, in 1975, conceived of turning the book into a film. He’s an actor who appeared in 10 movies and some 100 TV shows. Blade Runner was his first script. Although his attention was directed to Dick’s novel in 1975, Fancher had to wait until 1978, when rights to the book (previously under another option) became available again. Fancher previously discussed writing Blade Runner in Starlog #58.
STARLOG: What first attracted you to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
HAMPTON FANCHER: I had been what you might call an underground filmmaker, and never got a chance to get anything that I had written, and that I wanted to direct, off the ground. Over the years. I eventually learned that the way to do that was to do something that was commercially feasible. It was around 1975, and I decided to look for a property that had some kind of commercial feasibility. I’m not a science fiction fan, and I am ignorant of science fiction, but someone suggested that I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I saw in it a possibility. I didn’t think of writing it or directing it. I just thought that, if I got something like that going as a producer, it would put me into more familiar ground with front-office Hollywood. So. I decided to option the book. Philip Dick turned out to be very elusive. His agent didn’t even know where he was. I ran into Ray Bradbury one day, after 1 had given up trying to find Dick. and he gave me Dick’s phone number So, I called him. But Dick was very suspicious of Hollywood, and of me. I met him, and we had three meetings over a few weeks. Even though we made contact, he continued to be elusive, and though we liked each other, I felt that he thought I was a “Hollywood” producer. But I wasn’t: I was just a filmmaker trying to do this because I felt it could be an interesting film. I didn’t have an approach to it. I was naive enough to think that he might! We didn’t get anywhere, and finally, I dropped it. Then, a few years later, in 1978, a friend of mine. Brian Kelly, the movie’s other executive producer, was looking for something to do. I just mentioned the book to him, saying to do it if he could. He succeeded rapidly! I guess Dick needed the money. There was nothing like what I went through. He just called the agent, and within a day, he owned the property. Brian was a fairly well-known actor [from the Flipper TV series], but had to drop out of acting after a motorcycle accident paralyzed him on the right side. He wanted something to do, and films were his love. At that point in time, he had made two films with Michael Deeley, the producer, in Europe. So, Brian took the property to Deeley, who read the book and said. “No way!” Do Androids Dream… wasn’t the kind of thing that even someone who’s professionally involved could easily picture as a film. Dick is very obscure and purposefully ambiguous in his writing; maybe it would take a filmmaker to un- derstand how to deal with it. I didn’t even see how to deal with all the components. I just saw one simple thing that you could hang a lot onto, and which I thought would be intriguing: The “”bounty hunter chases androids” theme. There’s a Kafkaesque atmosphere about the book that I enjoyed. But there was also a whiff of something else in the book that I thought could be turned into something close to my heart. I didn’t think that then, at least not consciously, but I must have subconsciously done so. or else I wouldn’t have pursued it. But I didn’t have anything to do with it at that point. Then. Brian came back to me and explained that Deeley didn’t like the book, and he didn’t understand how it could be done as a movie. “What can I tell him?” Brian asked. I told him to say this and that. So, he asked me to write it down as an outline, which I did. It was basically a simplification of the novel in eight pages. He gave it to Deeley, who said no again. Brian came back to me distraught, and I felt guilty that I had talked him into spending $2,000. Then, Brian entreated me into doing, if not a screenplay, at least a treatment. I refused at first, but Barbara Hershey, the actress, who knew about all of this, told me it was a perfect way to achieve what I was trying to do. If I believed that this was what I wanted to do, and if I wanted to make it happen, why didn’t I write it? So, I made a 50/50 deal with Brian, and I started work on the first draft. The first two drafts were very much in keeping with the book’s themes. A problem that you can run into in Hollywood is that, if it reads well, they don’t know how to deal with it! But Deeley fell in love with it, and he made us feel that we had it made, and we felt that we had a producer with a lot of power, because he had just won an Academy Award [for The Deer Hunter] and many people were romancing him. Still, none of the studios would say yes. I realized later that we were going to make a movie that nobody understood. There were four or five drafts. I lost my naïveté and got more experienced in what was needed, and adapted scenes that were in the first drafts into better substance..." from the article: Ridley Scott's Blade Runner: The Making of a Sci-Fi Classic
How many of your remember "Starlog" Magazine?
Starlog was a wonderful magazine that started in 1976 and lasted until the early 1990's.
It eventually went digital but ended that format in 2009.
Everything Sci-Fi could be found in Starlog.
I still have several copies.
Ridley Scott drew on the styles of the movies"Metropolis" and "Citizen Kane", here are the movie trailers.
Metropolis (1927) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers
Video from Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers
"Metropolis (1927) Trailer #1: Check out the trailer starring Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, and Gustav Fröhlich! Be the first to watch, comment, and share old trailers dropping @MovieclipsClassicTrailers. This influential German science-fiction film presents a highly stylized futuristic city where a beautiful and cultured utopia exists above a bleak underworld populated by mistreated workers. When the privileged youth Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) discovers the grim scene under the city, he becomes intent on helping the workers. He befriends the rebellious teacher Maria (Brigitte Helm), but this puts him at odds with his authoritative father, leading to greater conflict." from video introduction
Citizen Kane (1941) Official Trailer #1 - Orson Welles Movie
Video from Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers
"Following the death of a publishing tycoon, news reporters scramble to discover the meaning of his final utterance." from video introduction
The Beauty Of Blade Runner
Video from The Beauty Of
"DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS OF THE MOVIE OR THE MUSIC. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTFUL OWNERS. This video is not intended to violate any Condition of Use. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use. A blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space, and have returned to Earth to find their creator." from video introduction