| 31 Dec 2005 |
Honda's robot Asimo is now
five years old and while last year it was learning to run,
this year it has been learning how to do simple tasks in an
office environment. (See Reuters.)
MRZine looks
at what that actually means and includes a fantasy plot for
a film where, like Blade Runner, new Coffee Bots, having replaced
"Office Ladies", develop political consciousness... Very amusing.
After that the article gets serious about female, youth and
worker demographics and attitudes and their future impact on
Japan, so if that doesn't interest you, you might want to stop
reading at that point. (Though I found it interesting.) |
| 30 Dec 2005 |
BBC Radio 4's Today programme had
a four minute piece yesterday on the influence of Philip K.
Dick on Hollywood. Click here to
listen to it (in .ram). |
| 27 Dec 2005 |
 Character
actor Vincent
Schiavelli has died.
I'm sure if you have watched more than a few movies, you will
recognise him. And as Steve K. reminds us, "Schiavelli
did the voice of the one and only 'Bullet Bob' Gorsky
in the Blade Runner video game."
|
| 25 Dec 2005 |
Merry Xmas, or something.
Actually I'm not typing this on Christmas Day and celebrated
Yule a few days before, but whatever you celebrate, I hope
it was better than average. In this frame of mind, I turn to
a satirical view of the world at blather.net.
Mainly a rant about Good and Evil in today's mythology, though
does provide what is potentially the basis for a good debate
- is one of the reasons Blade Runner so enjoyable to some of
us because it doesn't fit neatly into the "good and evil" model
that drives so many other stories? |
| 22 Dec 2005 |
In PopMatters, Colin Harvey
talks about endings - to novel, film and particularly video
game. Should the latter need endings? Do we want them? If a
game is carried through with a narrative, is it not almost
obligatory to have a decent climax? Colin relates the use of
the Blade Runner film(s) in the Game Cultures course he teaches.
And how the ending can affect the entire experience. |
| 15 Dec 2005 |
The author of this article suggests
cricketer Peter McGlashan looks like a character out of Blade
Runner - the orange eyes probably being the most suggestive.
Modified and experimental sports clothes, etc. are simply incremental
advances, but the orange contact lenses by Nike, being
tested out by players of various sports are a definite leap
into the future. They are designed for high speed sports like
baseball and cricket to enhance the contrast between colours,
thus improving vision of the ball. To me this is nothing less
than turning the player into a cyborg. Ordinary contacts
may, in an extreme definition classify the wearer as a cyborg,
but they are designed to correct faulty vision. These new
ones are for enhancing the player's vision beyond 'normal'
human ability. A small step perhaps and many would argue no
different to scientifically researched clothing, equipment,
etc.
Except it is. |
| 13 Dec 2005 |
If you know much about Trance
music, (not that I do), but if you do, you will know BT, who
basically got it all going. When Brian Transeau was asked by
iZotope what
made him want to get into composing film scores, (The Fast
and the Furious, Go, Stealth, Under Suspicion and Monster),
he replied, "It was riding my bike
up to the movie theater when I was a kid and watching Blade
Runner. I watched it six times and decided it was the coolest
thing I had seen or heard. From that point onward I wanted
to score films."
