Shoulder of Orion: The Blade Runner Podcast

In this episode, Jaime sits down with author Ian Nathan, to discuss his newly released book, Ridley Scott: A Retrospective. From Scott's beginnings as a first time director, to being on the set of Alien Covenant, Ian discusses the films and career of the legendary director and his lasting legacy. We hope you enjoy.    Ridley Scott: A Retrospective is available at all major book outlets.    // iTun...

At the core of Blade Runner 2049—and at the core of its predecessor—are great characters. Strip away the unforgettable aesthetics, the world-building, even the music, and 2049 still feels, at its heart, like a Blade Runner film. In this ninth entry into our ongoing series, we explore some of 2049's most intriguing characters. From Sapper Morton, gentle war machine, to Mariette, a replicant with a...

BONUS EPISODE // FRAME RATE: Demons, Witches, & The Dark: A Halloween Special Welcome to our first Halloween Special! Jaime and Dan discuss some of their favorite scary movies, including The Exorcist (1973), Hereditary (2018), and more! So light some candles, turn the lights down, and join us while we explore the darker side of film. // iTunes:  bit.ly/shoulderoforionitunes // Google Play:  bit.ly...

We’ve discussed the concept art, we’ve discussed the architecture, and now, at last, we come to the production design of Blade Runner 2049 in all its facets: the cityscapes, the objects, the costumes—the physical world these characters inhabit.   We also spend time unpacking the ways in which the built environment of Blade Runner 2049 diverges from the iconic world created in Blade Runner. The vis...

Blade Runner 2049 proved itself almost immediately iconic in many ways: the otherworldly visual language, the intoxicating score, the characters we stayed up talking about till odd hours of the night, etc. For fans of architecture, the built environment of Blade Runner 2049 is particularly special. A fusion of past, present, and imagined, the architecture in the film is a wonderful glimpse into de...

Join Patrick and Jaime as they discuss the conceptual design for Blade Runner 2049 as detailed in Tanya Lapointe's latest collaborative book, Interlinked: The Art. In this episode, we discuss how similar to the original film 2049 began while in the concept stage, to the very unique yet world-specific look that ended up in the final film.  // iTunes:  bit.ly/shoulderoforionitunes // Google Play:  b...

Returning to the director's chair, writer/director Charlie Kaufman takes us on a terrifying, beautiful, and mysterious ride in 2020's I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Is it a fantasy? Is it a horror film? Can we make sense of its ending? Join Patrick, Micah, Jaime, and Dan as we recount our experience and our varied interpretations of this fascinating film. // iTunes:  bit.ly/shoulderoforionitunes /...

Ridley Scott’s new series Raised by Wolves is being lauded as an authentic return to original science fiction. Familiar themes like religion, A.I., and humanity’s fate beyond Earth resurface in this original ten-episode season. Shoulder of Orion and Perfect Organism hosts Jaime Prater, Patrick Greene, and Dan Ferlito sit down to review and discuss the first three episodes of the show. // iTunes: ...

In this episode, Dan and Jaime review the recently released science fiction short film Slice of Life. Described as a love letter to similar films of the 1980s, directors Luka Hrgović and Dino Julius craft a world so authentically and perfectly, the only comparison that holds up is Ridley Scott’s genre defining film Blade Runner, released in 1982. Join us as we review the film and discuss all of th...

Dan, Patrick, and Jaime wrap up a two part series on the films of Denis Villeneuve. In this episode they cover why Villeneuve may have been chosen for Blade Runner 2049, his directing style and approach, as he helmed what proved to be the riskiest of sequels ever to have been made.    / iTunes:  bit.ly/shoulderoforionitunes // Google Play:  bit.ly/shoulderoforiongoogleplay // For more on this and...

For many fans in the English-speaking world, Blade Runner 2049 was their first exposure to the work of Denis Villeneuve. But for those lucky enough to have discovered his oeuvre earlier—whether through his searing Canadian work or his Hollywood breakthrough in the early 2010s—Blade Runner 2049 was confirmation of what they likely already knew: Denis Villeneuve is a talent of the very highest calib...

Patrick, Dan, and Jaime take a few minutes to discuss the recently released stills from Blade Runner: Black Lotus, the new CG Anime series coming to AdultSwim.    // iTunes:  bit.ly/shoulderoforionitunes // Google Play:  bit.ly/shoulderoforiongoogleplay // For more on this and our other projects, please visit www.bladerunnerpodcast.com  // If you'd like to join the conversation, find us on our clo...

