After an interminable couple of months of reading exuberant reviews all over the internet of Ridley Scott's final final final (final) cut of his science fiction classic, Blade Runner, the flick is finally coming to Toronto.

Initially opening only in New York and Los Angeles, Toronto film fans were holding out hope that we'd get a release sooner or later - after all, Scott premiered his final final final (final) cut of Alien here a couple of years ago, during the Toronto International Film Festival.

Meagre hopes of a Toronto screening were dashed once again a few weeks ago, when a United States-wide selective rollout of the film was announced - and Canada missed the bill once again. Now, however, we can confirm that BR: Final Cut will start an exclusive 2-week engagement this Friday, on the digital screen at the Regent Theatre (Mt. Pleasant and Davisville).

Oh sure, the movie is coming out on Blu Ray in six weeks anyway, but the opportunity to see one of the great visual masterpieces of the cinema on an actual cinema screen, digitally projected no less, is too tantalizing to ignore.

Scott's restoration project has included digital fixes and cleanups to some of the more... er... "dated" visual effects from the 1982 print. More importantly, however, to anyone who has followed Blade Runner's torturous journey to the screen, is the director's imprimateur saying that this is, without compromise, his final vision of a film that once pretty much appeared in the dictionary next to the entry for "studio tampering."

Which means: Deckard is a replicant. (Deal with it.)

A particularly engaging interview with Scott, whose American Gangster is now cleaning up at the box office, can be found at the Wired web site. The Regent screenings start this Friday, November 9th - keep an eye on the listings for exact times. The theatre is at 551 Mt. Pleasant Road.

(Ed.: Thanks to everyone who caught my goof on the Regent location. :)