Hunting down Blade Runner's Deckard

Harrison Ford–cast, finally, as Rick Deckard–and Ridley Scott on the set of Blade Runner (1982)

Hunting down Blade Runner's Deckard
By Michael Deeley

An Oscar winner for his production of The Deer Hunter (1978), Michael Deeley has worked with some of the world's most famously demanding moviemakers and lived to tell the tale. Among his other credits are The Italian Job (1969), the British caper that made an icon of Michael Caine; Nicolas Roeg's visionary The Man Who Fell To Earth (1975), starring David Bowie; and Convoy (1978), on which he had to wrangle a dysfunctional Sam Peckinpah. But the work of which Deeley is most proud, understandably, is Ridley Scott's visionary sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982).

In this exclusive extract from Deeley's memoir, to be published by Faber in 2008, he describes how the hunt for that picture's leading man led first to the door of the star who had recently scooped the Best Actor Oscar for Kramer vs Kramer (1979) . . .

We were determined not to use familiar faces for any of the supporting parts. The androids, particularly, had to be brand new faces–after all, they weren't real people, but creations exclusively for use in Blade Runner. The only exception had to be Rick Deckard, the leading man: I had to have a star, if only to satisfy our financiers. Curiously, though, there was no definition of what this star should look like, no set age or physical parameters for Deckard.

I gave a copy of Hampton Fancher's script to Dustin Hoffman, whom I had first met in New York when Peter Yates was directing him with Mia Farrow in John and Mary (1969). Dustin was intrigued - sufficiently so that Ridley Scott and I flew to New York to meet with him. In a strangely unfurnished apartment, the three of us sat around a card table for hours, with Dustin doing most of the talking. (Ridley later said that the scene had the lonely look of an Edward Hopper painting, which was coincidental because Ridley had always kept in mind 'Nighthawks', the Hopper painting of the corner café, when he talked about the mood of Blade Runner.) Dustin was too intelligent to think he could play Deckard, the man of action, as written. He asked for suggestions as to how the script could be adapted to suit him physically, and Hampton once again was tasked to come up with ideas.

This time, Deckard was to be a mean and embittered little man, dissatisfied, selfish and dangerous. Ridley and I figured that although this character sounded seriously unattractive, the nature of his enemies would make him comparatively sympathetic. We reckoned that Dustin could always pull off a sweet little twinkle if his character was too dark. And if we cast Rachael, the leading female character, cleverly enough, she could bring out a responsive softness in Dustin's Deckard.

Dustin was delighted with the opportunities this revised characterisation offered him and a number of lengthy story conferences took place in September. By then Dustin had buried himself in this character and came up with numerous suggestions of his own. I think Ridley's enthusiasm palled for a moment when Dustin proposed that Hampton's version of Dr Eldon Tyrell's entire family being murdered be modified simply to the killing of Tyrell. (In fact this script change did stay, although the way Ridley would finally shoot Batty's execution of Tyrell was probably ten times more gruesome than Dustin would have liked.)

But Dustin's enthusiasm for detail and insistence that every word of the script be micro-managed began to have a leaden effect. Out of the blue we were suddenly discussing cryogenics, and how exciting was the prospect of being able to freeze people with terminal diseases just before they expired, keeping them on ice until a cure could be found... I felt it was getting out of hand: our conversations were sounding like first-year film-school debate instead of closing off casting for the imminent production of a very expensive picture.

The discussions with Dustin came to nothing. By mid-October 1980, there were only three months until the scheduled start of principal photography. We had wasted vital months trying to adjust the script to Dustin or vice versa. We needed a real leading man, and they are hard to obtain at short notice. So Ridley and I put our heads together and came up with what proved to be a lucky thought...

The story continues in Blade Runners, Deer Hunters & Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: My Life in Cult Movies by Michael Deeley (with Matthew Field), to be published by Faber and Faber in 2008. Blade Runner–The Final Cut is released in multiple editions by Warner Home Video on December 18 2007.