Originally posted by: greencaptI wonder how much I'll have to pay for the uber-edition which I'll be buying just to have the real movie... you know, the one I saw in the theater and got hooked on. The one that I don't need 4 revisions to tell me that I fell for a piece of unfinished crap or a work-in-progress.
*sigh* Ridley Scott... George Lucas V2.0
Totally different scenarios. George Lucas basically had control of his movie for the entire production, whereas Ridley Scott lost the control to the studio executives, who then modified it away from the script, the director's vision and lead actor's preference. So you'll have a hard time convincing most fans that the theatrical release is the 'real movie'.
George Lucas filmed new elements and changed the story from the original script. Ridley Scott deleted new elements and restored the story to the original script. What did he delete? Well one thing was the studio's happy ending. The one that they didn't even film. The one they cut together with stock footage from The Shining. Hard to call it the 'real movie' when the ending is offcuts from a totally unrelated film!
If George Lucas should be compared to anyone it should be the studio execs. If Ridley Scott should be compared to anyone it should Richard Donner. You know, the guy who never got to finish the film his way until the fans demanded the studio release his cut. I don't remember Star Wars fans demanding George Lucas change his story. OK, well, not until he had already changed it!
By the way, I've only ever seen Blade Runner once, years ago, and all I remember is I wasn't too impressed with it at the time, I'm not even sure what cut I saw (I presume it was the 1992 'Director's' Cut). I'd probably prefer the theatrical cut like you, but I'd never think that it was the 'real movie'. But then, I like most of the Star Wars Special Editions!
[edit]Hehe, just another thought, you should really like this new release because you'll actually be getting four theatrical releases!
The Final Cut will be the only theatrical experience of Blade Runner I'll have, so I'm glad they are letting me buy it the way I first enjoyed it at the cinema (hopefully)!
We all know George Lucas will continue to tinker with his films (for example, next year's 3D release), whereas we could probably sue the BR producers if another version came out, since this next cut, the first cut Ridley Scott has got to work on himself, is being labeled the FINAL Cut. George on the other hand releases 'Editions'.
On a more serious note, I wouldn't get too worried about this release 'til we get more details. At the moment I'm more inclined to believe that most of the discs' content will be made up of bonus features and the four cuts will mostly be seamlessly branched (at least the two 1982 releases should be only one disc, as I gather there is very little different between them); so hopefully your Blade Runner DVD experience will be like your Legend experience.[/edit]
[edit2 (OK, not really the second edit, I'm as bad as George!)]
Originally posted by: greencaptAt least with LOTR it was all laid out clearly up front and you could choose your version if you didn't want both.