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Blade Runner News Archive - 2002

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Please note that most links are not revised. Although correct when originally written, the nature of news means that I cannot guarantee that any particular link will still be valid today.

31 Dec 2002 Yes, it is now "Sir Ridley". The New Year Honours List includes a knighthood for the Director of Blade Runner (okay, he's done some other stuff as well including some big films, plus getting film schools going, etc.) Of course it is in all the press. Ananova has a good report, leading with Scott's comment that he is "truly humbled" by the honour. Also try the BBC and CNN or pretty much any news service really.
26 Dec 2002 If you are interested in DADoES (source novel for Blade Runner), then the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibition "No Ghost Just a Shell" holds something of interest. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the exhibition features periodic screenings of an eight-hour animated film, "Untitled 2002 (Even Electric Sheep Can Dream)" by Rirkrit Tiravanija, in which Annlee reads the entirety of Philip K. Dick's science fiction classic, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (Exhibition lasts through to mid-March.)
25 Dec 2002 This has been on for a while, but I just heard about it at Slashdot - but it goes on to 26 January. So, if you are anywhere near Fullerton in California anytime in the next month, why not check out Barsoom to Blade Runner: Science Fiction in Southern California - which looks like it might be full of interesting stuff! (Anyone been yet who can tell us what it is like?)
20 Dec 2002 I know. Interesting news on BR is so scarce right now, that even with the wide parameters I've set, all that pops up are comparisons to Minority Report or various bits of city, etc. that are compared to BR. So here is a little something on PKD movies - nothing new, but at least it keeps us ticking over.
09 Dec 2002 If you have diligently read through everything in our Analysis section, you will already be familiar with Mike Davis. Well, he now has a new book out (reviewed here),called Dead Cities. Extending his vision of the urban landscape he started with City of Quartz that referred to Blade Runner.
09 Dec 2002 Okay. Time to draw the line. Not every futuristic setting is like Blade Runner. The latest Shania Twain video (I'm Gonna Getcha Good) is described by some (e.g. here) as "Blade Runner-esque". Rubbish! It is a futuristic city vision that has no relation to Blade Runner other than it being a future city vision. Shania in her funky outfit looks nothing like anything from Blade Runner and her song isn't anything like the wonderful music in Blade Runner.
06 Dec 2002 Ridley Scott's first film, The Duellists, is out on DVD. Great film. Read a review.
05 Dec 2002 The other big dystopian movie out this month is Equilibrium and just like Solaris, their is an inevitability about comparisons to Blade Runner, such as this one! Looking forward to seeing the film though!
04 Dec 2002 One of the many reports of Will Smith starring in Isaac Asimov's I, Robot is the one in E online. This story is the one which explicitly stated the "Laws of Robotics" though it was actually John W. Campbell who created the rules based on Asimov's previous writing. And then Asimov said he used the rules in his writing so that he could write stories where the rules were broken... So when this article mentions Blade Runner, it is not so far off the mark!
30 Nov 2002 When Rover's a robot in the Guardian explores the artificial pet idea with reference to the Animoids in Blade Runner.
26 Nov 2002 Dreamwatch magazine lists the top 100 best sci-fi scenes poll - as reported by the Daily Mirror. Roy Batty's final "Tears in Rain" speech makes it to number 10. Number one spot is taken by Darth Vader saying, "I am your father..."
23 Nov 2002 One of the initial reviews (at Rediff) of the new Solaris cannot help but refer to Blade Runner and even comments on that fact - the Blade Runner Hangover. Many other reviews will of course mention Blade Runner - either to say that the future in Solaris doesn't look like Blade Runner or that the questions about humanity are like Blade Runner or that the "created people" are somehow like Replicants. Whichever way, it seems Blade runner is the standard by which SF movies are measured these days.
21 Nov 2002 Kurt Wimmer (director of Sphere and forthcoming Eqilibrium) tells Fangoria that he loves Blade Runner, but is tired of so many copying the visual design style, particularly of the city, in so many SF films since. In his next project, Valkyrie, he's looking to create a really new futuristic world.
19 Nov 2002 Puss-in-reboots in The Australian IT starts an article on robot pets by reminding us of Tyrell's owl in Blade Runner.
