1. Blade Runner Bears Almost No Resemblance To Philip K. Dick's Novel
Blade Runner is widely considered to be the closest to truly filming Philip K. Dick, capturing the essence of his frenzied, paranoid futurescapes in which identity and meaning are constantly undergoing analysis and reshaping. Ironically it's also about as far removed from the source material as you can possibly get. The very first draft - actually written by Robert Jaffe - was detested by Dick, who saw it as a comedic spoof. He publicly denounced the film later on after reading an early version of Hampton Fancher's screenplay, too, describing it as "Philip Marlowe meets the Stepford Wives". It was only when Dick became more closely involved in the project at Warner Bros that his views began to change - and this was only when a publicist for the Ladd Company, Jeffrey Walker, insisted on his participation. Finally, by the time writer David Peoples had been brought on board to help rewrite scenes which Ridley Scott was unhappy with (and Fancher wouldn't change without throwing a fit at any suggestions), Dick signaled his approval of the script. Who knows how Blade Runner might have turned out had Dick been involved from the start, or even written the screenplay himself? Sadly Dick died before the finished product made it into cinemas - while we'll never know his reaction, it surely would have been considerably more favourable than had he had the misfortune of watching one of his many other books ruined by Hollywood tampering in later years. Do you know of any interesting facts surrounding Blade Runner? Why not let us know in the comments below?
