The Blade Runner Encyclopedia

Blade Runner (1982), Blade Runner 2049, the anime short films. Welcome to the world of Blade Runner: Now for the first time, a comprehensive masterwork of reference material has been collectively gathered and created for you to read, experience, and understand the Blade Runner universe like never before. Science Fiction World said, "This is an astounding reference book that is sure to delight, entertain, and amaze any fan of the Ridley Scott and Denis Villeneuve films. Consider this the 'must-have' guide you need to navigate the dystopian world of Blade Runner.""

From his first feature film, The Duellists, to his international successes Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, and American Gangster, Ridley Scott has directed some of the most compelling films of the last 30 years. Apart from his work as a film director, Scott has engaged in a vast range of activities, including that as a designer, producer, film mogul, and advertising executive. The Ridley Scott Encyclopedia is the first book that focuses on all aspects of his work in a wide-ranging career that spans nearly 50 years. The entries in this encyclopedia focus on all aspects of his work and are divided into four categories. The first focuses on Ridley Scott's work as a director, encompassing his feature films from The Duellists to Body of Lies, as well as his work in television, including commercials. The second category focuses on the people who have been involved in Scott's projects, including actors, directors, producers, designers, writers and other creative personnel. The third focuses on general thematic issues raised in Scott's work, such as gender construction, political issues, and geographical locations. Finally the encyclopedia incorporates entries on films by other directors who have influenced Scott's approach to his work as a director or producer. Each entry is followed by a bibliography of published sources, both in print and online, making this the most comprehensive reference on Scott's body of work.

Featuring rumpled PIs, shyster lawyers, corrupt politicians, double-crossers, femmes fatales, and, of course, losers who find themselves down on their luck yet again, film noir is a perennially popular cinematic genre. This extensive encyclopedia describes movies from noir's earliest days – and even before, looking at some of noir's ancestors in US and European cinema – as well as noir's more recent offshoots, from neonoirs to erotic thrillers. Entries are arranged alphabetically, covering movies from all over the world – from every continent save Antarctica – with briefer details provided for several hundred additional movies within those entries. A copious appendix contains filmographies of prominent directors, actors, and writers. With coverage of blockbusters and program fillers from Going Straight (US 1916) to Broken City (US 2013) via Nora Inu (Japan 1949), O Anthropos tou Trainou (Greece 1958), El Less Wal Kilab (Egypt 1962), Reportaje a la Muerte (Peru 1993), Zift (Bulgaria 2008), and thousands more, A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir is an engrossing and essential reference work that should be on the shelves of every cinephile.

Coverage: 1895-1994.

Ridley Scott's dystopian classic Blade Runner, an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, combines noir with science fiction to create a groundbreaking cyberpunk vision of urban life in the twenty-first century. With replicants on the run, the rain-drenched Los Angeles which Blade Runner imagines is a city of oppression and enclosure, but a city in which transgression and disorder can always erupt. Graced by stunning sets, lighting, effects, costumes and photography, Blade Runner succeeds brilliantly in depicting a world at once uncannily familiar and startlingly new. In his innovative and nuanced reading, Scott Bukatman details the making of Blade Runner and its steadily improving fortunes following its release in 1982. He situates the film in terms of debates about postmodernism, which have informed much of the criticism devoted to it, but argues that its tensions derive also from the quintessentially twentieth-century, modernist experience of the city – as a space both imprisoning and liberating. In his foreword to this special edition, published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BFI Film Classics series, Bukatman suggests that Blade Runner 's visual complexity allows it to translate successfully to the world of high definition and on-demand home cinema. He looks back to the science fiction tradition of the early 1980s, and on to the key changes in the 'final' version of the film in 2007, which risk diminishing the sense of instability created in the original.

The Routledge Encyclopedia of Films comprises 200 essays by leading film scholars analysing the most important, influential, innovative and interesting films of all time. Arranged alphabetically, each entry explores why each film is significant for those who study film and explores the social, historical and political contexts in which the film was produced. Ranging from Hollywood classics to international bestsellers to lesser-known representations of national cinema, this collection is deliberately broad in scope crossing decades, boundaries and genres. The encyclopedia thus provides an introduction to the historical range and scope of cinema produced throughout the world.

Comprising 91 A–Z entries, this encyclopedia provides a broad and comprehensive introduction to the topic of religion within film. Technology has enabled films to reach much wider audiences, enabling today's viewers to access a dizzying number of films that employ diverse symbolism and communicate a vast array of viewpoints. Encyclopedia of Religion and Film will provide such an audience with the tools to begin their own exploration of the deeper meanings of these films and grasp the religious significance within. Organized alphabetically, this encyclopedia provides more than 90 entries on the larger religious traditions, the major film-producing regions of the globe, the films that have stirred controversy, the most significant religious symbols, and the more important filmmakers. The included topics provide substantially more information on the intersection of religion and film than any of the similar volumes currently available. While the emphasis is on the English-speaking world and the films produced therein, there is also substantial representation of non-English, non-Western film and filmmakers, providing significant intercultural coverage to the topic.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia is the perfect resource for information on the people, places, and events of yesterday and today. Students, teachers, and librarians can find fast facts combined with the quality and accuracy that have made Britannica the brand to trust. A tool for both the classroom and the library, no other desk reference can compare.