Ridley Scott Admits Little Orphan Annie Inspired Blade Runner

Last weekend in Los Angeles, Blade Runner director Ridley Scott and writer Hampton Fancher spoke at a benefit screening of the digitally-remastered film. Special effects artist and blogger Mojo was there, and gives a great recap the evening, including a brief but friendly spat between Scott and Fancher over whether Deckard is a replicant. Apparently Scott always believed Deckard had to be a replicant to enhance the paranoid feeling of the film; Fancher thinks the question has to be left unanswered. But the best part of the evening was when Scott admitted that Blade Runner's dark look was inspired by a very unlikely comic strip.

Scott said:

"To popularize Blade Runner, I wanted to make it into a real comic strip; Hampton [Fancher] was always showing me comics, and we talked about it a lot. Little Orphan Annie is dark - Daddy Warbucks is so sinister - it’s like Silence Of the Lambs! It’s full of terrible things and bodies locked in cupboards… I would look at these drawings, particularly the grey comic strips - [Batman and Superman] were so well done in those days. When we were making Blade Runner, it was always in the back of my mind that we were making a comic strip. You could put Batman in rooms or scenes from the film and it would work… I think Blade Runner is a pretty sophisticated comic strip"