Escapes
Description
Two cowboy villains in some black-and-white Western from the 1950s or early 1960s stand at a bar, debating whether or not to skedaddle out of town. The one on the right is a handsome, tall drink of water and the scene is an introduction to Hampton Fancher in Michael Almereyda’s lively portrait of the actor/producer/screenwriter. Though best known as the mind behind the legendary cult film Blade Runner, Fancher’s life has been full of plenty more sticky situations, close calls and other brushes with fate. From running away to Spain on a freighter while a young teen in hopes of becoming a flamenco dancer to forging a career as a sought-after guest star on classic series like Bonanza and Perry Mason to romancing Hollywood stars like Sue Lyon, Teri Garr and Barbara Hershey, Fancher’s destiny has been to live large. And in this rambunctious documentary, he reveals how a longtime friendship with Flipper star Brian Kelly led to his writing Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic. While Fancher spins his fascinating stories, Almereyda (Experimenter, SFIFF 2015) fills the screen with footage from his films, television appearances and a host of other archival material to illustrate a biography so colorful it could easily be the invention of a Hollywood screenwriter. —Pam Grady
Michael Almereyda’s Experimenter was the closing night film at SFIFF 2015. After making his directing debut with A Hero of Our Time (1985), a short starring Dennis Hopper, he returned to his native Kansas to make his first feature Twister (1989). He’s been a pioneer in the use of Fisher-Price Pixelvision with his features Another Girl, Another Planet (SFIFF 1993), Nadja (SFIFF 1995) and Happy Here and Now (2002). Among his other films are The Eternal (1998), Hamlet (SFIFF 2000), This So-Called Disaster: Sam Shepard Directs The Late Henry Moss (2003), William Eggleston in the Real World (2005), Paradise (2009) and Cymbeline (2014).
Film Details
Language English
Year 2016
Premiere World
Runtime 84
Country USA
Director Michael Almereyda
Producer Michael Almereyda
Editor Piibe Kolka
Cinematographer Piibe Kolka
Cast Hampton Fancher