Friday, August 19, 2011

Ridley Scott to Re-Visit Blade Runner

Pictured above: biting visual mockery from io9 commenter.

Just got back from vacation, this was on io9.com. If you haven't read it, I guess you have a life or something, but go read it now, we'll wait...

Can you believe that? Pointing out that Hollywood isn't doing anything original is only slightly less original than all the remakes, but, c'mon. Really?! I vote for a sequel where Deckard is in an old folks home being cared for androids, like an old Daryl Hannah model?! And he's all weirded out because he has PTSD from fighting them, but humans and andys have made peace.... OR HAVE THEY?! And also Clint Eastwood, old android, Oscar ROLE! Don't talk about four-year lifespans, we can write around that. They see an egg in a pool and feel young again, like Cocoon! Note to Ridley Scott: I'm available.

Radio Free, on the other hand is kicking some serious ass. I'm off on a gnostic journey to the Reno screening this Saturday night. If you're at the Worldcon or the Hugos or whatever hit me up. I got bluetooth in my Yoda ears!

15 comments:

RVChris said...

It will probably take place in the blade runner universe but decades later and follow different characters. That said how about a Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep movie instead?!

LarryS said...

Hmmm, Scott, back away from the studio door now. Leave well alone! But then again, wait! They could source Jeter's 'official' sequels which I enjoyed more than Dick's mediocre book.
To be honest I'm surprised a sequel hasnt come along sooner! By some Hack Producer, usually the way!

Its funny, Scott has been quiet for years then suddenly he wakes up and tons of SF projects come to life! Mid-life crisis? ;)

Atareye said...

I guess PKD ran out of ideas? Effin' retards.

Robert Cook said...

"They could source Jeter's 'official' sequels which I enjoyed more than Dick's mediocre book."

Hold on, pardner! Dick's novel DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP is one of his best and is far superior to BLADE RUNNER, whose virtues are largely in its visual design, its creation of a convincingly felt future reality.

I haven't read Jeter's sequels, but I doubt very much they equal the achievement of Dick's great novel.

Darryl Mason said...

Am I the only PKD fan looking forward to Ridley Scott returning to the Bladerunner universe?

You all realise that Scott was responsible for Bladerunner actually becoming the movie it was in the first place, right?

It was Scott's success with Alien and his attachment to the project as director that saw it get the budget it did.

Without Scott, Electric Sheep may never have become a movie at all, and perhaps millions of teenagers never would have discovered PKD and been led into all the other worlds and realities he created over dozens of novels and more than 130 short stories.

PKD was selling a lot of books when he died, his career had been revived, but he certainly was not the well-known name author he became after Bladerunner was released, and discovered and re-discovered through the 80s and 90s.

PKD had been trying to get a movie made from Electric Sheep since 1969. He loved the glimpses of Bladerunner he saw shortly before he died, and it brought him enormous satisfaction and joy in the last months of his life to know Ridley Scott had somehow captured the world he saw in his mind and put it onto cinema screens.

I can't wait to see what Ridley Scott does with this new project, which will probably be a prequel.

If PKD was still alive, it's easy to imagine he'd been pretty damn happy, too, to see another Scott take on the Bladerunner universe.

LarryS said...

@ Robert Cook
Flow My Tears the Policeman Said is a far superior book to Do Androids, which was just OK. If it wasn't for the excellent film I doubt many would know about the book!

ct-scan said...

Maybe this time around, he'll adapt DADOES to film.

Der Zorn Gottes said...

I'm all for someone doing a more faithful adaptation of DADOES (and glad to read that others are having the same idea)...but I doubt Scott's the right candidate for it: I don't think he could ever pull off the genuine shabbiness of Dick's universe. In Scott's vision, even the garbage is glamorous.

C.A. Chicoine said...

I have mixed feelings about this. So, I'll wait for more details.

@Darryl Mason -> Ridley Scott was not the only one responsible for this film. Besides the writers, Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, there was Jordan Cronenweth, Syd Mead, Lawrence G. Paull, Vangelis, and Douglas Trumbull, (just to name a few). | PKD was very protective of his work. I don't believe he was out "trying to get a movie made from Electric Sheep since 1969" -- unless you can direct me to your source.

Alex said...

I'm for the film.

Let's think about how weird it is that the featured commenter in this article is named JR: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/why-computers-will-never-replace-us/243818/

Darryl Mason said...

C.A. Chicoine

I didn't mean Ridley Scott was responsible for the whole film, but without him signing on as direcctor it is unlikely the film would have been made when it did, or with the budget it had. I think Syd Mead's work was brilliant and was certainly more fundamental to the look of the finished film than Scott's contributions alone.

PKD's repeated efforts to get Electric Sheep onto the big screen are detailed in his letters.

PKD knew from the late 50s how important for his career it would be that films be made from his books and short stories. He also tried his hand, in the 1960s, at writing TV pilots and TV show outines, and quite good they are, too.

The perfect PKD movie is the one you see unfolding on your mind's movie screen when you read his work. No director will ever do a better job than your own imagination.

simon50 said...

here's the bottom line for me: I have long predicted that Ridley Scott will never direct another PKD project. Why would Orson Welles revisit Citizen Kane 30 years later? Okay. I admit the error of my ways. I do think Ridley will likely direct a Blade Runner prequel or sequel - not a remake. As for PKD purists like myself? I am not bothered at all. PKD didn't write a prequel to Androids/Electric Sheep so no foul, no harm to whatever movie results. From a technical point of view, Ridley Scott gets my vote for the most proficient filmmaker on the planet. (Sorry, Fincher) Will it be Dickien? Probably not. I;m not sure Scott has even yet to read the novel. Will it good? All depends on the script. Now that Radio Free Albemuth is in the can, I'm available, if anyone from Scott Free is out there.

Neorandomizer said...

Blade Runner was a great movie and a crappy adaptation. The fact that the movie missed the whole point of the original story makes be believe that the writers only read the first chapter.

Now I love Blade Runner for its atmosphere, visuals, music and general aesthetic but it has almost nothing to do with PKD's book.

It is and should always be seen as something different and removed from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

ZenWoman said...

Gill, I thought this was particularly hilarious and spot on: "I vote for a sequel where Deckard is in an old folks home being cared for androids, like an old Daryl Hannah model?! And he's all weirded out because he has PTSD from fighting them, but humans and andys have made peace.... OR HAVE THEY?! And also Clint Eastwood, old android, Oscar ROLE!" (DG wrote that)

Really, why not? Short of that, I hope Simon is right and Scott uses his considerable talent to bring us something fresh and freaky.

Nexzavious said...

Just throwing this out there... Gave a lot of thought to the four year life span problem for a sequel idea I had. They recorded the memories of people to give the replicants a history. So you record the memories of a replicant and put them in a new one. Was planning on to bring back Roy Batty that way. Just an thought.