Storyboads for William S. Burroughs film project, Blade Runner

Extracts from Burroughs' text with notations and collage elements by Cortez, mounted on drawing paper pad. In 1979, Cortez asked Burroughs and his assistant, James Grauerholz, for the film rights for the book and was granted permission. The film was never realized. Burroughs' book is a sci-fi novella which began as a story treatment for a proposed film adaptation of Alan E. Nourse's novel 'The Bladerunner.' Burroughs' treatment has been described as a closet screenplay. It is set in the early 21st century and involves mutated viruses and a medical-care apocalypse. The term 'blade runner' refers to a smuggler of medical supplies, e.g. scalpels. No film was ever made from Burroughs' text. The title was later bought by Ridley Scott for use in his 1982 science fiction film, 'Blade Runner.' Its plot was based on Philip K. Dick's 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' and not the Nourse/ Burroughs material, although the dialogue incorporates the term 'blade runner' into dialogue.