|
| 12 Dec 2005 |
Pinocchio's desire to be human
means the tale must eventually be included in any far-reaching
discussion of Blade Runner. But not so much the Disney prettied-up
version. The original 19th century Italian creation of Carlo
Lorenzini was not so nice, first running away, then getting
his poor creator arrested, killing the Talking Cricket who
acts as his conscience and ending up hanging from a tree. Eventually
resurrected, he continues his bad ways until the very end when
he redeems himself. And if you can't draw parallels with Blade
Runner from that story, you need to switch on your brain. The
Royal Opera House (London) is putting on a production of Pinocchio
based more on the original incarnation, according to The
Independent. |
| 11 Dec 2005 |
Perhaps a more realistic list
of films than the ABC vote mentioned below is the Cinematical's
list of seven SF movies that non-SF fans might like ... though
still of course including Blade Runner. |
| 08 Dec 2005 |
Are you a geek? Whether you
are or not, you may be interested to know that Blade Runner
came top of the Guardian newspaper's
poll of Greatest
Geek Movies. A slightly, not greatly, different
list to the Guardian 'experts' 2004 article of Top
Ten SF Movies. |
| 04 Dec 2005 |
Blade Runner makes third place
in an Australian "Best Film" vote for ABC TV. LotR
not too surprisingly comes first. Amelie rather surprisingly
comes second. Check it out at The
Age or the ABC
site. |
| 19 Nov 2005 |
I mentioned the short animated
film "Fragile Machine" back in August, but worth another mention
I think. fps
magazine chats to Ben Steele about the film of
"a woman engineered into an android" (well, cyborg). Also check
out the Aoineko
main site and the Fragile
Machine site. |
| 15 Nov 2005 |
Boston's
Weekly Dig checks
out the Juan Maclean and his music - influenced by Blade Runner
as evidenced by "Less than Human". |
| 15 Nov 2005 |
With dystopian future films,
it goes without saying that somone in charge is bad, that
rich and poor are separated by an even larger gap than ever,
and that there will be futuristic designs in abundance - of
buildings, of clothes, of objects. Though, the best (like Blade
Runner) will incorporate future retro design as well. But here is
a warning not to directly associate the "total design" of the
future with the totalitarianism often portrayed. The dramatic
extreme of potential futures required to make a good future
dystopia is probably not caused by the future design.
A side
aspect of this article that occurred to me was the
use of BR as image. Not just as the DVD of a good movie
we might carry with us when travelling, but as symbology -
a conceptual viewpoint of the future
that passes as international image currency. Even as a state
of mind? Today it is raining. My mind turns to BR. I close
the blinds so I don't see the trees outside, but imagine the
vast cityscape where I will never actually live but somehow
is part of my psyche anyway. |
| 15 Nov 2005 |
The Xbox 360 game console
is about to be launched and so there is a certain buzz in certain
circles with the move to High Definition, etc. But the console
is useless without good games, so there is even more buzz about
the games. One of them caught my eye - Perfect Dark Zero -
you can see some new screenshots here -
along with that inevitable description... that it has "Blade
Runner-esque environments".
Well, of course it does! |
| 10 Nov 2005 |
Are you a nerd? Is it 3004?
Well watch out for the Nerd Hunter then. He's gonna hunt you
down, because in 3004, it is illegal to be a nerd on Earth,
punishable by death. This is actually an 8 minute film by Jon
Schnepp - "Nerd Hunter 3004" and is mostly a spoof of Blade
Runner. Film Threat reports. |
| 08 Nov 2005 |
When a screenwriter is so
recognised for one particular film as Hampton Fancher is with
Blade Runner, he tends to be mentioned all over with that specific
reference. So today I'll point you to the 2005 Hampton Fancher
in the news. Reported as advisor on a film "made
with assistance from the National Commission for Culture and
the Arts and New York University". The film, called
Rigodon, is about "the
spiritual journeys of three Filipino immigrants in post-9/11
New York City -- chasing after the American dream amid prevailing
suspicion, racial profiling and government crackdowns".
