Steven Spielberg: "I thought Ridley [Scott, director of Blade Runner] painted a very bleak but brilliant vision of life on earth in a few years. It's kind of acid rain and sushi. In fact, it's coming true faster than most science fiction films come true. Blade Runner is almost upon us. It was ultranoir."
http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/10.06/spielberg_pr.html
Alex
Q. You revisited Blade Runner a couple of times. Have you ever felt like revisiting any of your other films?
Sir Ridley Scott: They never asked. I would. There’s not a lot to change, though. With Blade Runner, I knew I’d nailed it really good, or I thought I had, but I hadn’t because no one got it except for a few loony diehards. In fact, the Wachowski brothers were asked about it recently and they said: “Of course we *beep* liked it… but no one else did.” So, they were being complimentary and bitchy at the same time. So I say that what they did was copy Blade Runner… it obviously influenced everything they do. So they can stick that up their pipe and smoke it.
Anyway, I knew what I did but because we were obliged to do audience research, where you screen the movie before you finish it, they were sitting there, fidgeting and then decided: “It’s a depressing ending.” They also asked: “What is city speak?” Well, you find that out during the movie unless you’re half a moron. But now we had to put on a voice-over and that silly ending where they drive off into those beautiful mountains. If you had that beautiful countryside, though, why the *beep* would you live in that city? It didn’t make any sense. So, all I did was remove the voice-over, remove the ending, polish up the blacks that had faded a little bit in 25 years and it looked like it was made yesterday.
Alex
BBC’s Film 2011 Questionnaire: Edgar Wright
Favorite Film?
Edgar Wright: Is Raising Arizona - 1987 - by the Coen brothers. I saw it on VHS, I didn’t see it at the cinema. And as soon as it finished, I put it back into the player, rewound it and started again. Because I was just kinda…my mind was completely fried from what I’d seen. And I just think it’s the perfect blend of, like, comedy and action. I love the way it looks, I love the performances. The whole pre-credit sequence is incredible, which is…just blew my mind cuz it was like watching a short before the feature.
Overrated Classic?
Edgar Wright: I used to feel that way about Blade Runner when I first saw it. Not that I didn’t like it, I just didn’t quite get it until I saw it on the big screen. I remember watching it on video a bunch of times and not quite getting my head round it. And then it took seeing it on the big screen for me to sort of finally luxuriate in it. I feel whatever I say is like, kinda like, it’s kinda geek heresy if you say something…there’s things I would say in private that I wouldn’t say on TV [laughs]. Cuz I’m a coward!
I never came across that one before. Good find, tony.
I feel whatever I say is like, kinda like, it’s kinda geek heresy if you say something…there’s things I would say in private that I wouldn’t say on TV [laughs]. Cuz I’m a coward!
Is Wright still talking about Blade Runner here?
Alex
Question: So we're not going to consider you for the Blade Runner sequel/prequel?
Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code): I love Blade Runner, as you know, I'm a huge fan of Blade Runner. I wouldn't touch that with a stick!
http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/03/17/duncan-jones-interview-source-cod e/
That's the spirit, Duncan!
Alex
Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds, 300, and Ridley Scott's upcoming Prometheus): "Blade Runner is my favorite movie. I just love that movie. And really I love all the different versions, I just don’t care, I love that world and whatever you want to take from it you can take from it, nothing is fore-set in any way. I love that it’s a very feasible futuristic place, and again that quality that you’re in a thriller but you don’t know it. There’s always something at play and everyone has an agenda but none of it is really openly expressed."
http://geektyrant.com/news/2011/4/8/michael-fassbender-calls-ridley-sc otts-prometheus-breathtaki.html
Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner, The Hitcher, Hobo With A Shotgun): "If Christopher Nolan would be on it I’d say, ‘All right, go for it'! But otherwise you can’t do it. ‘Blade Runner’ is such a unique film. How do you describe a diamond? I don’t think you should ever touch it again."
Et tu, Hauer?!
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/04/01/rutger-hauer-only-christophe r-nolan-should-make-new-blade-runner-film/#/0
Alex
George R.R. Martin Picks His Favorite Science-Fiction Films of All Time
George R.R. Martin – Thu Mar 31, 12:38 am ET
NEW YORK – Game of Thrones, HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s first book in his bestselling series, premieres April 17—and the network is showing the first 15 minutes of the first episode this Sunday. In anticipation, the writer curates his 10 favorite science-fiction films, from The Road Warrior to Blade Runner. And check back next week, when Martin curates his favorite fantasy films.
1. Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Tempest on Altair IV. The only science-fiction film that William Shakespeare ever wrote (admittedly with some help from screenwriter Cyril Hume). The Bard of Avon and Robby the Robot make a combination that has still yet to be surpassed. Leslie Nielsen plays Captain Kirk a decade before William Shatner, and does it better. In fact, the C-57-D and its command trio of captain, first officer, and doctor are clear forerunners of the Enterprise and its Kirk/Spock/Bones triad, though none of Kirk’s myriad love interests could hold a candle to Anne Francis as the sexy yet innocent Altaira. It’s Walter Pidgeon who steals the film, however. His layered portrayal of the tormented Morbius is almost… well… Shakespearean. And did I mention Robby the Robot? Forbidden Planet was his first film role, but Robby went on to make numerous appearances in other movies and television episodes, a career that R2D2, C3PO, and Robocop can only envy. Forbidden Planet’s visuals and special effects were state of the art in their day, and still hold up pretty well… especially the sequence where the invisible Id monster gets caught in the disintegrator beams. The score was also amazing and unique, done in electronic tonalities that remain as unsettling as they were revolutionary. I hear rumors that they are going to remake this. Please, no.
2. Aliens (1986)
Once upon a time, Robert A. Heinlein wrote a classic (and controversial) science-fiction novel called Starship Troopers, which is still being read and argued about today. Many years later, director Paul Verhoeven and writer Edward Neumeier made a very bad film called Starship Troopers. Fortunately RAH was dead by then and never had to see it. In between, James Cameron made Aliens. According to Hollywood legend, when Cameron heard that they were going to film Starship Troopers, he said, “Why bother? I’ve done it.” And, you know, he had. His film was not based on the novel Starship Troopers, of course, but his Colonial Marines come a lot closer to the spirit and feel of Heinlein’s Mobile Infantry than anything in the Verhoeven movie, while still remaining true to the Alien franchise. Aliens is one of the rare cases of a sequel that was actually better than the original (no mean trick here, since the original was pretty damned good). This is probably Sigourney Weaver’s best turn as Ripley, though all of them were good. Her supporting cast was great as well: Hicks (Michael Biehn), Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), the heroic android Bishop (Lance Henriksen), and especially Newt, as played by Carrie Henn. “Will I dream?” Newt asks Ripley in the last scene of the film, just before they settle down into their capsules for a long, cold sleep. “Yes” would be my answer. If they ever put me in charge of the franchise, the next Alien film will open with Newt waking up safe on Earth, having dreamed all those later, awful Alien movies.
3. Blade Runner (1982)
Poor Philip K. Dick. One of the true geniuses of science fiction, he struggled all his life to find an audience, and never had two nickels to rub together. Then, after he dies, he gets discovered by Hollywood, and film after film after film follows. Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, and more on the way. But Blade Runner was the first Dick film and remains the best. Based on Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, with a title borrowed from an unrelated novel by Alan Nourse, Blade Runner gave film audiences an entirely new vision of what the future might hold, very different from the sterile universe of Star Trek and its ilk. This was a gritty, dirty, dark tomorrow where it seemed to rain day and night, brought to vivid life by Ridley Scott’s superb direction, Syd Mead’s amazing production designs, and a script by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples that even Dick might have liked. Forget the theatrical release, with its hokey voice-overs and tacked-on happy ending. To get the true impact of this one, the director’s cut is the only way to go. I still get a chill listening to Rutger Hauer’s final speech. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I’ve watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. Time to die.”
4. Alien (1979)
Some purists will argue that Alien is really a horror film in science-fiction drag, and maybe they have a point. But it’s a great horror film in science-fiction drag. The look of the film was unique; we had never seen a spaceship like the Nostromo before, though you have to wonder about all those dripping pipes—did this starship run on steam? H.R. Giger’s alien designs made “Gigeresque” an adjective. The blue-collar down-and-dirty crew seemed like real people. The chest-burster scene is strong stuff even today, and those who saw it in the theaters without knowing what was coming, like me, will never forget it. Tom Skerritt’s death packed almost as much punch (a chorus of “Wait a minute, I thought Dallas was the hero” was heard across the land). After that, you knew that no one was safe. And then there was the life-pod scene, Ripley in her underwear and the Alien in the pipes, sex and horror mashed together. From where I sit, Ripley is the defining role of Sigourney Weaver’s career. The fact that she never won an Oscar for Ripley just underlines the sad truth that the Academy does not honor actors for roles in science-fiction or fantasy films, no matter how good they are. (The single conspicuous exception will be dealt with when I get to my Honorable Mentions.)
