The Digital Bits has a report about the real director's cut of Blade Runner which is finally coming to DVD. And to the cinemas!

Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies evar. When I bought a DVD player in 1998 (for 850 Euros! and I considered myself not an early adopter), I had already heard rumors of a 'true' director's cut, so I never bought the existing edition of Blade Runner on DVD - in fact, I think I haven't watched it since then.

This coming September, there will be a new limited DVD release (HD-DVD & Blu-ray Disc are also planned) of the restored 1992 Director's Cut (you know... the one that isn't really a director's cut). This will be available for just four months. We believe this is basically the 2-disc release that Warner had originally planned to bow LAST year. Then next year, just in time for the film's 25th anniversary, Ridley Scott's ultimate Blade Runner: The Final Cut will hit theaters for a limited run. This will be a REAL director's cut, with restored scenes and more - all the stuff that Ridley's always wanted to do with the film but hasn't really been given the chance to do before. That will be followed later in the year by an Ultimate Blade Runner DVD release. You can expect a multi-disc box set (again, likely with a simultaneous HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc release) that will contain at least four different versions of the film... ALL in full anamorphic widescreen, we might add. You'll get the film's original U.S. theatrical cut, you'll get the expanded international theatrical cut, you'll get the 1992 Director's Cut and you'll get the new Final Cut as well. Now... we realize at this point, you may have questions. Keep in mind, there's a TON of additional material that's going to be included in this set that hasn't been announced and can't be talked about yet - all-new material that you've never seen before. The set is pretty early in the planning and production stage, so it's way too early to talk details, but trust us... some very cool stuff is in the works. These extras will likely be different from the September '06 release, so if you buy both you'll at least be getting your money's worth.

No strong link to interactive entertainment. Blade Runner has had a strong influence on video game aesthetics - too much so perhaps, although the industry is not as maniacally mono-cultural as it used to be. Cyberpunk - the 'classic' cyberpunk of Blade Runner and Neuromancer - is passé now. I have strong nostalgic feelings about it - dystopian cityscapes are somehow comforting compared to post-Singularity transhumanism, plus it reminds me of the eighties. It might be fun to do a cyberpunk game some time. I don't think it's been properly done yet.