Taking Tiger Mountain (film)

Taking Tiger Mountain
Promotional release poster
Directed byTom Huckabee
Kent Smith
Written byPaul Cullum
Tom Huckabee
Kent Smith
Based onBlade Runner (a movie)
by William S. Burroughs
StarringBill Paxton
Distributed byHorizon Films[1]
Release date
  • March 24, 1983 (1983-03-24) (San Francisco)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Taking Tiger Mountain is a 1983 American science fiction film directed by Tom Huckabee and Kent Smith, and starring Bill Paxton in one of his earliest on-screen acting roles. Originally conceived as an experimental art film inspired by Albert Camus's 1942 novel The Stranger and a poem by Smith, the film was initially directed by Smith and shot in Wales. Aside from Paxton, the film's cast is made up of townspeople from the areas in which shooting took place. It was filmed without sound, with the intention of adding dialogue in post-production.

During post-production, Huckabee took over as the film's director, abandoning Smith's original concept and instead loosely basing the film on the 1979 novella Blade Runner (a movie) by William S. Burroughs. The film premiered on March 24, 1983. Over three decades later, Huckabee re-edited the film and released it as an alternate cut titled Taking Tiger Mountain Revisited.

  1. ^ Barkan, Jonathan (January 16, 2019). "Bill Paxton's First Film Taking Tiger Mountain To Be Released After 40 Years". Dread Central. Retrieved February 2, 2020.