18 Nov 2002 Olmos focuses on roots in Yale speech according to the New Haven Register. Edward James Olmos (who created most of the Cityspeak in BR himself for character Gaff), lectured at Yale in his position as a Chubb Fellow. He talked of the East L.A. where he grew up as a "salad bowl" rather than a "melting pot" - all the disparate cultures mixed together, but staying individual. He talked of the need for "balance" in the historical figures that children study across the cultures as well as encouraging the learning of more than one language.
16 Nov 2002 The Canadian Globe and Mail picks up on the flying car aspect of the latest Harry Potter film and makes rather perverse comparisons to flying cars in other movies.
11 Nov 2002 In response to the Sight and Sound poll mentioned below, IMDb are doing one of their daily straw polls based on the S&S Top Ten films of the last 25 years. Update: poll results - Half of the total votes were for "none of the ten", but of the other half, BR came a close third to Goodfellas, but Apocalypse Now still came top. Ah well, in these days of little news, we have to amuse ourselves somehow!
08 Nov 2002 Ananova, Sky, BBC, etc. report that BFI's Sight and Sound Magazine have done another survey (of British film critics and writers) - this time for the Greatest Film of the last 25 years. Blade Runner was voted in at 7th Place. In the non-date restricted survey we reported on in August, they didn't have any films after 1980 in their Top Tens. Hence this poll, which starts from 1978.
04 Nov 2002 Harrison Ford interviewed by The Age mostly of course about the current K-19 and the upcoming Grandad Jones movie. He does have this very interesting comment to make though, "Sometimes I'll just accidentally catch something on TV and I'll feel pleased that it's there. Just recently I saw a few moments of Blade Runner, which I'd never liked in its first version because I hated the voice-over narration. But with this director's cut, I feel a lot better about it than I once did." So, there is hope for him yet!
01 Nov 2002 Lou Castle of Westwood Studios talks about their new game - Earth and Beyond to globetechnology. He mentions the BR game: "When I did Blade Runner, one of the biggest challenges was not "how do you do a great game?" it was "how do you not screw up this license?" How do you let someone explore the world of the film without ruining it? I don't want to say that it can't be done, but it's very difficult".
29 Oct 2002 The Swedish convention last weekend that Rutger Hauer attended went well. Swedish newspaper "Aftonbladet" has a short quicktime interview with Rutger where he talks about Blade Runner (of course).
24 Oct 2002 Regulars at a.f.b-r will be familiar with Ray Kurzweil (he even did a dedication to us). And some of us are regular visitors to his website, where today I found pointers to: The Intimate Machine, a TV programme by USA's PBS - first exploring MIT's efforts to "make machines smarter, more empathetic and easier to work with". Also a link to CBC Radio 1 where you can listen to a discussion (including interview of Kurzweil) on downloading the mind into a computer, with terms cropping up like "replicating", "what is human" and even leading to the "more human than human" conclusion.
23 Oct 2002 John Woo picks up direction of "Paycheck" - another movie based on a PKD short story, (first published 1953 in Imagination Magazine). According to Entertainment Weekly, the story about a man (an electrician) trying to solve a two year gap in his memory will be directed by Woo now that Brett Ratner has passed to take on the new Superman movie.
22 Oct 2002 This is not so much news as "not-news". Jonathon Ross interviewed Harrison Ford on Film 2002 on the BBC last night. I watched the whole half-hour and they didn't mention Blade Runner even once. And Ross is even a big fan of BR. What a disappointment!
18 Oct 2002 From Talos to Trilobite. Neil McIntosh of The Guardian has some observations on robots and their depiction in movies and television.
17 Oct 2002 At the end of last month, I mentioned the latest robot by Evolution Robotics. They have sent me a press release about the ER1 personal robot which I've published here.
10 Oct 2002 I have news on TrenchCo. Known as makers of replicas of the coats worn by characters in Blade Runner, The Matrix, etc. but plagued with problems for the past two years, I can now let you know the company is closed. But it isn't all bad news. Read more on the clothes page. Check out these photos of aRvin wearing probably one of the last Deckard coats made by TrenchCo.
10 Oct 2002 What would you pay for Harrison Ford's genuine autograph on a Blade Runner photo of Deckard? The BBC finds out from a man who knows how difficult that is to get.
08 Oct 2002 Karen Idelson at DVDfile pleads with the Powers That Be who are holding up the release of the BR:SE DVD to please think of the fans. If only the PTBs would listen...
