His
idea of a non-human or bipedal humanoid,
morphologically identical to
human beings
amongst the human race, became a paramount theme
within
his work in the sixties.
The film is adapted from the novel, but
they can be viewed as
separate entities. The
medium of film uses different techniques
to
express or convey messages to its audience, and
vise-versa in the
use of words or written
language. Film can use images and
expressions
of its characters to narrate a story, as in the
early
silent films of Charlie Chaplin and Buster
Keaton. A novel or story can
also be radically
changed if the adaptation is by another artist
or
director, as in the case of the film Blade
Runner.
This can be even more complicated by the
fact that the original
Blade Runner screenplay
had to be re-written several times by
different
writers before a satisfactory screenplay could
be turned
into a film by its director.
Basically, the final result is a
combination of
several different artists' visions of the same
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original story. Film-makers have to elaborate
their
portrayal of actions and reactions in order
to achieve a comprehensible
narrative.
Individual creative responsibility and artistic
control
are limited whenever film-making is a
group activity; that is to say,
almost always.
In expressing and exploring group concerns
rather
than the private interests of a solitary artist,
popular
films tap one source of coherence that is
independent of artistic self
expression.
The first people interested in adapting this
novel into a film were
the successful American
film director Martin Scorsese, (Raging Bull
and
Cape Fear) and Jay Cocks. Then, later, Herb
Jaffe optioned the
copyright and Robert Jaffe did
the screenplay in 1973. This was sent to
Dick,
but he found it so crude; he didn't understand
that it was the
actual shooting script, he
thought it was a rough draft. Philip Dick
wanted
to buy back the copyright to the book rather than
let them
(Herb & Robert Jaffe) make a film based
on that first screenplay.
Robert Jaffe turned the novel into a comedy
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