5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
There have been four versions of this story filmed to date, all deriving from the original Jack Finney novel, though I doubt the makers of the three remakes are familiar with anything beyond the original film. Every time they remake it, it gets worse. The second film, the 1978 Philip Kaufman version with Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum, is not half bad. Let’s be kind and pretend that Body Snatchers (1993) and The Invasion (2007) do not exist. It’s only the 1956 original that belongs on this list. A classic tale of creeping Red Scare paranoia and alien invasion, full of fathers who aren’t fathers, husbands who aren’t husbands, wives who aren’t wives, director Don Siegel’s film made a whole generation afraid to go to sleep, and contributed the phrase “pod people” to the idiom. The ending, with a crazed Kevin McCarthy standing on the highway shouting, “You’re next,” at passing cars, came as a real shock to the filmgoers of the 1950s, who expected happy endings in their monster movies.
6. The Road Warrior (1981)
The second of the three Mad Max films is by far the best. The original Mad Max was utterly forgettable, and while Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome has some great parts—the Thunderdome itself, Master/Blaster, Tina Turner’s turn as Queen of Bartertown, and the wonderful language of the tribe of lost children—it also recycles some of the best bits of The Road Warrior rather shamelessly. But The Road Warrior has it all. Mel Gibson is perfect as the reluctant hero, but much of the film’s juice comes from its supporting characters: Wez and the Humungous (“the Ayatollah of Rocknrollah!”), the Feral Kid, Pappagallo, the Mechanic, the Warrior Woman (played by Virginia Hey, who would later sign aboard Farscape)… and best of all, the Gyro Captain, masterfully played by Bruce Spence (“Remember lingerie?”). You have to love the end, where the embittered loner Max remains an embittered loner, while the lecherous cigar-chomping Gyro Captain becomes the new leader of the tribe. Maybe if he’d known that Thunderdome, Tina Turner, and all those pigs were waiting in his future, Max would have made a different decision.
7. Dark Star (1974)
Some indie films are made on low budgets. Dark Star looks as though it was made with whatever loose change John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon found under their couch cushions. The alien is a beach ball. Half the videos on YouTube have better SFX. Never mind, it is still the funniest science-fiction film ever made. Pinback’s video diary, the whole “Time to Feed the Alien” sequence, “Let’s Have Some Music in Here, Boiler,” Lt. Doolittle’s climactic conversation with Bomb 20—any of those segments would be worth the price of admission all by themselves. And then the end, Doolittle on his improvised surfboard, flaming into the atmosphere as “Benson, Arizona” comes up once again …perfect.
8. The War of the Worlds (1953)
The George Pal version, if you please. Steven Spielberg’s 2005 remake hews closer to the H.G. Wells novel (and even blows up my hometown of Bayonne, New Jersey!) but loses points for having its aliens (no longer Martians) riding down on lightning bolts to activate tripods they buried thousands of years ago. Excuse me? Whose bright idea was that? In the 1953 version, produced by Pal and directed by Byron Haskin, the Martians (yay!) crash to earth in flaming cylinders, the way God and H.G. Wells intended it. Pal could not do realistic tripods with the special-effects technology available to him in 1953, but the floating “manta ray” war machines he offered us instead were elegant, ominous, and unforgettable. And the scene where the Flying Wing lifts off to drop the H-bomb on the Martians thrilled and chilled every kid in America. I’ll grant you that the Pal film ends with the biggest deus ex machina in cinematic history, but so does the Spielberg film and every other version. (There have been six to date, but only the Pal and the Spielberg are worth watching.) Can’t be helped. That’s the way H.G. ended the book, too. Now if only someone (Billy Bob Thornton, maybe?) would film Howard Waldrop’s irreverent coda, Night of the Cooters.
9. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The original version, of course. That thing with Keanu Reaves could not make a list of the top 100 science-fiction films. How do you remake The Day the Earth Stood Still and turn “Klaatu Barada Nikto” into a mumbled throwaway aside? That’s like remaking Citizen Kane and leaving out Rosebud. Jennifer Connelly, while lovely to look upon, is no Patricia Neal, and Keanu Reaves is certainly no Michael Rennie. Keanu’s acting range more closely approximates that of Gort from the first film. Edmund North’s script for the 1951 original actually improves on its source material, the Harry Bates short story “Farewell to the Master,” and Robert Wise’s direction is sure-handed and impeccable. There’s a certain sentimentality to the ’51 film that may come across as hokey to modern audiences, but I find that infinitely preferable to the sour misanthropy of the remake. And the original is intelligent from start to finish, where the remake is relentlessly stupid.
10. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
If you have to have a Star Wars film on the list, this is the one. The original Star Wars—I refuse to call it A New Hope—changed the face of movies and science fiction both, though not always in good ways. It has dated rather badly, though. Empire holds up better, perhaps because of the Leigh Brackett script. She was the best writer ever to work on the franchise. The second film gives us more of Han Solo and Darth Vader and less of Luke, which is all to the good. Alec Guinness is missed, but we get Yoda. R2D2 and C3PO are still fun, not yet the annoyances they become in the prequel trilogy. Lucas has yet to conceive of Jar Jar Binks, thank God, and those cuddly cute Ewoks remain a film in the future. The ice planet and the swamp planet and the floating city were all familiar staples of print science fiction, and had been since the heyday of the pulps, but it was a thrill to see them realized on screen for the first time.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Well, there’s Avatar (2009). Amazing special effects, a feast for the eyes, but I liked the story better when they called it Dances With Wolves. Then you have Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), if you like watching Richard Dreyfuss playing with his mashed potatoes. I want to see the movie that starts where Close Encounters ends, the one about the people boarding that starship. Serenity (2005) has a lot to recommend it, but ultimately comes across as what is: the last episode of the ill-fated and much-mourned TV series Firefly. For those who never watched the show, the film has far less impact. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) was the best of the Trek films, but that still doesn’t earn it a place on the list. Maybe if I was doing the Top 20 instead of the Top 10. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is certainly a landmark, a film that students of the cinema, Kubrick fans, and French critics love to analyze and ponder. If only it wasn’t so bloody dull. The only memorable character in the film is the HAL 9000.
Galaxy Quest… ah, Galaxy Quest (1999). Maybe I should have put that one in the No. 10 slot, in place of Empire. It’s a Star Trek parody that’s better than any of the Star Trek films. “This episode was very badly written!” Maybe, but the film was not. A near-miss. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) had an amazing array of talent behind it. A script by Ian Watson, based on a story by Brian Aldiss, directed by Steven Spielberg, working with material that Stanley Kubrick had developed for years. They produced a brilliant, haunting, gorgeous, but ultimately flawed masterpiece. This one came close, too. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) is… what? Science fiction? Horror? Musical comedy? Cult film? Act along? It is certainly in the Top 10 of whatever the hell it is, once we find a category for it.
Galaxy Quest, 1999
The only science-fiction film ever to win an Academy Award for acting—science fiction and fantasy have won plenty of Oscars for special effects, makeup, etc.—was Charly (1968). Cliff Robertson took home the Oscar for his performance as Charly Gordon, a role he’d originally performed in a television adaptation of the same story, called The Two Worlds of Charly Gordon. The TV version was based on Flowers for Algernon, the classic short story by Daniel Keyes, the film version (script by Stirling Silliphant) of the novel Keyes made by expanding that story. In both cases, shorter was better.
Charly, 1968
Plus: Check out more of the latest entertainment, fashion, and culture coverage on Sexy Beast—photos, videos, features, and Tweets.
Author George R.R. Martin—born September 20, 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey—has written numerous novels, short-story collections, and television shows. His bestselling series of books, A Song of Ice and Fire, is the basis for HBO's new show Game of Thrones. Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Leila Rasheed (author):
3) Speaking of films, my favourite film is Bladerunner.
4) Speaking of Bladerunner, I used to want to be an archaeologist because of watching Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies.
"Niche magazines and various books have long celebrated BLADE RUNNER, the best designed film of the last 25 years, (and one even Stanley Kubrick cited as the most beautiful color film, period), ..."
