Sci Fi Wire reports on the upcoming DVD & theatrical release strategy for the newest Blade Runner cut.
From the article:
The restored "director's cut" will debut on home video in September and will remain on sale for only four months, after which time it will be placed on moratorium. Blade Runner: Final Cut will arrive in 2007 for a limited 25th-anniversary theatrical run, followed by a special-edition DVD with the three previous versions offered as alternate viewing. Besides the original theatrical version and director's cut, the expanded international theatrical cut will be included. The set will also contain additional bonus materials.
There's no doubt this is all well and good, and it's hard to believe that by the time this "Final Cut" hits, it'll have been 15 years since the "Director's Cut" (whereas there were only ten in between the original '82 release and the D.C. in '92). Mostly this just makes me realize how quickly time is passing by. I want more life.
I once met Gary Lockwood in the hotel bar at a sci-fi con in Chicago. We talked for a loooong time. The conversation was mostly jump-started by me asking him about Kubrick, although the chat eventually turned to film in general.
Lockwood insisted there were only ever two great movies made (in the history of film! What balls this man had!!) and they were 2001 & Blade Runner.
I asked him which cut of Blade Runner he preferred, and his face kind of screwed up, and he said [words to the effect of], "It doesn't matter. It's Blade Runner. Just Blade Runner. You can call it whatever you want to, but I love Blade Runner."
It was a revelation of sorts for me as a Blade Runner fanatic, and I saw in his opinion that it really was splitting hairs to debate the merits of the various cuts.
It will no doubt be fascinating to see what tricks Ridley Scott has up his sleeve for this "Final Cut", however it is indeed difficult to envision him dishing up anything that will enhance my ongoing fascination with the concept itself. I'd still be perfectly happy with only the original 1982 version, sunny ending and all.
Ross: You've done a man's job, sir. I guess you're through, huh?
Ridley: Finished.
Now if I have to type the movie's title or the word "cut" again, I'll insist someone give me a Voight-Kampf test to get to the bottom of this nonsense.
