Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner Page #4

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at one point.

And it was pretty convincing, but

it wasn't quite the scene I had in mind.

I think Hampton got a bit precious

about doing things...

...and it was always a bit of a drama

when we wanted things changed.

I remember

having an argument with Ridley...

...and Ridley went into the bedroom

and sat down on a bed.

I'm following him, I said.

"Ridley, we can't do that. Here's what-l'

And he wouldn't

argue with me, exactly.

We got it up to a point where Hampton

was just getting exhausted.

Going back to the anvil,

back to the anvil.

I said.

"Yeah, but if this, you've got that."

And the problem is, the more I talk.

I suddenly start to evolve.

I was angry,

and I walked out by the pool...

...and Ivor,

lovely, wonderful Ivor came out...

...and he tried to tell me.

And...

...it hurt somehow.

Coming...

This is the tenderness of Ivor.

Saying...

He didn't come right out and say it.

He says.

"You know, if you don't do it..."

And I remember

he reverted to street talk, kind of.

He says. "I know me man."

You know. "He'll do something. He'll

do what he wants to do, Hampton."

I sat with Michael and said.

"What should we do? I'm not there yet."

And Michael said.

"Well, what do you wanna do?"

I said. "We should give him the choice.

What does he wanna do? Let him...

Give him two days off and let's

talk about it and see what to do."

I always like to keep the writer on,

the original writer.

This was difficult in a way...

...because Hampton had been in it

from the very start.

And he was credited

as an executive producer...

...which he'd remain, of course.

But his days, for the time being,

were over.

I get this call...

...that Ridley would like to talk to me

about Blade Runner or something.

And usually.

I react to these things as:

"Oh, this isn't gonna work.

This is a disa..."

I remember saying to Mike:

So they flew me down to L.A...

...and put me in the Chateau Marmont

in this terrific suite...

...and sent the script over

by messenger, right?

Now, I'd never had any of these

kind of things happen to me before.

And I read the script...

Two hours or something like that

sitting there.

...And I was knocked out.

I thought it was a great script.

So Ridley and Michael came over

at the appointed time or something...

...and then they said.

"Well, what'd you think?"

And I said. "I thought it was terrific."

I said. "I can't make this

any better than it is or anything."

Which...

And they both sort of chuckled, right?

Like... And I realized years later

what a naive answer that was...

...because who gives a sh*t

what the writer thinks?

It wasn't the writer who was gonna

make it better, it was Ridley...

...and I was gonna do his bidding.

Michael said. "Oh. Ridley has

a few ideas." in that Michael way.

And I got hired.

I remember there was a Christmas dinner

I was invited to at Ivor's house.

And...

...we sat down...

...he put the script in front of me

on the plate.

I didn't know what it was.

Sometimes, somebody would say:

"Hey, you wanna rewrite something."

or whatever. And I opened the script...

...and it said...

It was our movie, you know.

My movie. And then I opened

the first page, and it was in a...

Actually, it wasn't a bad scene.

It was in a junk...

You know, off-world junkyard.

You know, androids being plowed under.

It was like I just wrote an off-world

scene of all these bodies heaped up.

Just the wrecked replicants

just lying there, you know, in this heap.

And then gradually,

somebody emerges from the heap...

...and it's Roy Batty, right?

And that was a beginning

that I wrote.

Then I looked at a couple of pages,

because I recognized the idea...

...and then I saw my interview scene,

you know, that opens the movie.

And I looked at him, and he was

standing. And I said, "What's this?"

And he says. "This is the new script."

And I said. "What new script?"

And he told me.

He said. "This David Peoples is..."

I said. "Who's that?"

I really... I couldn't hear anything.

I was standing...

I stood up because I was gonna cry.

I was like... My whole world fell apart.

What's anybody gonna be?

Incredibly hurt.

Because, you know,

what he'd written was fantastic.

And suddenly to have somebody else

come in and take over your baby...

Michael Deeley's so diplomatic.

I remember kind of, like, beseeching him:

"This is wrong." You know.

"Whatever that guy...

Whoever this guy is...

...who's writing this stuff, no."

It's, like. "Me.

Don't you understand?"

And I remember Michael saying:

"Well..." Diplomacy.

He didn't say. "Well. Hampton, yeah, but

you're an idiot, so we can't use you."

He said, you know.

"Yes, your things are very elegant...

...but this is what we need to do

to make the movie.

Now we're making a movie.

Hampton."

Peoples, I think, is more...

And I mean this

in the best possible way.

Is simpler. Hampton's more cerebral.

And, for the most part,

this was very cerebral.

And I thought actually bringing in

something like Peoples...

...would maybe create some fresh air

in the corridors to make it move.

Because my danger as a director

is I tend to get very cerebral...

...and get engaged

with darkness and detail.

I think my first story meeting was at

my suite at the Chateau Marmont.

And I'm trying to follow

where we're going with this stuff.

We go into Sebastian's place...

...and Ridley starts talking

about a mouse...

...that's gonna pop out

with a bow tie.

And Ridley started describing it

in all these details...

...and the meeting sort of

had been derailed now...

...from the story to this mouse.

And I'm sitting there,

and I must have been going:

Because I'd never seen or heard

anything like this.

And Michael Deeley says.

"Now you know."

So we're in for... You know, this was not

exactly sticking with the narrative.

We were dealing with this wonderful,

wonderful, magical mouse who'd pop up.

He was kind of very grounded

in sort of sci-fi.

He brought in some good dialogue.

I think he was able, quite easily,

to sort of fill in some of the holes.

I was writing for them,

and they were thrilled that I was so fast.

I was writing pages,

turning them out... like a madman, right?

And they'd had Hampton,

but of course...

...Hampton had only done like

God knows how many drafts for them...

...and he...

That stuff is wearing and everything...

...so we're talking about Hampton

after, you know. 10 drafts.

I don't know.

"Hey. Hampton, why don't you try this?

Why don't you try that?"

And that stuff makes you crazy.

It made me crazy

in the short time I was there.

I changed Batty a fair amount.

If I remember right...

...Deckard just killed Batty

off the top of the thing in the fight.

But I know some of those speeches...

That. "Over the shoulder of Orion"...

...was me, except for the fact

that in the first read-around...

...when I sat there and the cast

sat at a table and read the script...

...Rutger read that speech,

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