Empire 2/04, Adam Smith
“You know,” says John Woo, purveyor of murderous, cordite-tinged mayhem for over two decades now, as he leans towards Empire in the manner of one about to reveal a great secret, ”actually I’m just an old hippie.” Which comes as something of a surprise. Not only is it difficult to imagine the immaculately be-suited director sitting before us swathed in a caftan, his unique amalgam of slo-mo bloodletting and operatic ultra violence would seem to be a world away from the herb-scented air of the Age Of Aquarius. But, in fact, closer examination reveals that there is indeed a soft, humanistic centre to Woo’s violently stylish edge. As an action director he is unique in constantly pursuing the same themes of friendship, honour, betrayal, fidelity and true love, albeit via the medium of billowing explosions and people flying through plate-glass windows. Oh, and doves. Lots of doves. “I like doves,” Woo announces, somewhat redundantly. “They look so beautiful, like a woman. For me they represent peace and love and purity. And sometimes they’re seen as the messengers of God, so they’re important to me because I’m a Christian.” But for this outing Woo has toned the avian content to just one solitary feathered friend, and he’s also pulled back on the traditional ‘Woo factor’. There’s very little slo-mo, only a couple of restrained, double-handed Mexican stand-offs and the odd freeze frame. Is he losing his touch? “I’ve been trying to make the action more realistic,” he says. “It’s deliberate. It’s a story about an ordinary man, so I held back a little bit.” And then there’s the concern that for the past decade or so, almost every action director of note has been ripping Woo off (or paying homage, if you’re being polite). For good or ill, The Matrix trilogy’s blend of kinetic action, hectic editing and surreal wire-work, as well as its fetishisation of fire-arms, are unthinkable without Woo. As is Robert Rodriguez’s Mariachi trilogy. In fact, it’s arguable that no foreign director has had as profound an influence on the style of American popular cinema since the Movie Brats donned their black roll-necks and decided to check out this Truffaut guy. But is he bothered by this kind of shameless pilfering? “I think we all help each other,” he remarks diplomatically. “To be honest, I’m pretty happy about it. When I was young I learned so much by watching other people’s films, David Lean, Hitchcock, and Kurasawa. We had no film schools in Hong Kong so you had to learn by seeing movies. And now, maybe some young people are learning things from my movies.” Adapted from the Philip K. Dick novel, Paycheck reprises the common Dickensian themes of memory and identity with its impressively paradox-riddled tale of a man who reverse-engineers technology for large corporations before having his memory wiped in order to protect their intellectual copyright. There’s also the familiar element of a machine that can view the future (see Minority Report). It’s Woo’s first foray into pure science-fiction – if you don’t count the loopy speculative technology in trading faces drama Face/Off – and it’s a genre he approached with some trepidation, particularly since Dick has been adapted by two of American cinema’s undisputed heavyweights. “I’m not a good sci-fi director – I’m not as good as Ridley Scott with Blade Runner or Steven Spielberg with Minority Report,” he says. “Those are great movies. Originally Paycheck was a very hi-tech screenplay, but I just decided to do it simply. You know, I don’t know much at all about computers or technology, so I got rid of all but a little of the futuristic element and focused on the human story.” The human story in question is that of Michael Jennings (Affleck), who on completing a two-year job expects a massive pay-off, but instead gets an envelope full of unrelated objects which he has apparently sent to himself. Woo’s casting of Affleck nods towards Cary Grant’s dapper but bewildered Roger O. Thornhill in North By Northwest (in fact, the film is packed with Hitchcock references). “I love Ben since I saw him in Good Will Hunting,” says Woo. “He’s a fine filmmaker, too.” All of which makes it a bit awkward when it turns out that Ben Affleck actually wasn’t Woo’s first choice for the role at all. “Ah, no…” he murmurs, apparently reluctant to proceed any further. Who was it then? “Ah, er um… Matt Damon,” he winces. “Yeah, Matt was the one who heard about it,” breezes Ben Affleck, apparently utterly unfazed by the notion of accepting the cinematic equivalent of his pal’s sloppy seconds. “Matt called me up and said, ‘You know I got this script, it’s John Woo.’ Woo had seen The Bourne Identity and thought of Matt for it. But Matt said it was too similar for him to do it, dealing with the amnesia aspect. But he said it was a really good script. That’s what it’s like with Matt. It’s nice having a friend in the industry that you can bounce ideas off without them having some agenda or other.” It’s not the first actioner in which Affleck has gotten himself involved. Both Armageddon and Pearl Harbor attempted to shoehorn Affleck into the matinée-idol mould. The experience has not always proved pleasant. “The difference between Michael Bay and John Woo?” Affleck ponders as Empire requests a snap compare and contrast between the two directors. “Well, John Woo is a gentleman and a prince, and Michael Bay is like this 13 year-old *beep* he concludes. “He’s sort of screaming all the time. It makes it hard. Some people – and not just Michael – feel the need to create drama and tension and anxiety to get what they want. And Woo demonstrates that this is not true. He’s the sweetest, humblest, most decent man.” …
Vincent Ward (circa 2002):
1.Andrei Roublev (Tarkovsky)
2.La strada (Fellini)
3.The General (Keaton)
4.The Navigator (Keaton)
5.The Apartment (Wilder)
6.Sunrise (Murnau)
7.The Wind (Sjöström)
8.Metropolis (Lang)
9.Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Riesner)
10.Blade Runner (Scott)
Denis Dyack (Eternal Darkness, MGS: Twin Snakes): My favorite movie of all time is Blade Runner, I think it was well beyond its time. It really set the stage for science fiction for quite a while, and still does. I love movies so much this is always hard -- I keep a top 20, but it's changing all the time. I guess I like movies that are poignant and say something -- The Godfather, The Usual Suspects, Apocalypse Now. Those probably sound like stereotypes. Influences on my games … did you ever see Ninja Scroll? You know the fight scene, where the blind demon was fighting Jubei? From Samurai Shodown? [laughs] That fight scene influenced the fight between Kain...no, between Vorador and Malek in Legacy of Kain. I really liked the way the cinematography was designed in that, the way it flowed. That happens all the time. I believe that in our industry you have to immerse yourself in media, you have to know what's around you. Miyamoto Musashi, in the Book of Five Rings, said you have to "know all the arts." You have to know music, you have to know movies, you have to know cinematography, all kinds of things. My favorite directors are people like James Cameron, I like a lot of his movies -- these are going to be stereotypes too. Steven Spielberg, I like some of his movies a lot, and hate some of his movies a lot. Stanley Kubrick's up there -- 2001, The Shining. I really strongly feel that you have to study the classics in order to progress -- that's sort of a theme in Eternal Darkness. By studying film -- and I think you really see that in Twin Snakes -- the cinematography is a big deal. The way that's done, the way you can create emotion and movie the audience to the point where they lose track of time and get immersed in the game, that's what we have to study. We just have to apply that now in nonlinear ways. Like with the camera system in a game ... you have to anticipate what a user's going to do.
