Gizmodo: Blade Runner

15 Blade Runner Style Animated Buildings

Sean Fallon — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:50:00 EDT

A few months ago an LA real estate mogul revealed his plans to light up the LA skyline with giant animated bilboards. Love it or hate it, that was not the first time someone had the idea of creating building facades like those found in Blade Runner. OObect has put together a list of 15 of these architectural marvels—and the best part is that there are plenty of designs that are not all about advertising. [OObject]

Lego Blade Runner Spinner Video Makes Us Drool to Dehydration

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:43:35 EDT

The always fascinating and outworldly Xeni Jardin points us to this video of the Lego Blade Runner Spinner. She wrote: "Guys, you posted a while back about the badass one of a kind LEGO spinner car from Blade Runner that Joel Johnson spotted during the BBtv shoot at Syd Mead's studio. We cut an episode about it, check it out!" Actually, what Xeni meant to write was: "Witness Joel Johnson getting a stiffy touching Syd's Lego Spinner." I can't blame him. In his own words:

A one-of-a-kind official LEGO version of Mead's "Spinner" flying car from Blade Runner, presented to Syd by LEGO when he attended a design summit in Billund. Syd let me pick it up and swoop it around my head like a child.

You should have ran away with it, Joel. Crime pays. They are still looking for their Galaxy Explorer at the Lego Secret Vaultin Denmark. [Boing Boing TV]

What Geek Movie Remakes and Sequels are Too Horrifying for Even Hollywood to Create?

Adam Frucci — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:50:00 EDT

Hollywood is going a little bit crazy with the unnecessary sequels and remakes these days, more often than not taking a beloved show or movie from our younger years and holding it down while it drowns in a bathtub. Still, there are properties left unmolested, memories that have yet to be tarnished. Trust me: it's only a matter of time. For this week's Photoshop contest, I want to see you imagine some new sequels or remakes that would be so offensive to your precious memories that you would swear off movies for good.

Come up with your best images and send them to me (in .jpg form, please) to contests@gizmodo.com with the subject line "horrible movies." I'll post the best examples of cinematic abortions in our Gallery of Champions next week. So get going! There are precious movie memories to defile!

Lego Blade Runner Spinner Car Limited Edition One of One

Brian Lam — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:23:05 EDT

Joel spent all day with Syd Mead of Aliens, Blade Runner, 2010, Tron vehicle design fame and the first thing he's posted is this Lego Blade Runner Spinner Car replica that Lego made for him. It's the only one in the world. More photos at [BoingBoing Gadgets.]

LA Real Estate Mogul Plans To Light Up Your Life With Blade Runner Inspired Billboards

Sean Fallon — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:30:00 EDT

Being the businessman that he is, it wasn't the movie Blade Runner that struck L.A. real estate mogul Sonny Astani, it was the animated billboards depicted in the opening sequence. In fact, the idea has had such a profound effect on him that he plans on making advertising in 2019 Los Angeles a reality ahead of schedule. His plans call for two 14 story animated billboards to be built on condos set for construction downtown.

The display itself will consist of hundreds of rows of LEDs spaced 6 inches apart. Apparently, this will allow residents to see out of the floor-to-ceiling windows, but at a distance it will appear to be a complete image. Whether or not this over-the-top advertising will be as tacky and annoying as it sounds remains to be seen. In order for Astani's pilfered vision to come true, it still has to be approved by city officials. Let's hope they have some sense. [io9 via Wired]

Sleuthy NYC Couple Use Deckard Technique to Find Aussie Lost-Camera Owner

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:13:03 EST

It was like a real-life scene from Blade Runner, well, except for the pleasure-model skin jobs, the handguns that sound like laser blasters and the whole Harrison Ford thing. An NYC couple stumbles upon a digital camera left in a cab on New Year's Eve, and decide to turn all sleuthy.

They pore over the 300 photos and videos in the memory card—which probably wasn't exactly legal—landing upon a shot of a bunch of people drunk in a bar, wearing nametags. Though the names themselves seemed to lead nowhere, a couple clicks up and to the right, a little zoom and voila! Our heroes could see the bar's name, written on an awning.

Popping over there, they shook down the bartender for information. The barman remembered a party and a particular "big tipper" who, fortunately for the couple, worked at another bar. They met up with her, and it turned out that her sister was amigos with the Australian who lost the camera. (What kind of amigo, I guess we'll never know.) After a few e-mails, the camera is making its way back to the bloke in Australia, who is happy to "know there are some honest people left in the world." [SMH]

Sure, it's a cute story, but the question is this:

How Blade Runner (and Other Old Movies) Get Remastered Into Sweet, Sweet High Definition

Adam Frucci — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:00:03 EST

When a movie gets remastered for HD, it takes a lot of time and effort to get it looking its best. Sure, studios can do a cheap and dirty transfer and deliver you a shoddy, compressed, crappy looking disc, and many do, but for big-name movies, there's a ton of work that goes into it.

Sound and Vision Magazine visited the Warner lot and took a peek at what the process was to restore Blade Runner to a pristine state for its upcoming Final Cut release on HD DVD and Blu-ray. They chronicle everything from scanning the movie in at 4K (4,000 lines of resolution) from the celluloid to keep a super-high-quality master on file to getting the surround sound absolutely perfect. If you're interested in just what goes into restoring a film for HD, you should definitely check it out. [Sound and Vision]

Bladerunner GPS Tracker Jacket Locates Kids, Replicants

Charlie White — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:40:13 EDT

We've heard of GPS trackers for kids before, but here's one that's ironically branded Bladerunner. It's sewn into a jacket to be worn by small children, and replicants if they're small enough. Whenever that rug rat ventures beyond a boundary that you set, the jacket texts you on your cellphone. Hey, this is like an Invisible Fence for dogs, except it's for humans. Oh yeah, and it doesn't shock the little tykes, either.

For an extra £10 ($20.42) a month, you can go to a website that shows you every single place that coat has been. Now available in the UK, it must be targeted at those who place a hefty premium on total safety, control and tracking of their youngsters, because this garment costs £250.00 ($510). Or you could just relax, be a good parent and take care of your kids for free. [Bladerunner, via Ubergizmo]

Blade Runner Gun on EBay

johnb — Thu, 25 May 2006 14:05:36 EDT

When you absolutely, positively have to kill every replicant in the room, you have Richard A. Coyle's remarkable recreation of Deckard's gun in Blade Runner. Most of the major pieces are made of metal and it even includes a fancy display stand for impressing skin jobs.

What I have done is to take a hand picked copy of a stunt model and a casting of a real Bulldog 44 Pistol and Styer Model SL of the same year and copied all the detailing to recreate a copy of the film prop model.

Most of them are about $400 or so and there are some all-metal versions for $1,000.– John Biggs

[Ebay via GadgetMadness]