Future Noir

Book excerpt: Updated edition: The ultimate guide to Ridley Scott’s transformative sci-fi classic Blade Runner, with photos, new cast interviews, and more. Based on Philip K. Dick’s brilliant and troubling science fiction masterpiece Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Blade Runner is among the most visually dense, thematically challenging, and influential science fiction films ever made. Future Noir offers a deeper understanding of this cinematic phenomenon that is storytelling and visual filmmaking at its best. In an intensive, intimate, and anything-but-glamorous behind-the-scenes account, Paul M. Sammon explores how Ridley Scott purposefully used his creative genius to transform the work of science fiction’s most uncompromising author into a critical sensation and cult classic that would reinvent the genre. Sammon reveals how the making of the original Blade Runner was a seven-year odyssey that would test the stamina and the imagination of writers, producers, special effects wizards, and the most innovative art directors and set designers in the industry at the time it was made. This revised and expanded edition of Future Noir includes: An overview of Blade Runner’s impact on moviemaking and popular culture An exploration of the history of Blade Runner: The Final Cut and its theatrical release in 2007 A look at its long-awaited sequel, Blade Runner 2049 The longest interview Harrison Ford has ever granted about Blade Runner Exclusive new interviews with Rutger Hauer and Sean Young A fascinating look at the ever-shifting interface between commerce and art, illustrated with production photos and stills, Future Noir provides an eye-opening and enduring look at modern moviemaking, the business of Hollywood, and one of the greatest films of all time.