Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner Page #3

---

...kind of created a darkness.

I remember, you know,

him talking about Frank...

...his older brother, from time to time,

and I knew that they were very close.

And...

...I know it had

a tremendous effect...

...on sort of

his emotional state at that time.

It's a strange coincidence that he's doing

a film that is, on the whole, very dark...

...about creation, about control.

And also losing the control

and losing the battle over death.

I think we were shooting

a commercial.

I remember sort of having persuaded

him, saying. "Look, let me read it."

And I think I was reading it on the train

while we were traveling to the location.

I said. "Listen, I think-l'

Because everything else

was kind of not working out right...

...I said. "Listen, I think you should

give this, you know, a second thought."

You know. "I really think this

is powerful, and, you know, emotional...

...and really interesting."

The Blade Runner idea

had stuck with me.

So I'd called up Deeley saying, basically.

"Where are you with it?"

"We're nowhere."

"All right, I've re-read it. We...

I think it's interesting.

It'll make the basis of a very good...

...futuristic, urban film noir."

He said. "Let's have a look

at the material, and he did.

And we were off.

It was a very exciting moment,

of course...

...for suddenly,

you had a talent attached to the thing.

We then went to Filmways,

which had just been taken over...

...by a former Universal person.

Raphael Etkes.

Very nice guy. An old friend of mine.

We were with Filmways, which

Michael had found a person for that.

But, of course, his conception of what

the budget of this film would be...

...at that particular point

was way off-course.

We were way down in terms of

our target of where we would be.

We'd spent about

2 and a half million...

...by the time it became perfectly clear

that the world we were building...

...was much bigger than 12 and a half

million dollars. Much, much bigger.

And this put Raphi in a jam...

...because he couldn't allocate

more than that to this picture.

It was an old company, a small one,

and they didn't have that much money.

I know we were beginning to feel

that something wasn't right...

...and then suddenly

one read in the trades...

...that Filmways

was in financial trouble.

And suddenly we sort of said, well,

you know. "Sh*t. We're in trouble...

...and we need to find another backer."

So we sort of set up this room...

...with all our sort of artwork

and God knows what, you know...

...like a kind of package,

and sort of...

...these VIPs from other studios

were kind of wheeled in...

...and given the executive treatment

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes