Blade Runner savours revenge
2007-09-04 09:12
Venice - Twenty-five years after
Blade Runner was panned by critics and pulled from theatres,
British director Ridley Scott savours revenge with the final cut
of the science-fiction film now considered a cult classic.
Presenting the new version of what he considers his most
accomplished movie, Scott recalled the difficulties he had when
he first pitched the work to Hollywood.
"I was a new kid on the block in Hollywood, so driving to
those studios everyday was a magical mystery tour. But it was
hard, the whole process of making the movie became quite
difficult," he told reporters at the Venice film festival after
a press screening.
"I wasn't used at that point in my career to having too many
cooks in the kitchen, and I think there were many people who
started to get involved.
"So out of it came a hybrid version of what I'd originally
intended. Consequently?we had a bad opening, bad previews,
confused previews. I was killed by some critics?then I
thought it would be gone away for ever," Scott said.
Human replicants
The futuristic thriller is set in the year 2019 and follows
policeman Deckard (Harrison Ford), a "blade runner" trying to
catch and kill four human replicants who have escaped from a
space-based colony.
The response at early sample screenings before the official
release in June 1982 was so weak that the producers forced Scott
to add voice-overs to the film and change the final scene to
make it a more "happy ending".
Even then, bad reviews and the almost simultaneous release
of Steven Spielberg's hugely popular ET ended Blade
Runner's theatre run prematurely.
But the film eventually achieved cult status through
re-issue on television and home video.
Scott, 69, said he had almost forgotten about it until he
saw clips on music television channel MTV and realised that his
film "was having a strong influence on younger generations".
Over the years, five versions of the film have been
released, but Scott said the Final Cut - which will be issued
as a collector's DVD edition later in the winter - was "really
as it was intended to be".
International hits
"A good film is like a good book, you might go to the shelf
and take it off and revisit it. There are not a lot of films I
can do that with from my collection of material," said Scott,
whose other titles include international hits such as the first
Alien, Thelma & Louise and Gladiator.
At present, Scott is working on Body Of Lies, one of
several American movies on the war in Iraq due for release in
the next few months. But he said he would like to make another
science fiction film.
"I am continuously looking for that so if anyone has got a
science fiction script in their briefcase, give it to me."