In order to distinguish it from nourses book, a title change was necessary, and although the adaptation would never be a movie, burroughs and grauerholz confusingly chose to. A movie was written by william burroughs yes, the godfather of the beats, author of junky and naked lunch and the soft machine and published in 1979. The team got permission from burroughs to use the name. Bill paxton, william burroughs, blade runner and the making. The name blade runner never appears in do androids dream of electric sheepit was simply selected because it sounded cool. Oct 09, 2017 the movie that followed became a classic, and 35 years on it has a new lease of life thanks to the sequel, blade runner 2049. Blade runner by william s burroughs fantastic fiction. Burroughs provides a short there are no page numbers but i counted roughly seventy five pages book written in the form of a quasitreatment for a movie based on nourses tale. Blade runnernovel, treatment and movies the bedlam files.
In this trenchant sciencefiction screen treatment, william s. Ridley scott bought the rights to the title but not the screenplay nor the book. How blade runner got its name from a dystopian book about health. Blade runner by william s burroughs book cover, description, publication. Burroughs s text, as published, is a take on the hollywood screen treatment, and is shaped as a fictional pitch of a movie idea, narrated by an unnamed figure to a listener named b. Burroughss novella, blade runner a movie, based on a story treatment for an unrelated film. Blade runner a movie is a science fiction novella by beat generation author william s. Burroughs wrote a screenplay based on the nourse book and a novella titled blade runner. Before proceeding i must clarify for and inform the reader about the history and sometimes confusing use of the title blade runner. A mysterious guy named ray layton had the idea to make it about feminist terrorists brainwashing billy.
Blade runner a movie burroughs, william s barnebys. Huckabees friends were all chucking in their two cents worth. A movie, who in turn got the name from alan nourses 1974 novel the bladerunner, neither of which have anything to do with androids. A movie was published in a limited signed edition of 100 hardbacks by blue wind press in 1979. Burroughs outlines the coming medicalcare apocalypse. The novella and its various drafts make reference to nourse s text and imagine its portrayal and possible complications on screen. How blade runner got its name from a dystopian book about.
Burroughs treatment is set in the early 21st century and. Burroughs, one of the three seminal writers of the beat generation the other two being his friends jack kerouac and allen ginsberg, was born in st. In the late 1970s an attempt to adapt the bladerunner for the screen was made, with beat generation author william s. A later edition published in the 1980s changed the formatting of the title to blade runner, a movie. Dick work by the same title, it is nonetheless a farreaching work of science fiction which explores the potential ramifications of the state of the nation if national health care were to be instituted the work was penned in 1979. Then huckabee read william burroughs novella blade runner a movie and the whole thing began to take shape in his mind. Ridley scott, harrison ford, and the battle for blade runner. Burroughs was commissioned to write a treatment for a possible film adaptation. The title was bought by michael deeley, producer of the movie then called dangerous days, and renamed it blade runner. Blade runner a movie 1st edition1st printing william s. Oct 06, 2017 blade runners title comes from william s. The novella began as a story treatment for a proposed film adaptation of alan e.
It was the title of a book by beat generation author william s. The world outlined by burroughs is very much in keeping with the one created by nourse, although the new york city setting is far. The first sentence of this quote is a poorly written sentence. Except for the title, this book has nothing to do with the movie by ridley scott. Burroughs blade runner a movie, a film treatment based on alan e. A movie by william s burroughs is essentially burroughs attempt to rewrite nourses book into a form from which a movie could be made. Burroughs outlines the coming apocalypse in medical care, a danteesque horror show, brought to a boil by a mutated virus and rightwing politics, set in a future not nearly far enough away.
May 30, 2010 in the late 1970s an attempt to adapt the bladerunner for the screen was made, with beat generation author william s. Burroughss assistant, james grauerholz, wrote the following in a 5 december letter to burroughss agent, peter matson. A movie was written by william burroughs yes, the godfather of the beats. Blade runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by ridley scott, and written by hampton fancher and david peoples. A movie is a science fiction screenplay by william s. Burroughs alongside the original sciencefiction novel on which it was based, the bladeruner by alan e.
Oct 04, 2017 it was the title of a book by beat generation author william s. Blade runner a movie 1979 cities of the red night 1981 the place of dead roads 1983 queer 1985, skrevet mellem 1951 og 1953 the cat inside 1986 the western lands 1987 ghost of chance 1991 my education. In that sense, it s pretty standard burroughs stuff, with big pharma conspiracies and horrible mutating viruses, but it also explores the question of. A movie paul ardoin sometime near the end of 1976, the american postmodernist william s. And which came first, burroughs book or ridley scotts more famous film. Louis, missouri, on february 5, 1914, to the son of the founder of the burroughs adding machine co. Starring harrison ford, rutger hauer and sean young, it is loosely based on philip k. The original hardback cover for burroughs blade runner. A movie why, in the course of two extraordinary films by ridley scott and denis villeneuve, do we never learn what the term blade runner actually means. Oliver harris is coorganising a series of william s.
This site contains catalog information about my collection of items by and about williams s. Burroughs supposedly quipped that new york would have to be leveled if anyone ever wanted to make his script into a movie. Blade runner may be best known as a film directed by ridley scott and loosely based on the philip k. As you might know, this is not that blade runner movie, but a burroughs novella that started as a treatment for a film adaptation of alan e nourse s medicaldystopia novel the bladerunner but then mutated into something more burroughs ish. Burroughs got hold of a copy of a sciencefiction novel by alan e. Heres the story of why the franchise has its title. Screenwriter hampton fancher got the name from william s. And what does it have to do with the godfather of beatniks william s. Nourses 1974 novel the bladerunner alternatively published as the blade. Its nothing to do with alan nourses original novel. Sep 14, 2017 fancher found the answerand the films final titlein the beat generation writer william s. Less known perhaps, is why the original title of dicks book was not used for the movie, and how that came from a scifi novella published in 1979 by william s.
In this trenchant sciencefiction screen treatment written in the mid1970s, william s. In order to distinguish it from nourses book, a title change was necessary, and although the adaptation would never be a movie, burroughs and grauerholz confusingly chose to call it blade. What crucial word is missing, and why did he give it the subtitle a movie. Blade runner is a genrebending 1982 science fiction film starring harrison ford, rutger hauer, sean young, edward james olmos and daryl hannah, that borrows stylistic elements from film noir and hardboiled detective fiction. If scott and screenwriter hampton fancher had adapted burroughs nightmarish 21st century to the cinema, we would have seen a much different filmthough one as wholly resonant with our current dystopia. The burroughs composition defines a blade runner as a person who sells illegal surgical instruments.
Burroughs oddly enough, scott said, called blade runner. Hampton fancher, who wrote a dickapproved script, got the title from william s. Ten years later 2000, i thought it would be interesting to read blade runner. A book of dreams 1995 and the hippos were boiled in their tanks 2008, skrevet i 1945. Burroughs acknowledged the nourse novel as a source, and prominently set a mutated virus and rightwing politics in the year 1999. Burroughs archive florida state university libraries. Set in a strifeanddiseaseplagued america in 1999, blade runner centers on a group of underground physicians and surgeons, who are aided by blade runners, teenagers who smuggle banned surgical instruments past the watchful eyes of fascistic police. Burroughs, of course, author ofamong a few other thingsa 1979 novelistic film treatment called blade runner. Blade runner a movie, a 1979 treatment by william s.
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