SFGate Profiles Legend Ray Harryhausen
February 28, 2008
(photo by Bonnie Burton)
San Francisco Chronicle profiles legendary movie effects artist Ray Harryhausen and his poster that he signs every time he visits Industrial Light & Magic.
When one works at a special effects house, even the giant space bugs can become routine. Industrial Light & Magic in the Presidio is filled with relics from two generations worth of science fiction and fantasy films - model spaceships and dinosaurs and dozens of movie posters - that begin to fade into the background on the second or third visit.
But there’s one piece of art on the wall that few in the building take for granted: A giant print of the Cyclops from “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,” with a signature scrawled on it once for every visit by the monster’s creator. It was displayed prominently in the lobby of the old ILM offices in San Rafael, and now gets a place of honor near the cast photos from each of the company’s productions.
“Every time I walk by that and see those signatures, I think, ‘This has got to be the coolest place in the world,’ ” says Tim Harrington, an animator in his mid-30s who is working on the new Indiana Jones movie. “Ray Harryhausen has been here five times.”
Read the full article:
Ray Harryhausen’s monster gift to film
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February 28, 2008 at 12:19 pm
[…] Profiles Legend Ray Harryhausen Brent Evans wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt(photo by Bonnie Burton). San […]
February 28, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I saw The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad along with The Lords of Flatbush during a double feature at a drive in movie theatre with my parents when I was around 5 years old.
I ended up becoming a monstrous D&D and Star Wars geek not too many years after that. I was also into superheroes, Godzilla and dinosaurs, How and Why books and all sorts of light science, science fiction and fantasy, but, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad was the closest I came in my formative years to being exposed to something that was actually close to D&D in spirit and zeitgeisst. I wonder if it was an early butterfly effect at work.
I wonder if Palpatine still rages and defeats Galactus, Superman, Gandalf, and the Borg because of this film…for there was a feedback loop between Star Wars and D&D. Indeed, in 7th grade, I combined the 2 into what I called ‘Space Age D&D’. It was essentially Star Wars characters and technology wreaking havoc on all of Greyhawk. To enter the Space Age part, the PCs entered and operated Land of the Lost-style pylons. Wacky!
Oh, such memories…but, wait.
They are anything but memories!
The present moment is as thrilling and giddifying as any prior. :O)
Paul Roe
antiaging4geeks.com
March 22, 2008 at 11:51 am
[…] The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad, Jason And The Argonauts, and King Kong. …www.computercrowsnest.comSFGate Profiles Legend Ray HarryhausenSFGate Profiles Legend Ray Harryhausen February 28, 2008 photo by Bonnie Burton San Francisco […]