Michel Ancel (Rayman, Beyond Good & Evil): Pulp Fiction for the non conventional and upside-down scenario. Blade Runner because of this strange atmosphere of humanity vs. technology and darkness. Grave of the Fireflies because it touches you so strongly without big effects or technology, just with a sincere storytelling. I would also add Fight Club and Twelve Monkeys. All these movies are about darkness but a piece of humanity, of meaning. Terry Gilliam, Quentin Tarantino , Ethan and Joel Coen, Wim Wenders, Tom Tykwer -- all these directors are pushing the movie industry into new directions, innovations and use of visuals for an unconventional way of telling stories. We need these people's vision because they change our point of view. If you look at the same subject with the same point of view, the same rhythm, the same effects, you don't have the feeling of evolving. So these directors make us think in different ways, which is very interesting. The video game industry needs this kind of energy to be able to explore a lot of directions. Now for each new game, I'm trying to think about the point of view, the structure, in order to please and to surprise myself and the players. I like the fact that everything is possible in Pulp Fiction. The heroes can die, the bad guys can be heroes. It's just unpredictable and at the same time it's always logical. When the character of Bruce Willis escapes from the mafia guys, you think that he's free, that he did it. But that's wrong. He stops at a light, and who is crossing the street with a burger in his hand? The chief of the mafia! That's absolutely stupid and crazy, but it works. And the two guys start to fight in the street until they arrive in a small shop, and at this time, when you think that you have seen the worst things, it appears to be the beginning of the descent into hell. So you never know where the limits are. You're just like the people in the movie; you're under the director's control. In this kind of structure, surprise and contrast are connected and avoid making you bored by repetitive or too predictable things. Most of all, the fact that it's always logical or possible is very important in this movie. I think that we can add this kind of emotion in a game. In Beyond Good & Evil, we tried to add these kinds of events that sustain the player in a good story rhythm.
Favorite video game? Movie?
Jeremiah Palecek: Um, favorite video game. Well this is a two part answer. Favorite old school game would have to be Joust for the Atari 2600, and contemporary game I would have to say that I'm an absolute slave to Counterstrike. Counterstrike is like crack for gamers. Well, actually Quake is crack for gamers, but I like killing people instead of aliens. Favorite film would be toss up between Blade Runner, and the original Planet of the Apes.
Are there any artists you look up to?
Jack Moik (Magna Mana FX): Douglas Trumbull. I envy him for all those unforgettable moments he created, starting from 2001-Odyssey to my most favourite movie which is Blade Runner.
- What were your influences ?
Ivan Engler: My all time favourite movie is “BLADE RUNNER”. Next to a fantastic and very philosophical story, Ridley Scott transports so many moods, so many touching and dazzling snapshots of this unique future, that everytime I see the movie, the movie touches me not only by the emotional journeys the protagonists go through, but also by all its moods and moments. Same thing goes for “ALIEN”. So these two films were big and important influences for the creation of CARGO. Next to that, I am a big fan of Michelangelo Antonioni and Andrei Tarkovsky. Both these filmmakers were masters in creating moods and setting special tones, so they are like idols to me and I have seen all their films many times. I am also a fan of animated japanese movies like “GHOST IN THE SHELL” and “AKIRA”. And of course, Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron were important influences as well – I grew up living next to a video rental store, and many of my afternoons were filled with just watching movies. I also read a lot of comic books, mostly french and belgian stuff. There are so many good stories in these books, I sometimes wonder why they are not made into films? On the literary side, I love Philip K. Dick (Do androids dream of electric sheep?), William Gibson (Neuromancer) and Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash). There is a pile of other SciFi books I wanted to read since a long time, like “Diaspora” by Greg Egan and all the books by Tad Williams, but during the last years I did not have the time and inner peace to sit down and read. I am looking forward to this winter where I can sit in the warmth and read. Another very important influence for me is music and sound. I love the early ambient albums of Brian Eno, Michael Brook, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the early Pink Floyd, very psychedelic, very inspiring for mind journeys. I love music that takes you onto a journey. I cannot stand the actual “radio hit single”, it makes me vomit. A good album should let you forget time and space and take you on a mind trip. I remember listening to Pink Floyds “Welcome to the machine” when I was a 7 year old kid. I got up very early in the morning, just after christmas, and must have listened to the record at least 5 times already, when my mum dragged me out for a morning walk. Once outside, in the wintermorning fog, I suddenly saw two suns at the sky. Two suns! An emotional moment I will never forget. Of course, one of these “suns” was the full moon that was still up, and behind the fog it looked like an additional sun. But from this moment on I was deeply fascinated by all things in space, by the infinite possibilities and infinite depths of space. And all this will always be connected with “Welcome to the machine”.
Robert Chang:
Bladerunner (1983) - One of the most influential sci-fi classics, and requires some intelligence and maturity to sit through (I say that because I often hear people say they thought it was boring when they watched it as a teenager, but seeing it again as adults they fall head over heels for the film.
Thanks, Tony! Impressively enough, they were all new.
shareScott Stewart (director of Priest, Legion): When you have a dense science fiction city, everyone immediately goes to "Blade Runner". We live in the shadow of "Blade Runner", so you can't really deny it when, particuarly, we were really influenced by Soviet socialist cities and facist design. Propaganda and the industrial revolution. That all got mashed together with some futuristic concepts. We called it retro-futurism.
Shock: It was shot with lenses from the '70's, too, right?
Scott Stewart: Yeah, we used these anamorphic lenses which are rare now. You have to try and assemble a set of them. Then we had some new ones built for us. Don Burgess was my cameraman on the movie. Don shot "Forrest Gump" and "Spider-Man" and he was really excited to have a chance to go back and shoot anamorphic. The movies that I grew up loving, "Blade Runner" and "Star Wars" and "Alien" and some of the 70's westerns were shot with those lenses. They have flares and all sorts of nasty things that they've been trying to remove from lenses for years because they make visual effects harder. But they look great. They look beautiful. I love the flares and I love how distorted the image gets.
http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/articlenews.php?id=18692
Karl Urban (Priest): And upon reading the script I met with director Scott Stewart and found myself to be quite in sync with him. The way he outlined his vision for the film was loaded with references that I understood and respected. He was talking about Blade Runner, Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood and films like The Searchers. It was clear to me that he was very specific in his vision and what he was attempting to achieve had a truly epic quality to it. So I figured when you encounter someone like that it’s a good idea to go with it.
http://www.filmshaft.com/exclusive-karl-urban-priest-3d-round-table-in terview/
Alex
Vincenzo Natali (Director of Cube, Cypher, Splice and the upcoming Neuromancer): I think when you read it now, it still feels very relevant, maybe in some ways more relevant, because so much of what it predicted has come to pass. And therefore, my approach to it would be to be very realistic. I think The Matrix is a wonderful film, but it absolutely takes place in a comic book universe…everything about it, in the best possible way mind you, but really I think it’s a very heightened reality…
Neuromancer is a future reality, but I don’t want to glamorize it, I don’t want to inject steroids into it. I want it to feel very palpable and real, and still exciting, of course, but I think if I had to make a comparison, a little more of the Blade Runner type universe, which is kind of a more adult-type of movie. And that’s what I think this film should be because it’s dealing with very important and exciting themes. And I think that’s where my take on it and what excites me about the book will distinguish it from other films, in so much as, in my mind, Neuromancer is really about our post-human future. It’s about how we, in the future, are going to relate to machine consciousness. In the same way that Splice is sort of a treatise on how we’re changing our bodies, Neuromancer could be a treatise on how we’re changing our minds, evolving our consciousness.
