Quarantine's produced a new cut of Blade Runner, this one featuring Steve Martin and John Belushi
Ridley Scott’s singular sci-fi masterpiece, Blade Runner, is notorious for having multiple wildly different versions over the decades—seven, to be exact. Among them are the original, theatrical cut, which Scott vocally loathed, an international cut, a Director’s Cut, and even a Final Cut, because, technically, the “Director’s Cut” wasn’t actually what the name implies. Like we said, it’s complicated.
Anyway, 2007’s Final Cut at least supposedly settled what Ridley Scott wanted all along, thus putting an end to the whole affair. That is, until we all found ourselves suddenly stuck inside our homes, hiding from a global pandemic for God knows how long. Enter Blade Runner: The Lost Cut, an entirely new version of the 1982 classic that, if nothing else, feels very much like a product of the times. And by “product of the times,” we mean it’s a 20-minute fever dream recut to somehow include Frances McDormand, Gene Hackman, Steve Martin, John Belushi, and Greedo from Star Wars.
Edited by Leon Chase, The Lost Cut creates a sort of free-association retelling of the original Blade Runner story, keeping Harrison Ford as the titular character hunting down rogue replicants, this time “played” by spliced-in footage of Martin, McDormand, Hackman, and others. Each substituted character is tied to each other in some way (Harrison Ford starred in The Conversation alongside Gene Hackman, McDormand and Hackman were in Mississippi Burning, etc.).
It’s a lot to process, but at least by the end of it you’ll be able to truthfully tell friends you’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.
[via The Verge]
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