On 25th Anniversary DVD Release, Ridley Scott Looking For More Blade Runner
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This is a combo piece where the Scifi Wire has some quotes on changes Ridley Scott made to the new super-duper-extra-special re-release of Blade Runner on DVD. But that's not all, if you call within the next ten minutes, you could write a screenplay for a sequel and have it directed by Scott himself! Really? Maybe..The re-release is a 25th anniversary recut which will be the final-final directors cut. In other words, it's probably only fractionally different than the last directors cut, which is only marginally different than the studio cut. Sometimes it makes a difference. I read about but didn't see the directors cut of Aliens for years and years and when I happened to run across it by accident, I was thrilled, because one of the cut scenes was right at the very beginning of the film. The next restored scene didn't happen for a while and took some of the cool out of it, but it improved the feel of the film overall, because let's be honest here, James Cameron doesn't make bad shots.
The re-release is a 25th anniversary recut which will be the final-final directors cut. In other words, it's probably only fractionally different than the last directors cut, which is only marginally different than the studio cut. Sometimes it makes a difference. I read about but didn't see the directors cut of Aliens for years and years and when I happened to run across it by accident, I was thrilled, because one of the cut scenes was right at the very beginning of the film. The next restored scene didn't happen for a while and took some of the cool out of it, but it improved the feel of the film overall, because let's be honest here, James Cameron doesn't make bad shots.
You've got to cut stuff out, otherwise every movie would be two-and-a-half hours long and have run a pace roughly equivalent to grass dying. The fun is putting it all back in and watching the little things that give the film its character bloom.
Scott said he made the refinements, "I think, because the film is damaged." He added that he was perfectly content to leave the movie as it was, but fans and critics kept clamoring for Scott to fix the movie. "They kept coming back to me," he said. "They kept coming to me. I didn't go on the phone, whining [on] the phone, 'Oh, let me.' I get on with life and move on, but the thing kept surfacing and coming up and bumping me in the head."
The main changes to the original theatrical release were the removal of the voice-over and the happy ending, which consisted of aerial mountain shots that were outtakes from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. But the new release will also correct the final scene, in which Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) releases a dove. In the old version of the movie, the dove flies upward into a blue sky against a metal wall; the correction fixes the scene to take place at night in the rain and removes the metal wall.
Now wait a second, the voice over is a classic part of the film. Scott took it out?! Not buying it. Nope, sorry. No way. Not gonna happen. People vastly underestimate the mood a good voice over introduction can give a film, it gives it almost a noir feel, more like reading a book than watching a film, with all the benefits of actually watching a film.
Anyway, Scott was at Comic-Con this year (another reason to go next year) and according to Moviehole, he said "If you have any scripts, you know where to send them." Of course, that isn't a true invitation to fan-fiction authors to start lobbing crap at him. First, you'd have to send the stuff to his agent, probably getting permission first and after signing a release form so you can't sue him. Second, you only want to send an actual sequel script, not a remake of the first film or something totally unrelated. Third, you better damn well have some real preexisting interest in writing screenplays and hopefully a lot of talent, otherwise you're just wasting your time.
Other than that, what the hell are you waiting for?
