Blade Runner: Final Cut

Let's get one thing straight: Rick Deckard is, in fact, a replicant. At least, that's what "Blade Runner" director Ridley Scott believes, and you'd be hard pressed to convince him otherwise.

The long-standing argument over whether or not Harrison Ford's character is human or a genetically-engineered super-being has been one of the reasons "Blade Runner" has had such an enduring legacy. Fans of the movie have pondered the question of Deckard's true origin and dissected every frame and line of the film since it debuted a quarter century ago in the summer of 1982. There may be only one debate greater than Deckard's humanity: which version of the film is the best?

A glimpse of the memorable opening sequence to "Blade Runner."

A number of different versions of the film have been in circulation over the last two decades, including the original theatrical version, the 1982 international version (featuring extended scenes), the 1992 director's cut (no Deckard narration, no happy ending and the controversial unicorn scene); and the "workprint" version, which is a rare, rough cut of the film that was shown to test audiences and which later became popular on the Internet. Now fans of the cult classic will have an even harder time deciding which "Blade Runner" cut is their favorite in December when the movie gets a brand new treatment for DVD: director Ridley Scott's "Final Cut," which will be the centerpiece of several new DVD editions of "Blade Runner." Scott decided to compose an ultimate version of his film, drawing on all the different cuts and optimizing the audio and visual quality of the movie for DVD. "Blade Runner: The Final Cut" will actually be released for a limited theatrical run on Oct. 5 in New York and Los Angeles before the DVD launch on Dec. 18.

The flying police cars from "Blade Runner."

Details about what the "Final Cut" will include are scant at this point, but one thing we do know is that Scott actually re-shot a key scene with actress Joanna Cassidy, who played Zhora. During a "Blade Runner" cast and crew panel discussion at Comic-Con 2007 last month, Scott said he re-filmed the scene where Zhora was shot and killed by Deckard because there were points in the original sequence where it was obvious he was using a stunt double for Cassidy. Scott showed the scene to Comic-Con attendees, and before you get in a tizzy about George Lucas' meddlesome ways and Greedo shooting first, I have to say the new footage looked pretty good.

Ironically, one audience member asked Scott if he ever considered going back to "Blade Runner" and adding new special effects and sequences like George Lucas did with the original "Star Wars" trilogy. "Oh, I would never dream of doing that," the director said, which elicited applause from the packed ballroom. To be sure, the "Final Cut" will be digitally restored and remastered with some new touches to the film's original special effects.

View the Blade Runner Final Cut slide Show (22 images)

Charles De Lauzirika, who produced the new "Blade Runner" DVD packages, said that work on the project originally began in 2000. De Lauzirika told the Comic-Con audience that the process took an extremely long time because of the restoration process involved in the many versions of the film. Essentially, the production team and Scott had to pour through all the different prints and cuts of the film, find what worked best and then optimize those versions for the best sound and visual quality for the DVDs.

The DVD will feature audio commentary from Scott as well as from other crew members, including executive producer and co-screenwriter Hampton Fancher; co-screenwriter David Peoples; producer Michael Deely; production executive Katherine Haber; production designer Lawrence Paull; art director David Snyder; special effects supervisors Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich and David Dryer; and of course, visual futurist Syd Mead.

The new 'Blade Runner: The Final Cut" edition.

Scott's "Final Cut" is just one part of the forthcoming onslaught of "Blade Runner" mania; three new editions, for traditional DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray, are slated to arrive in December, all of which will include "The Final Cut." The first is the "Blade Runner: The Final Cut" Special Edition two-disc set, with the second disc featuring the behind-the-scenes documentary "Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner," which chronicles the making of the film and features interview with cast and crew members (yes, including Harrison Ford). The next package is the four-disc "Blade Runner" Collector's Edition, which is the same as the above special edition, plus it has the 1982 theatrical version, the 1982 international version and the 1992 director's cut of the film. It also has a bonus disc with more than a dozen featurettes, interviews and other extras including items on author Philip K. Dick and the source novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?."

And finally, there's the mother load: the "Blade Runner" Ultimate Collector's Edition five-disc set. The Ultimate Collector's Edition includes all four discs from the regular Collector's Edition plus a fifth disc that holds the rare "workprint" version of "Blade Runner." The five-disc set comes in a case modeled after Deckard's briefcase in the film and includes other trinkets, such as an origami unicorn figure, collector's photographs and a personal letter signed by the director. The workprint version also has an audio commentary track from author Paul Sammon, author of the popular book "Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner," and a featurette that compares the workprint to Scott's "Final Cut" version.

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