http://www.slashfilm.com/neuromancer-preproduction/
Alex
My Favorite Movie: Dominic Cooper
Dominic Cooper (The Devil's Double, Captain America, ...): "Growing up, a movie that I always really loved was 'Blade Runner'. It was something that I was really inspired by because the whole concept, the whole image and look of the future was just really interesting to me. I loved that the way they portrayed it was kind of dirty. The future didn't work that well. It wasn't glossy. It was run-down. It was a run-down image of the future during that flashy period of the '80s and I really kind of liked the way this stood out. It totally caught my attention, even as a kid. Now it's a movie that I can still watch today, which really makes it great. I must have watched that movie--I don't even know how many times... a lot!"
http://www.nextmovie.com/blog/dominic-cooper-favorite-movie/
Alex
Actress Zoe Saldana:
Zoe Saldana thinks cinema should always “push the limits...Kill Bill, Alien, Die Hard, Blade Runner, The Matrix, Inception... I like movies which set the tone and which challenge the technology previous pictures had allowed,” she told France’s L'Express when asked about her favourite movies.
http://www.film-news.co.uk/show-news.asp?H=Zoe-Saldana-enjoys-risky-ci nema&nItemID=6349
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Director Joe Cornish on Attack the Block
Did you have the cinematography in mind when you started?
Yeah, one thing I noticed about a lot of the movies I loved Blade Runner, Alien, Streets of Fire, The Warriors, all take place almost entirely at night. And that forces you to light everything, and it forces you to think about how you light everything. And it forces us to think about light both inside the frame and outside the frame, which is how we ended up with the glow in the dark teeth, etc.
http://screencrave.com/2011-07-27/1-1-interview-joe-cornish/
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Moon Bloodgood (Terminator Salvation/Street Fighter/The Surrogate 2012): "But anytime Alien is on—I watch it every single time it's on — it's really beautiful. It's well-acted, it's a piece of art. It's well crafted. There's a certain stillness in sci-fiction. Not the sci-fiction now where it's become a little hokey. I want classic Blade Runner — movies like that."
http://www.complex.com/girls/2011/06/interview-moon-bloodgood-falling- skies
Alex
Hope this isn't a repeat.
Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Avalon): People tend to classify my movies as cyberpunk fictions but I personally don't think they are. There are some films that I really enjoy such as Blade Runner, and they may have been helpful in making my movies to a certain degree, but I think many filmmakers consider so other than just myself. When you create a film dealing with humans and cyborgs, you have no choice but to refer back to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, as this movie is probably the foundation of movies with this theme. Whether I'm trying to re-appropriate his language or not may not apply to my movies, because my goal is to always make a new movie that nobody has ever seen before. I think I've proven that with Innocence.
http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/mamoru_oshii.shtml
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Joe Ray from the musical duo Nero:
“We are well into sci-fi films and that’s what a large part of our album artwork is based on. Films like Blade Runner and Alien had a unique vision of dark, post-apocalyptic future worlds. So when it came to deciding about our imagery that felt natural. The sounds we use on our album are inspired by those films. We even got a tutorial to get the exact right synthesiser used by Vangelis, who did the Blade Runner soundtrack.”
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/playlist/view/204636/NERO-SCI-FI-MAD/
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Amazing thread all! i had a great time reading through these!!
shareActor Daniel Craig on his recent role in Cowboys & Aliens:
‘When I was young, I sat in a cinema on my own watching Blade Runner, and I thought, “I want to work with this man” – and then I did.’http://www.metro.co.uk/film/872143-daniel-craig-i-always-wanted-to-wor k-with-harrison-ford
‘It’s Harrison Ford – who wouldn’t?’ he said ahead of the film’s premiere at the O2 in London.
Jordan Hoffman: Ridley Scott announced he is going to return to the world of Blade Runner, either a prequel or a sequel or something, you heard about this?
Luc Besson: No.
Jordan Hoffman: Well, he’s currently doing a prequel to Alien, then going back to his other sci-fi masterpiece. Are you ever tempted to return to the world of The Fifth Element.
Luc Besson: No.
Jordan Hoffman: Have you been approached by studios to do it?
Luc Besson: I don’t remember that.
Jordan Hoffman: Well, it’s gonna’ happen, that you’ll be approached, with the love of franchises right now.
Luc Besson: I’d rather ten times to make new stuff, the new Fifth Element, than ever revisit the old one.
Jordan Hoffman: So what do you think about the mentality of Ridley Scott to go back to Alien and Blade Runner?
Luc Besson: I can’t wait to see it. If he feels it, he has something to say... he is a top director, so I will be on the line to see the films. For me, personally, I don’t feel that. If you see my filmography, I go from Fifth Element to Joan of Arc to Big Blue - I love to explore. It is not how I function.