Tag: Blade Runner

KUCI Film School: Interview with the director and co-writer of Moon

SFFaudio Online Audio

KUCI - Film SchoolFilm School is a program out of Irvine, California on radio station KUCI. It has an interview with the director and co-writer of the movie called Moon (2009), Duncan Jones. |MP3|

In the interview Jones says the film was inspired by movies like Alien (1979), Silent Running and Outland (1981), as well as by the non-fiction book: Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization by Robert Zubrin.

Here is a snippet from Rogert Ebert’s thoughtful review:

“‘Moon‘ is a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction, which is often about the interface between humans and alien intelligence of one kind of or other, including digital. John W. Campbell Jr., the godfather of this genre, would have approved. The movie is really all about ideas. It only seems to be about emotions. How real are our emotions, anyway? How real are we? Someday I will die.”

I agree. Not only with Ebert being mortal, but also that Moon is a movie of ideas. Moon is a true Science Fiction movie and an intellecutal heir to Blade Runner. It’s made of one part 2001: A Space Odyssey, one part Silent Running, one part The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, with an added dash of Outland (1981) and that is a proud lineage to follow.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Noircon 2008 panel on “Cybernoir”

SFFaudio Online Audio

I’ll make nearly any excuse to talk about Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards’ two podcasts Behind The Black Mask: Mystery Writers Revealed and Out Of The Past: Investigating Film Noir. Today’s excuse comes in the form of a Noircon 2008 podcast which includes a brief mention of Blade Runner. Have a listen…

Noircon 2008 podcastPodcast Day 3: Cybernoir Panel
Panelists: Shannon Clute, Seth Harwood, and Richard Edwards
1 |M4A| – [CONVENTION PANEL]
Podcaster: Out Of The Past / Behind The Black Mask
Recorded: April 5th, 2008
Recorded as part of the Noircon 2008 Conference in Philadelphia, PA, Clute and Edwards kick things off with a discussion of how noir style and pulp publishing models seem to provide the fundamental structuring logics of emerging digital media—from blogs to podcasts, mashups to video games. Seth Harwood then relates his own experience of podcasting his first novel, JACK WAKES UP—from producing the initial audio, to embracing various new media in order to cultivate an audience and tap their enthusiasm and skills to promote his work. Finally, all three panelists consider how pulp-logic productions in these various media are likely to change the ways books are published and marketed. This special edition podcast includes all Power Point slides from the panel, synchronized with the audio, for your viewing pleasure. Moreover, there are embedded links at the bottom of the images, which allow you to surf related links while listening. The podcast is optimized for iTunes, and will run on any machine that has iTunes installed.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Hey Want To Watch A Movie? Blade Runner – The Final Cut

SFFaudio Online Audio

Hey Want To Watch A Movie? Blade Runner - The Final CutThe latest Hey Want To Watch A Movie? podcast (which is a fan commentary track for DVDs) talks about Blade Runner – The Final Cut. And I’m one of the commentators! Join Christiana Ellis, Mike Meitin, Brandon Hill, Adam Morey, MA in PA, Dan Taber, Susan Z, The Biscuit and me!

We talk about the different versions of BR, Bubblegum Crisis, the Blade Runner PC adventure game, Twin Peaks, Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, the essential character of film (vs. books), I Am Legend (movie and novel), eXistenZ, Adam Smith’s The Theory Of The Moral Sentiments, Impostor, Dark City, Back To The Future, Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure, David Lynch’s Dune, the audiobooks of Dune, Chinatown, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Scott Brick, George Guidall, Gremlins, Callista Flockhart, and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, E.T. and lots more. Needless to say we come to dozens of conclusions, including the fact that every single person in the movie is a replicant (actors too) – or something like that.

Listen now |MP3| or take it portable by subscribing to the podcast feed via this link:

http://watchamovie.libsyn.com/rss

Posted by Jesse Willis

Philosophy Bites podcast talks The Philosophy of Film using Blade Runner

SFFaudio Online Audio

Philosophy Bites podcastPhilosophy Bites is a podcast about philosophy. Recently they talked to Oxford’s Stephen Mulhall who’s authored a book titled On Film. Fans of SF and philosophy rarely mix (which is a damn shame) but the connections between the two are legion. Good SF is always a “thought experiment”, but Mulhall thinks philosophers should also consider film itself as philosophy. His illustration for this comes from a few scenes in Blade Runner. I don’t see quite the connections Mulhall makes in the movie myself (Voight-Kampff machine as camera and Deckard as Director) but I agree it is a deeply philosophical film. Have a listen |MP3|, judge for yourself. You can subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://www.philosophybites.libsyn.com/rss

Posted by Jesse Willis