I feel as if I'll sound like an idiot after reading such wonderful opinions of the movie, so I'll just come forth with my question. Is there anything new on the horizon for the new DVD? I just saw the Director's cut and was amazed.

We've been waiting and waiting and waiting for that de luxe edition with both versions of the film and copious extras. Whether it'll materialise or not is anyone's guess.

We're all basically sitting around waiting for that one producer who hates Ridley so much to die so this can get the proper special edition treatment.

It is Jerry Perenchio who is "the bad guy" in this story. There is a petition online for the release

From The New York Times archives:

The avidly awaited, definitive version of Ridley Scott's science-fiction classic, "Blade Runner," won't be out on DVD anytime soon for stranger reasons. When "Blade Runner" was being shot in the early 1980's, Bud Yorkin, a veteran television comedy producer, and Jerry Perenchio, now the C.E.O. of Univision, were the film's bond-completion guarantors. When the film went over budget, by contract they assumed ownership of the film. Paul Sammon wrote in his book "Future Noir: The Making of `Blade Runner' " that they hated the film, had bitter disputes with Mr. Scott and tried to take it away from him altogether.

The studio release, in 1982, contained superfluous narration and a tacked-on rosy ending. Mr. Scott removed both when he was allowed to make a "director's cut" in 1992, but it was, by his own account, a rush job.

Three years ago, Mr. Scott announced that he was working on a three-disc box set, which would offer all the versions of the film, including a new and polished director's cut with previously unseen footage and scads of bonus features. Then, at the end of 2001, Warner Brothers, which was planning to distribute the discs, pulled the plug. It did so, according to a producer who worked on the project, because Mr. Perenchio gave no sign that he would let them be released.

Well, I don't see how Mr. Perenchio's refusal to eat some humble pie is doing anything (but his ego) any good. Needless to say, he would make a ton of money on said release, with the help of anyone who possibly reads this (including myself).

Well, this site has a pretty good history of what's been going on with the DVD but it seems like nothing much has happened since March 2004.

My guess is that once Ridley is done with the Kingdom of Heaven SE, he'll get to work on the new BR disc. Assuming if he can fit in his schedule, I think he has two films on the backburner for Fox now.

But Scott's schedule isn't what's holding it up -- by all accounts it's Mr. Perenchio who's keeping it in limbo. I'm willing to bet Scott already knows pretty much exactly what he's going to do with the new cut (he may well already have it edited for all we know) and is just waiting on the rights situation to get cleared up.

I seem to remember thedigitalbits.com bringing the subject up again early last year, saying it was being close to a done deal.

On another topic altogether, can anyone recommend any of Phil Dick's writing?

Well, there's obvious choices... Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, A Scanner Darkly, and so on but I was always kinda partial to Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said which is vintage alt. realties/paranoid SF.

Of course, a good start would be The Philip K. Dick Reader which collects his more popular work: "Second Variety" (made into Screamers), "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (made into Total Recall) and "The Minority Report."

I agree there, I thought it was a very sweet film on top of being clever and funny. It's a pleasant surprise when a director known for anything but comedy can produce something like that. Someone else that pops to mind when it comes to that is Eastwood, with Bronco Billy and Heartbreak Ridge being good examples.

I say start with the novels. They're a lot better than most of his short stories (the only PKD short story which manages to match the quality of his novels in my opinion is Faith of Our Fathers from the anthology Dangerous Visions). Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, A Scanner Darkly, The Man in the High Castle or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep are all fine places to start. After a couple of those, VALIS is a must-read.

Yeah, I've been meaning to get around to reading VALIS. How is it?

It's fantastic. A must read, as it gave me a new perspective on his other works (particularly the ending of The Man in the High Castle). It's his most overtly autobiographical work; without giving away any actual plot spoilers (this stuff is all revealed in the first chapter), it's narrated by a schizophrenic, whose two personalities are named Horselover Fat and Philip K. Dick, and even the writing style is schizophrenic, switching between first and third person. I highly recommend it.

Time Out of Joint

And I agree about Faith of Our Fathers. That story made me a fan.

Much like the near-indefinite delayed version of "Blade Runner", the version of "Kingdom of Heaven" released to theatres was not the intended version. Apparently the full-cut is some 4 hours long, and will be released on a director's cut dvd soon. So Iwouldn't snap to judgments until we've seen Scott's intended version.

I dunno, what's there isn't that great so unless he foolishly cut out some AMAZING scenes, I doubt Kingdom of Heaven will stand up as his best work. There's only so much editing can do.

On the other hand, I wasn't a fan of Gladiator and that won an Oscar for Best Picture, so someone's bound to like it.

I agree, but they cut basically two hours of film out of "Kingdom of Heaven"... that's almost as bad as the job the Police Academy editor did on "Once Upon A Time in America".

UBIK, THREE STIGMATA OF P E.. THE MAN IIN THE HIGH CASTLE, EYE IIN THE SKY, CLANS OF THE ALPHANE MOON, RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH, WE CAN BUILD YOU, MARTIAN TIME SLIP, DOCTOR BLOODMONEY, CONFESSIONS OF A CRAP ARTIST, (in addition to FLOW, ANDROIDS, and SCANNER, mentioned above, all beautiful). I was never crazy about the VALIS trilogy-- but that's just me. Buy them all & keep Phils work in print. I can't believe how much of his work is in print nowadays, and staying there... and the way the adaptation of a Dick s/story or novel is turning into a directorial rite of passage or new hollywood tradition. Whatever it is I think it's great, regardless of the quality of the films themselves.

Tell me about it, I remember when his books were as easy to find (not to mentioned respected in "polite society") as Kilgore Trout's.

BTW I'll second or third (or whatever) the posters who nominate High Castle as the best starter PKD. It's my favorite of the novels and I find it one of the author's most formally consistent as well. Trivia: the I Ching figures heavily in the plot, and Dick himself used the oracle extensively while writing the book to solve plotting questions.

190 minutes, actually.

I heard in another forum awhile ago that on the '92 director's cut that apparently the unicorn that Deckard sees in his mind was lifted from Legend. Is there any truth to this? I've never seen Legend and am not particularly interested, but this has made me curious.

Nah, that's a long standing rumor, but according to Ridley Scott, the footage was shot specifically for Blade Runner

More than a year later I finally see it, and I must say, you are right. Kingdom of Heaven is a new low for Mr. Scott.