Future Noir

The Making of Blade Runner

Paul M Sammon

Gollancz 2007

Blade Runner is really a phenomenon rather than just a film. While it began as simply an unusual and quirky science fiction film, it soon developed into so much more. The original tale (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ?) by Philip K Dick had so much to offer and the combined talent of Ridley Scott and the many screen writers, actors and special effects teams worked to bring this epic vision to the screen in a way nobody imagined. Indeed, it changed the face of science fiction cinema forever and surprisingly its influence still reverberates today.

Originally less than a resounding theatrical success with negative reviews, many thought it would be shelved forever. Yet with the advent of home video it slowly developed a cult like following with many versions, multiple editions and various releases and re-releases. Not many films are re-released after a theatrical failure with a second chance and then achieving a resounding success !

Future Noir is a book which only a true Blade Runner fanatic could write ! Sammon was there at the very beginning, working for a magazine documenting the early development of Blade Runner before it was even completed. He has followed the story all the way, documenting the twists and turns of this strange film, recording its history and keeping in contact with many of the people involved.

What has developed from his personal obsession is an amazing work. Future Noir offers a truly encyclopaedic view of the Blade Runner “experience”. It covers all aspects of the film’s development from screen writing to special effects right through to personality clashes and controversies. It analyses and dissects the various effects used and the way in which the unique mood of the film was created in a way only someone with “inside information” could do. It explores the various releases of the films from the earliest theatrical release through VHS, Laser Disc, Working Print, Director’s Cut to the latest Final Edition. In the later sections it even explores the reverberations of Blade Runner through literature, the internet and the cyberpunk movement.

While this may sound heavy going, Sammon has a very down to earth writing style and includes many titbits of gossip, memories and reflections along the way so the reader really comes to appreciate the truly momentous effort that was required to bring Blade Runner to the screen. Sammon also includes black and white images from the film throughout the book which help document the evolution of Blade Runner.

For those completists who want all the details, the appendices include all sorts of technical information through documentation of all the different releases, to lists of Blade Runner blunders ! There are some twelve appendices packed with all the information any fan could ever want/

This is a superb volume and indeed could probably be considered the definitive book on Blade Runner and since Blade Runner is considered by many to be the most significant science fiction film ever made, it should be in all film lovers libraries.