Read the full story at ABS-CBN. |
| 08 Nov 2005 |
Would you be interested if
I told you that November 11-13, Edinburgh will host the European
Biomedical Ethics Film Festival? How about if I mention it
is to showcase a number of films related to bioethics, human
cloning and stem cell research ... like Blade
Runner perhaps? (except see end of this entry) Some
fictional films plus some documentaries on the subject matter
will be shown. The idea that this group of scientists had is
that maybe they could engage the public more on discussion
of these sensitive and oft misunderstood issues. (And there
will be debates with scientists and other guests including
religious representation.) It is likely to be well received
in Britain with its generally pro-science attitude. I wonder
how it would play in the USA with ... well lets just say vastly
more people who push political-religious viewpoints. But there
is hope - I first found out about this in the US-based
Science
and Theology News. NB: Unfortunately, Blade Runner is no
longer being shown and is replaced by 6th Day - according to
the Ethics
of Cloning section of the Edinburgh film festival site. |
| 04 Nov 2005 |
I'm sure most people reading
this page know that Blade Runner was loosely based on PKD's
book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." PKD was
nervous of his novel being made into a film because he distrusted
Hollywood. But what of all the writers who are very much hoping
their book gets optioned for both movie and video game? Should
the studios be involved in "helping" the book be
even more suitable for turning into a film even before the
author has finished it? According to this press
release, the studios are getting
involved earlier and earlier, even before the first draft is
done. A dangerous situation for writing - just look at the
Jeter book sequel to Blade Runner. It reads like somebody describing
a film and ends up being rather a poor effort as a consequence. |
| 03 Nov 2005 |
So, is
there any chance that Los Angeles in 2019 will really resemble
the Blade Runner image? Actually, yes. Check the Los Angeles Daily News to see why. |
| 01 Nov 2005 |
"The
government is pouring money into cutting-edge museums, performing-arts
spaces, and convention centers. Not surprisingly, there has
been a trickle-down effect, as the recent wave of infrastructure
has inspired galleries, stores, and restaurants to open near
the new buildings. Industrial wastelands are being reinvented
as vibrant, hip neighborhoods. Right, you're thinking, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao." No, really
- that's what you're thinking. And you're especially thinking about "British
architect Norman Foster's Blade Runner-esque subway stations." You really are. Well, read this Budget
Travel Online article on Bilbao in Spain
and then perhaps you will. |
| 01 Nov 2005 |
In a slightly different view
of the future of technology and energy, Line56 has
an article titled. "Hitting Camels
in the Butt - The march of technology has a human cost" or
to quote William Gibson, "What
the public wanted was the future." What is our
future and where will the energy to drive it come from? |
| 30 Oct 2005 |
There are always people who
will point to the future and tell us how bad it will be. How
we are inevitably going to end up with that Blade Runneresque
future. And perhaps they're right. Technocrat.net casts
an eye on the future and our sources of energy and points out
some stark facts. Given that even oil companies predict the
world's oil production will peak no later than 2025, we really
should be listening and doing something about it now. |
| 29 Oct 2005 |
The Blade Runner game really
stood out - as one of thebest ever movie-to-game adaptations,
as an adventure game in its own right, and even amongst all
computer games. But where are all the other great adventure
games to follow it? TG
Daily ponders this question. |
| 28 Oct 2005 |
A week or so ago I pointed
to a music-related person referencing Roy Batty's final words.
Lo and behold, here's another. Tom Behrendt uses the short
speech to initiate explanation of what his debut album is all
about. Read about it in OnMilwaukee. |
| 25 Oct 2005 |
Rain. What would BR be without
it? (well ... dry I suppose ... but never mind that - the rain
adds 'atmosphere'). And where has the reputation for being
rainy - well good old blighty, (or the British Isles to you
non-British folk). And icwales has
an article bemoaning the rain. Bollocks! This whole thing about
it being so extremely rainy in Britain is complete crap. For
example, Jerusalem in Israel has a higher annual rainfall than
London. London has 23-28" of rain, but in Champaign, Illinois,
they have 35". In Paris, they have almost three times as much
rainfall as London. The difference is that in England, it tends
to drizzle, whereas in the Bahamas it tends to deluge. i.e.
the rain in England falls over many more days. That is why
it seems more rainy - not because there is more rain, but because
it is spread out over more days. But even then, not as many
as some would have you believe. |
| 24 Oct 2005 |
The
Sunday Times takes a long
look at Tokyo girls. Of course BR is mentioned in the intro,
but this is very much an article about the real Tokyo girls
of today. And just how much things, at least in Tokyo, are
now very different to the traditional stereotype. |
| 23 Oct 2005 |
So... when is TV series 'Lost'
like Blade Runner? Well, Keith McDuffee at TV
Squad has
a theory to do with implanted memories.... |
| 23 Oct 2005 |
Variety, the film industry's
leading news source, has, by reference, basically said that
Blade Runner is the film most improved by a Director's Cut.