In part two of our 2049 series, Dan, Patrick, and Jaime discuss the development of the film. From the whopping $150 million dollar budget to Ridley Scott handing the reins to Denis Villeneuve, we leave no stone unturned as we further explore this miracle of a film.    // iTunes:  bit.ly/shoulderoforionitunes // Google Play:  bit.ly/shoulderoforiongoogleplay // For more on this and our other projec...

Why does the story of Luke Skywalker and the Rebellion resonate with us? Why do we flock to stories of resistance and uprising in films and books? What speaks to us about these particular fables? Join Jaime, Dan, Patrick, and special guest, Dr. Robin Bunce as we dive into this topic amidst a backdrop of an American and global uprising.  // iTunes:  bit.ly/shoulderoforionitunes // Google Play:  bit...

Blade Runner (1982) is singular in that it's a film that never asked for a sequel, nor, arguably, did it need one. In 2017, despite a lack of demand, the world, and fandom was given a sequel. In this second entry in our new series, covering Blade Runner: 2049, Dan, Patrick, and Jaime discuss whether or not Blade Runner needed a sequel, and where fandom was before the news of 2049.  // iTunes:  bit...

Powerful yet sensitive, Moonlight (2016) is a unique coming-of-age story that portrays a man's conflict with identity, sexuality, loneliness, and self-discovery. This three-part drama follows the story of Chiron, a young boy growing up in Miami under arduous circumstances including bullying, violence, drug addiction and poverty. As he becomes older, other characters come in and out of his life, an...

In 1980, David Lynch, widely known for his avant-garde cinema aesthetic, briefly changed course and released one of the best pictures of the 20th Century. The Elephant Man, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir John Hurt, and Anne Bancroft took critics and audiences by storm with its depiction of John Merrick, a real man that lived in breathed in turn of the century England. Jaime, and special guest M...

When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse dropped in late 2018, it promptly redefined a LOT of things for a LOT of people. On its face, it checked all the boxes for something that could’ve flown under the radar: an animated family film about a superhero’s origin story, from a studio with … mixed, to put it mildly … success with the Spider-Man intellectual property. So why didn’t it fly under the rada...

At last, we are officially launching into our extended series on Blade Runner 2049. In the months to come, we will be covering all sorts of aspects of the film's production, story, design, score, and more. In this kick-off episode, hosts Dan, Patrick, and Jaime come together to discuss this moment in history—and how Blade Runner 2049 speaks to it. // iTunes:  bit.ly/shoulderoforionitunes // Google...

In this episode of our Patreon exclusive show, Jaime, and Patrick discuss David Lynch's divisive yet visually arresting film, Dune.  Dune, released in 1984, was the culmination of years of struggle to bring Frank Herberts seminal novel to the big screen. Notable attempts include the now storied Jodorowsky version which fell apart during pre-production. // iTunes:  bit.ly/shoulderoforionitunes // G...

In this second installment of our live community-conversations series, Jaime and Patrick are joined by Mark Deckard, Murray Kucherawy, and Rick Howard (lead admin of Fields of Calantha). This episode, like all Interlinked installments, was live-streamed to Facebook via our page. If you'd like to join the conversation, be sure to follow us on social media—we will be hosting another of these roundta...

Enhance...ENHANCE... We've all heard those words in countless films. In this second episode of our Tech Spotlight, highlighting the technology and hardware of the Blade Runner films, Patrick and Dan dive into the design and use of the Esper machine that our disgruntled detective uses to track down the escaped Replicants. The conversation took a few turns we weren't necessarily expecting, and Rutge...

Damien Chazelle's fourth film, First Man, was undeniably one of 2018's best. The VFX team won the Oscar for their unparalleled work in bringing the Earth and the Moon to life with stunning realism and breathtaking photography. Based on James Hansen's biography, the film takes us beyond the Gemini and Apollo programs' achievements and moves inward, to an intimate portrayal of Armstrong's personal l...

In this impromptu discussion, hosts Jaime, and Patrick are joined by guest, and friend Craig Wright. We at Shoulder of Orion feel like it's important to continue to be there for each other as we march on through so much uncertainty as a fandom, and a global society. This episode is dedicated to our friends Mark Deckard, Ciaran Marcantonio, and many more dealing with so much right now.  // iTunes: ...

Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood (2007) was the rare film that immediately established itself as a classic upon its initial theatrical release. Anchored by an Oscar-winning performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, an experimentally riveting score by Jonny Greenwood, and Robert Elswit’s jaw-dropping cinematography, There Will Be Blood set a new standard in what 21st-century Hollywood was capabl...