NPR: 'I'm Not in the Business. I Am the Business.'

'I'm Not in the Business. I Am the Business.'

Director Ridley Scott attends the Blade Runner premiere at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

I just got off the phone with Tom Bullock, our head foreign producer. When both of us are in the country, we share a very small, very messy office. He's in Baghdad right now, but I called him with the news that Ridley Scott is releasing yet another version of Blade Runner in the coming months.

We have had a long-running conversation about various top fives (obviously inspired by High Fidelity), and Blade Runner makes both of our lists. As does The Empire Strikes Back, as well as Alien and Aliens. We disagree about the last entry, but that's simply because he's wrong in thinking 2001 is better than Terminator.

But yet another cut of Blade Runner? The movie was released 25 years ago, the director's cut 15 years ago, and now a five-disc set.

Blade Runner, in my opinion, still works. It feels real. It feels like a dirty, rainy, global megalopolis that could exist today. It still feels like an accurate portrayal of an ever-approaching future.

Why? Well, Wired has an interview with Scott this week. Here's what he says about how he approached the design of the film:

In this instance, my special effect was the world. That's why I put together people like [industrial designer] Syd Mead who were actually serious futurists. The big test is saying, Draw me a car in 30 years' time, without it looking like bad science fiction. Or, Draw me an electric iron that will be pressing shirts in 20 years without it looking silly. I wanted the world to be futuristic and yet feel — not familiar, because it won't be — but feel authentic. One of the hardest sets to design was the kitchen. It's easy to fantasize about Tyrell's giant neo-Egyptianesque boardroom, but imagining a bathroom and kitchen in those times, that's tricky. Nevertheless, fascinating. I love the problem.

It's on my Netflix list. You all rate the top five differently?

- JJ Sutherland

12:17 PM ET | 09-28-2007 | permalink

Comments

Those hardly a top five at all. BEHOLD:

1. Brazil
2. The Devil and Daniel Webster
3. City of Lost Children
4. The Night of the Hunter
5. Ikiru

Now that's a top 5

Sent by Jody Sol | 12:52 PM ET | 09-28-2007

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