The article is
actually about Francis Ford Coppola's extended cut of The Outsiders. |
| 23 Oct 2005 |
With the knowledge that Christopher
Nolan is influenced by Blade Runner, we must of course include
an interview of him talking about the excellent Batman Begins
(amongst other things). Read the interview at Box Office Mojo. |
| 18 Oct 2005 |
Sorry, I can't resist. "Back
to school" caption competition in the Daily
Mail. One of the captions is a Blade Runner reference. |
| 17 Oct 2005 |
So what do Guns N' Roses
have to do with Blade Runner? When James Barber, (who worked
as an A&R at Geffen Records), starts describing them with
Roy Batty's final words... Well, suit yourself. Go read KNAC.com. |
| 15 Oct 2005 |
Whilst Blade Runner is a huge
influence on Science Fiction and even philosophy, it is not
claimed that the ideas and questions behind it are actually
new. Compare to Oedipus for example - a 2500 year old play.
This article makes
that connection, (after explaining the real Oedipus story rather
than the Freud perversion of it). |
| 13 Oct 2005 |
Charlie de Lauzirika, would-be
producer of the BR:SE 3-DVD set, who produced the excellent
Alien Quadrilogy set, talks to IGN about DVDs. Most notably,
that BR DVD set. |
| 11 Oct 2005 |
In any career, it helps to
have someone who inspires you to go ahead and be really good
at what you do. If you come from the Northeast of England and
want to make films, then having Ridley Scott and Blade Runner
as your inpiration is about as good as it gets. Richard Fenwick
and Hayley Manning are inspired and according to the Newcastle
Evening Chronicle, it looks like the inspiration is driving
them to success. |
| 07 Oct 2005 |
In wondering about the future and
saving the planet, the Blade Runner L.A. 2019 is held up as
an example of what isn't green. But Elizabeth Farrelly of the
Sydney
Morning Herald argues the case for just why high rise,
high density living is actually "greener"
than suburbia. (As long as their are still parks.) |
| 07 Oct 2005 |
Following on from the last
article, in
a one-on-one interview with The
Independent,
Scott talks about his life and films - a good article even
for those who are familiar with the subject. |
| 06 Oct 2005 |
Ridley Scott talks to reporters
about the Kingdom of Heaven ... and about some success and
some narrow-mindedness, but provocatively mentions the Director's
Cut which could be 45 minutes longer and take away some of
the problems with the released version... The
Guardian has the full story. |
| 05 Oct 2005 |
Prior to the RoboNexus conference (a
very serious robotics conference and not just people talking
about when the Nexus 6 is coming out ... or are they?), ZDNet does
an excellent layman's review of the state of robotics today,
quickly reviewing all the different robots out there and looking
forward to what's next. |
| 04 Oct 2005 |
In my occasional news articles
pointers virtual tour of which cities look like some part
of Blade Runner, I could hardly ignore London when it cropped
up. Or more specifically the area of Soho. Actually Clayton
Moore at Bookslut is
reviewing a number of Brit-authored books that range across
the UK. Worth a read... |
| 04 Oct 2005 |
So what has Daryl Hannah been
up to? In another non-movie news story, she has designed (with
Hilary Shepard) a board game called LIEbrary, selling through SimplyFun.
The game involves giving a title and description of a
book, then players make up the first line and write it down,
and sort of like Call My Bluff, the made up lines are read
out with the real one and players vote which they think is
the real one. Convincing made-up first lines will get a player
to the end of the board first. Press
release. |
| 03 Oct 2005 |
As with most SF movies that
come out these days, someone will inevitably make some sort
of comparison with one or more aspects of Blade Runner. With
Serenity, there are many who do. So I've picked one intelligent
review out of them all - Locus
Mag. One negative point though, that seems to slip past
Western reviewers, is that although like Blade Runner, Asian
language is integrated into the street lingo, unlike Blade
Runner, people of Asian descent are strangely absent... |
