December 18, 2007

Blade Runner: The Ultimate Collection will be released onto DVD with no less than FIVE versions of the film! Theatrical, International, Director's, The Final Cut, and the first Workprint of the Ridley Scott masterpiece.

Blade Runner is a scifi masterpiece in every sense of the word. The concept is simple, six replicants escape to Earth and Richard Deckard is sent to retire them. One of the biggest controversies surrounding the movie is the theory that Deckard himself is a replicant.

Is he? Isn't he? You can probably find evidence to support both thoughts however I lean towards the He Is camp.

Blade Runner is a dreary movie, it is dark, rainy, gloomy. LA is overcrowded and blimps fly around advertising a new life off world. The chance to escape the confines of Earth. You see a blending of technology and old film noir. In the US theatrical version the studio dictated Ridley Scott supply a Harrison Ford voice over to narrate the story. That is the version I first saw and was amazed with. I was around thirteen I believe.

I was blown away by this movie but all of the subtle story devices were lost on me at the time. I just saw the surface and not all of the implications of such a story. All of the snippets of scenes that have caused massive essays on the film and debate fodder.

Just do a search on the movie. There are lots and lots of sites devoted to the philosophy of the movie. That alone will quickly tell you that this movie alone, well outside of the Star Wars universe, has inspired more debate than any other movie from that era. Its slow paced, esoteric, and the forerunner for intellectual scifi movies such as The Matrix.

There is a huge market for smart Scifi that just isn't being filled anymore. Primer was brilliant but few saw it. The Scifi Channel which should champion good scifi has turned into the cheap effects movie channel. They have bad movies on all the time.

Want to know what a great hit would be? A intellectual scifi series that focused on characters.....oh wait....Firefly got canceled after a few episodes didn't it....Well a sprawling epic that was like a novel for TV....oh wait, Babylon 5 struggled for ratings its entire run but still completed the series.

Well maybe there isn't a big market for smart scifi anymore, however I do know that TV is cyclical and that as soon as the court room drama and procedural dramas are at their end something has to fill up that space and well made scifi that challenges the viewer would be perfect! Lost is a good example of that show. It can be done again though!

I have that idea and an idea to complete the entire series, to tell the whole planned story without fear of being canceled by the studios so that the people watching feel comfortable and get the conclusion they want and deserve.