Philip K. Dick initially hated it

Author Philip K. Dick was not impressed when he read Hampton Francher’s first draft of the screenplay, and said he was “angry and disgusted” at the way it “cleaned my book up of all the subtleties and of the meaning … It had become a fight between androids and a bounty hunter.”

However, a redraft from David Webb was received a lot more positively by Philip.

He recalled: “I couldn’t believe what I was reading! The whole thing had simply been rejuvenated in a very fundamental way ... [The screenplay and the novel] reinforce each other, so that someone who started with the novel would enjoy the movie and someone who started with the movie would enjoy the novel. I was amazed that Peoples could get some of those scenes to work. It taught me things about writing that I didn’t know.”

Sadly, the author passed away in March 1982, just six months before ‘Blade Runner’s theatrical release.