Blade RunnerΩ
[related: Harrison Ford, Ridley Scott, Tyrell Corporation, Sean Young]
Dystopian science fiction film released in 1982 and set in Los Angeles. The production and release of Blade Runner was beset with complications and conflict mostly surrounding the unconventional methods of Ridley Scott [1] including his acrimonious relationship with lead actor Harrison Ford. Cast as Rick Deckard, an assassin hired to hunt and "retire" a group escaped slave-class bio-engineered humanoids known as replicants, Ford repeatedly insisted on script changes including removal of the film's voiceover resulting in numerous physical altercations with the director. Blade Runner's portrayal of the Tyrell Corporation as a "corporate behemoth intent on the reckless development of artificial intelligence for profit and power" predates the comparable SkyNet of the Terminator series and the efforts of Ma Bell. Blade Runner marked the career apex for the wild-haired starlet Sean Young, cast as Rachael Tyrell, the film's unwitting android ingenue. An extreme "method actress", Young was unable to differentiate her identity from Rachael's [2] in the wake of the film's success, conducting press junket interviews "in character". She spent the mid-late 1980's struggling with alcohol and narcotic addiction, and was arrested in 1989 for leaving a violently disfigured and bloody doll on the doorstep of actor James Woods. She was later placed under citizen's arrest at the 69th Academy Awards for entering without a ticket (despite having commissioned a designer gown) and slapping a security guard across the face.
The screenplay for Blade Runner was adapted from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by the pioneering sci-fi writer and theologian Philip K. Dick prior to his 2-3-74 "pink beam" epiphany. Upon achieving "cult status" in the mid-1990's however, Scott was finally allowed to edit the film's footage to his liking. The result, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, stands as the most critically and financially successful version of the film.
- href#[redacted] :: You Don't Know Blade Runner Like I Know Blade Runner.
- ↑ Scott was fired from Blade Runner by the film's investors midway through production. He was however allowed to remain in situ after no suitable replacement emerged, especially considering the complexity of the set design and the incomplete status of the screenplay's ending. Scott's ceremonial firing did result in the loss of "final cut" privileges leading to numerous versions of the film-- according to Scott, this heavily contributed to the film's dismal initial opening.
- ↑ In schizophrenic terms, an alter melt.