03 Oct 2002 In September, Rutger Hauer said hello to a lot of fans in the UK as well as answering questions at a special screening of Blade Runner. Photos and audio clips are now up on his site. Scandinavian fans are reminded that Rutger will be in Stockholm in two weeks time.
01 Oct 2002 Visitors here probably don't care too much about the romance between Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, but just thought I'd tell you a secret. They're going to get married. But you didn't hear it from me, right.
30 Sep 2002 Blade Runner gets a new award! In Movieline's first ever Hollywood Style Hall of Fame Awards, Sean Young received the top film character style award for her role as Rachael in Blade Runner, according to WB Extra. Fantastic that from all of film history they chose Rachael as number one! Just a pity the designers of the clothes aren't mentioned.
30 Sep 2002 "Is this testing whether I'm a Replicant or a fashion model, Mr Deckard?" This article in Sydney Morning Herald makes an interesting parallel on some of the latest Milan fashion trends firmly rooted in Blade Runner.
29 Sep 2002 James Hong (who played Hannibal Chew in Blade Runner) is to accept a lifetime achievement award at the Delta Film Festival. Read about this and what else he's been doing in this Tri-Valley Herald report.
27 Sep 2002 Robot development in the real world. LA Weekly looks at Evolution Robotics latest effort - the ER1, both specifically and in a wider context of our reaction to and acceptance of robots beyond fiction.
27 Sep 2002 "Is this testing whether I'm a Replicant or a movie critic, Mr Deckard?" The Toronto Star makes an amusing parallel with the empathy test.
24 Sep 2002 Miami.com report on the Latino Filmmaker Showcase on US TV tonight, particularly the short film "Sensitive", which is all about 'place'. Gustavo Mercado describes a stroll through Jackson Heights in Queens (suburb of New York), "This was Blade Runner minus the flying cars."
23 Sep 2002 If you are interested in an action figure of Deckard then you probably already know about the excellent 'Android Hunter' model. Now see "Tony's" enhanced Deckard action figure. At rebelscum, you can also find a good review of the original Android Hunter.
23 Sep 2002 I'm sure you know about "product placement" in films, but this is really taking it to extremes. AdAge reports that BMW is getting their own TV channel. Just like something out of a PKD novel! And as for that Ridley Scott fellow ... he does get around doesn't he!
22 Sep 2002 Those of you who were lucky enough to make it to Milton Keynes and were able to meet Rutger Hauer will surely not be disappointed. Rutger coping magnificently with the huge crowds and putting in the effort to make sure he saw everyone. Thanks Rutger, for being real.
12 Sep 2002 Interesting BR news has been thin on the ground recently, so at last here is an article worth actually mentioning. The Cult de Sac article makes a slightly more hard-nosed comparison between Blade Runner and Minority Report than most you've probably read.
25 Aug 2002 Time have a whole Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, PKD thing. Vote for your favourite film-from-PKD-story. Blade Runner currently leading, (of course).
14 Aug 2002 Entertainment Weekly profiles Harrison Ford and his films. Harrison gives us a more accurate view of *that* voiceover.
08 Aug 2002 The British Film Institute Sight and Sound Magazine have completed their 10-yearly Top Ten Poll of critics and directors to find their "best movies". It is no surprise that in this "Film Art" vote, no films after 1980 made the Top 10s, but BR did get a number of votes anyway (thank you Jonathon Ross and others), so that makes it one of the few films of the last two decades that makes it on the list at all. I say give it another two decades and see how it does! According to an unofficial count, BR comes out about 46th.
01 Aug 2002 One final PKD in the movies article that might interest you - in the Seattle Times.
28 Jul 2002 New Blade Runner section on Rutger Hauer's site. Lots of pics from the movie plus a log of an extended discussion (in reverse order) that took place about Blade Runner in his guestbook.
19 Jul 2002 UK Hotdog magazine (Issue 26) has a nice article on movies made from Philip K. Dick stories, and ALSO has a SEPARATE article on Blade Runner! 5 pages of pretty decent article. I'll do a review of the article when this issue is no longer on sale.
30 Jun 2002 The New York SF convention from 28-30 June, including appearances by Joe Turkel and Rutger Hauer and a special screening of Blade Runner appears to have been a success. The two BR stars were very friendly and open and apart from being present during the show did a 1 hour Q&A session after the BR screening. Those who attended were well entertained. Patrick Meaney was there - read his report. Also check out photos and audio clips at Rutger's site.
