“This movie gets worse every screening.”

It has been over thirty years since Ridley Scott‘s noirish sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner was released and began its long journey to enduring cult classic status following an unexceptional theatrical run. Three days ago someone posted to Reddit a scan of notes made by executives of financier Tandem Productions following an early screening of the film on January 21, 1981 – about a year-and-a-half before it premiered on movie screens across America. These notes reveal the suits’ confusion and derision over several creative aspects of the movie, from the editing to music placement to even the dialogue, that would mostly remain unchanged when a compromised cut featuring clarifying narration and a happier ending opened the next year.

You can check the original notes out here below.

It is not a secret to anyone familiar with the checkered production history of Blade Runner that the movie, while aesthetically groundbreaking, was a major creative headache and a source of much consternation to its financial overseers. Despite the presence of Scott on directing duties and Harrison Ford in the star role that would come to be known as one of the best of his career, the film’s plot and character complexities and lack of thrilling action set pieces gave it only modest commercial potential at the box office. The massive amounts of gorgeously-shot footage would undergo a near-endless series of edits and test screenings in order to hone it into a cut that everyone would be confident could become a profitable hit while maintaining its integrity.

The Kindle ebook deal of the day over at Amazon today is 14 Novels by Philip K. Dick for $1.99 each, including A Scanner Darkly, Man in the High Castle, Ubik, and more.

– A Scanner Darkly
– The Man in the High Castle
– Ubik
– The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
– The Simulacra
– VALIS
– Now Wait for Last Year
– The Penultimate Truth
– The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
– The Divine Invasion (Valis)
– Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
– Counter-Clock World
– Eye in the Sky
– The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick

Note – This deal is valid only for today, Sunday, October 7, 2012, til 11:59PM PST.

A Thesis on the implications of Total Recall and the contrast between the original film [1990] and the remake and/or reimagining [2012] by Sam C Smith.

“They stole his mind, now he wants it back.”

REMINISCENCE:

It is my Star Wars. Yes, I said it. So I did what any fanboy would do: Collect.

Why bother? It’s not as if Total Recall [Original will be referred to as TR, the new film hereby referred to as Total Recall] was the greatest film ever. It doesn’t even feature that highly on the greatest sci-fi film list of all time. But something just stuck with me throughout the 1990s to today that I never got with Star Wars – a film series pretty much filmed and over and done with before I could afford a video player.

But consider how much more difficult it is to get original TR-based collectibles. Especially in the UK. Especially in 2012. Any fan of any age can find something Star Wars based, and that includes error-in-production Kenner figures from the 70s.

The Deal of the Day over at Things From Another World today is Boom!’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep: Dust To Dust: Vol. 02 trade paperback for only $5.19 (that’s 60% off of the regular price of $12.99). The series is a comic book adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s book Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, which was the source material for the movie Blade Runner.

Note – The sale at TFAW is valid only for today, Tuesday, May 29, 2012, til 11:59PM PST while supplies last (and there’s a limited supply, so it will sell out, so hurry!).

When the deal runs out, you can also get a copy of Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep: Dust To Dust: Vol. 02 for $12.48 at Amazon. Also, if you need Vol. 1, you can get it for $9.99 at Amazon, where it’s part of their 4-for-3 promotion where you purchase four items and get one of them free.).

The trailer for the new adaptation of Total Recall (I hesitate to use the term “remake” since this movie, much like Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 movie, is based on Philip K. Dick‘s 1966 short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”) was unveiled a week ago to little fanfare and the expected gnashing teeth of devoted fans of the Verhoeven movie and haters of remakes and reboots in general looking to justify the kind of boiled-over rage directed at this movie that you wouldn’t often find outside of Tea Party gatherings and Bill O’Reilly’s dressing room. To help alleviate rising concerns about the film’s fidelity – or lack thereof – to its source and the fact that it looks like just about every futuristic actioner out there (OOH! FLYING CARS!) the trailer for Total Recall is being presented complete with a few audio comments from the movie’s director Len Wiseman.

You can watch the trailer with Wiseman’s commentary here below.