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Tuesday, May 30, 2006

No "retirement" after 25 years: BLADE RUNNER getting new DVD and theatrical cut

Funny, 'cuz I was just thinking of Blade Runner the other day. It came while going through some things and I found my old copy of the Blade Runner computer game that Westwood Studios released in 1997. Very good game if you can track it down: it seriously pulls you into the world created by the movie. You even get to run the Voight-Kampf test on suspected replicants.

Anyway, Blade Runner is one of my all-time favorite movies, from the time I first saw it in 1992. I've got the original DVD release but I've never been all that happy with how skimpy it is on extra features... like, there are none. The production of Blade Runner and all the elements at work in this story are just too rich to leave unexplored in a medium that welcomes that like DVD. Plus, I've seen both versions of Blade Runner: the original 1982 one that has Harrison Ford's narration and the 1992 "director's cut" (which may have been the very first-ever "special edition" of any movie) and the DVD we have now is only the 1992 version. I happen to like both cuts for various reasons.

Well, today has been a good day for Blade Runner fans: it's been announced that the 1992 director's cut is being re-issued on DVD this fall, followed by director Ridley Scott releasing "the final cut" of Blade Runner in 2007 for the movie's 25th anniversary. The 1992 edition will hit shelves this September, then be on sale for four months before being pulled, after which this "final cut" will be released in theaters. I'm guessing this edition will include some deleted material (like the scene where Deckard visits Holden in the hospital, among others). Following the cinematical run, Blade Runner will be released on DVD again, this time in a pack that will include all three versions of Blade Runner: the 1982 narrated original, the 1992 director's cut and the 2007 version, along with tons of supplemental material.

What else can be said, but that it's a great time to be a Blade Runner fan! Maybe someday someone will figure out that the world of Blade Runner would make an awesome massive-multiplayer online role-playing game where we pay to be either blade runners or replicants or civilians... heck I'd pay 15 bucks for that! Or at least give us an updated version of the original computer game.

5 comments:

Magnus said...

I never knew there was a scene where Deckard visits Holden? All three versions? I am excited.

qemuel said...

It's about time! I have a bootleg of the narrated version, as well as the ho-hum no extras version. I also like them both for different reasons.

Remind me sometime and I'll tell you about my sleep afflication that is related to BLADERUNNER.

I was a big fan of the game as well; I believe I still have it packed up in a box somewhere...

And yes, when it's completely finished (meaning colorized) I'll show you my version of the Last Supper.

"It doesn't make a difference what desert, it's completely hypothetical."

qemuel said...

...I swear I typed "affliction".

Chris Knight said...

Yeah, there's a scene that got cut (I've seen the stills from it) where Deckard visits Holden in the hospital and Holden is trapped inside some "iron lung" type of thing that lets him breathe. And Holden tells Deckard to "go get these guys" or something.

I don't know if it was filmed but there was also a scene planned where the replicant that was killed at Tyrell Industries is being autopsied and it's only well into the procedure that they realize they're not examining a human at all, but an android.

Just what we need though: one more edition of Blade Runner to make the fanboys debate even more about whether or not Deckard is a replicant :-P

Magnus said...

I always thought the debate over humanity in Bladerunner was much more poignant with Deckard as a human. I suppose it could make a good socialist argument having Deckard as a Replicant though - unwitting pawn of the bourgoise oppressors, unwilling to identify his true status in society, etc.