26 Jun 2002 More PKD and more PKD - there is obvious increased interest in PKD and many reviews of Minority Report make references to other PKD inspired work, particularly BR. I've selected these two articles to add to the one below as a reasonably good look at PKD and PKD-inspired movies.
23 Jun 2002 Time reports that Steven Spielberg has finally got his college diploma. Included alongside is a vote for your favourite PKD book-to-film. Blade Runner is ahead of Minority Report and the two together take up over 90% of the votes, with Total Recall, Barjo, Screamers and Impostor taking up the rest.
23 Jun 2002 What a Clever Dick - an article in the Observer Review looking at the increased interest in filming PKD's stories.
22 Jun 2002 Blade Runner tops the list at Futurist Movies. Josh Calder has taken a new approach and examines futurist movies based not just on entertainment value (though of course that is still important), but also gives them futurism and scientific plausibility ratings. With its top futurism rating and very high entertainment value, Blade Runner comes out top in his overall rating. Good one Josh!
15 Jun 2002 Blade Runner retrospective held in San Rafael, Califronia.The panel included Doug Trumbull (VF supervisor), David Dryer (VFX supervisor), Mark Stetson (VFX miniature supervisor), John Wash (VFX animation and effects supervisor), Les Ekker (miniatures), Virgil Mirano (still FX photographer), Matthew Yuricich (Matte Painting supervisor) Rocco Gioffre (Matte Painter), and David Hardberger (VFX camera man). Moderator and host was Paul Taglianetti who informed me that this was probably the first time this crew had all got together since BR was made! Apparently it was an excellent and informative meeting.
12 Jun 2002 Blade Runner pipped to the post in the Online Film Critics Society review of 100 years of Science Fiction.
21 May 2002 Wired Magazine have a long interview with Steven Spielberg about Minority Report. The obvious comparison to Blade Runner question is asked.
12 May 2002 Rutger Hauer's official site has been completely revamped and also tied more closely to Starfish - Rutger's main purpose in life outside of making movies. Note, he also announces his intention to be at the NY SF convention at the end of June 2002.
07 May 2002 Blade Runner has been voted top Science Fiction movie of all time in the June issue of Wired magazine according to NYPOST.com. Three cheers for Wired for being so clued in! UPDATE: Now archived on the Wired site.
21 Apr 2002 Which Blade Runner character are you? Take this fun test.
12 Apr 2002 The release date of the Blade Runner Special Edition DVD looks like it is being delayed. See our BR:SE news page for the latest.
13 Mar 2002 As we have a separate BR:SE news page, I usually don't list the DVD news in this box. However, this deserves the extra attention. The short clip from Swedish show "Bionytt", where Ridley Scott is talking about the BR:SE DVD is now on-line. Short, but sweet. Thanks to Niclas and Kjell for enabling us all to see it.
05 Mar 2002 Nicklas Ingels has created an online petition at petitiononline.com to encourage Warner Music and Vangelis to consider releasing a new, official and more complete version of The Blade Runner Soundtrack. 2002 is the 20th anniversary of the Blade Runner movie, so this is the perfect time to do something. Please support this intiative.
27 Jan 2002 In direct response to the Channel 4 vote last November, Sisqua.com held a free public vote to get a genuine Top 100 Favourite Films List. We report on the poll. Blade Runner voted in 11th position.
15 Jan 2002 In their February 2002 issue, Empire Magazine has an excellent interview with Ridley Scott full of Blade Runner chat. Read our review of this interview, (with excerpts).
13 Jan 2002 "How to Build a Human" - the new series starting on BBC TV tonight. The official BBC site is full of information for those interested in cloning of human embyos - why people want to do it and the moral implications. (No doubt the series will be shown in some form around the world.)
06 Jan 2002 The Observer: Scott's Corner Long article about Ridley Scott including a couple of paragraphs on Blade Runner.
03 Jan 2002 AICN claims on Blade Runner Special Edition This link is included for completeness, but be warned, we have official confirmation by the real inside source that this report is *false*. See our BR:SE News Page for the only information on the BR SE you can trust.

If you see a Blade Runner article not listed, please send me the link so I can add it.