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Post by McTodd on Jan 31, 2005 12:47:56 GMT
I just found this! Another of Ray Harryhausen’s pre-production drawings for his aborted ‘War of the Worlds’ project!  It’s in a gallery on this site… www.sparkhilldvd.com/…which advertises a double-disc DVD set of all of Ray’s early stuff, from teenage experiments through his wartime training films to his fairy tales! Note that WotW is in the chapter listing! So apart from footage of his cute Martian emerging from the cylinder (which you can see in the documentary that accompanies the DVDs of his films) I’m hoping for loads of never-before-seen drawings as well! As Fran once put it in ‘Black Books’… ‘Eep!’ |
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Post by SpaceMonkey on Jan 31, 2005 19:33:30 GMT
They kinda look like the flying saucers from 'earth vs the flying saucers'. Id heard about this before and im dying to see the test animation on the DVD of his version of WOTW. should be interesting
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Post by Thunder Child on Feb 1, 2005 20:27:40 GMT
So that's were that picture comes from...
Johan
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Post by RossH on Feb 2, 2005 22:17:54 GMT
They kinda look like the flying saucers from 'earth vs the flying saucers'. Id heard about this before and im dying to see the test animation on the DVD of his version of WOTW. should be interesting Not sure he ever built a tripod, never mind animated it. He did do several concept drawings, and animated a martian choking in the poisonous Earth atmosphere and falling out of a cylinder (although it could be a tripod)... Ordered the DVD for myself... looking forward to EVERYTHING |
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Post by McTodd on Feb 3, 2005 10:38:29 GMT
If you’ve seen ‘The Harryhausen Chronicles’, the superlative one-hour documentary narrated by Leonard ‘I Am Not Spock – Oh Alright, Yes I Am’ Nimoy, it includes the 16mm clip of Ray’s Martian emerging from the cylinder (and it is the cylinder, not a Fighting Machine or anything else). Several sketches are shown too.
Having also got the recent big fat book about RH, and an early 1980s copy of ‘Amazing Cinema’ magazine, which has an RH interview (together with another drawing I’ve not seen anywhere else, but which I can’t scan because my home computer’s gone Pete Tong), I can confirm that Ray never built a tripod – he didn’t even get as far as figuring out how it would walk (one leg forward, two to follow, or vice versa?).
Also, shades of ‘Earth Versus…’, the saucer-like body of the machine was to spin (to be precise, split horizontally the upper and lower halves were to spin in opposite directions). This, he rationalised, was to provide the tripods with gyroscopic stability, but mainly it was for visual interest.
Ray was originally going to use a travelling matte to place people in the foreground of his 16mm film of the cylinder unscrewing, but time and money ran out. Incidentally, his father made the armature for the Martian (as he did for all of Ray’s early films) and built the cylinder from plaster.
I’ve already got the new DVD on order…
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Post by maniacs on Feb 3, 2005 16:02:54 GMT
He was a great artist and I think a version of his would have been an interesting addition to our collection.
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Post by twistedrabbit on Feb 3, 2005 16:35:21 GMT
I've seen the DVD collections before too...and I must say I've been eyeing them fondly every time I see them in the store...but I need to save my money to eat and live...so Ray'll have to wait.
Mr. H would have given us something really good with his WOTW...even if slightly cheesey...it might have outdone the original 1953 version. I keep referring back to The First Men IN the Moon...such a great rendition of Wells' novel.
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