A Skeletal Kong

Posted on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 by Robert Hood

The metallic endoskeleton for stop-motion SFX guru Willis O’Brien’s King Kong (from the 1933 film of the same name) has just been sold at auction by Christie’s of London.

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This particular version of the mighty Kong — 55 centimetres high, with ball and socket joints and once covered in cotton and rubber to form muscles, a latex overlay for skin and rabbit fur — was one of three models used in the making of the film. Two smaller ones undertook acting duties during the Skull Island jungle sequences, and this larger model was the one that crashed around in New York, climbed the Empire State Building and fought the airplanes.

The skull was made of aluminium, modeled from a wooden carving.

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Photo: EFE/Andy Rain

The historic armature, unique of its kind and a significant piece of cinematic memorabilia, sold for 121,250 pounds ($218,000) at auction.

The larger model survived thanks to film fan Eugene Hilchey, who set out to gather as many King Kong artefacts as he could from 1949 onward.

He got hold of the auctioned model in 1967 when the miniature department where it was being kept was closed for demolition.

After his plans for a museum of Hollywood artefacts fell through, Hilchey entrusted the model to Bison Archives/Productions who brought it to Christie’s. (Reuters)

Posted in Archival, Film, Giant Monsters, News | 1 Comment

$quid Pictorial Update

Posted on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 by Robert Hood

We’ve been following the Brisbane-made romstercom (romantic monster comedy) for some time on Undead Brainspasm (read the articles here). Well, there have been some updates since the last, with the film now due to be released in “early 2010”. In addition, the creators are referring to it as a “Monster Comedy” now, and a new poster has appeared, along with more stills from the film. So I decided to post the update here. Some of the images in the gallery are visible in previous articles — but I couldn’t be bothered sorting through them and anyway, it’s good to have them in one place, right? At any rate $quid is looking like it will be a highlight of next year’s line-up.

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$quid: The Movie (Aust-2010; dir. Daley Pearson and Luke Tierney)

“A hilarious new feature film about a giant squid attacking a New Years Eve river cruise!”

  • Starring: Josh Lawson [Thank God You’re Here]; Ed Kavalee [Thank God You’re Here]; Henry Nixon [Noise, Spielberg’s The Pacific]; Christian Clark [Neighbours]; Toby Truslove [Thank God You’re Here]; Brooke Sheehan; Lauren Lillie; Jess Harris [Rove]; Katherine Hicks [Rescue Special Ops]
  • Screenplay by: Daley Pearson, Luke Tierney, Josh Lawson and Ed Kavalee
  • Directed by: Daley Pearson and Luke Tierney
  • Produced by: Luke Tierney, Daley Pearson, Candice Preddy

Check out the movie’s YouTube Channel for the original short film that inspired the feature-length one as well as lots of “making of” documentaries. Their Facebook page says that a new web series, “The Making of $quid”, will be coming soon.

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Gallery:

Official Website.

Thanks, Avery.

Posted in Film, Giant Monsters, Giant Squids, Posters, Update | Leave a comment

El Eternauta

Posted on Sunday, November 22, 2009 by Robert Hood

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“El Eternauta” (The Eternaut) is a serialised graphic novel written by Argentinian comic writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld and initially drawn by Francisco Solano López. First published in 1957-1959 in three-page weekly episodes in the magazine Hora Cero (Zero Time), it tells a complex and sprawling tale of alien invasion, apocalypse and rebellion, as recounted by Juan Salvo, the Eternaut — a time traveller — to a comic writer, who then produces the story as a warning of things to come. Those things to come include “killing snow”, flying saucers, giant insects, strange humanoid creatures with many fingers (“Manos”), controlled human slaves (“hombres-robot”) and huge building-smashing beasts called “Gurbos”.

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Click on the following to view pages of the comic:

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Since mid-2008 there has been much talk of a film version of El Eternauta, the largest ever produced in South America it is said. The director was slated to be the award-winning Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (whose last film was La mujer sin cabeza “The Headless Woman”), though there are apparently rumours about that she may be off the project (Twitch). Be that as it may, IMDb still lists the film under her “in development” projects (with details only available on the IMDbPro version).

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At any rate, whoever the director might end up being, the following test footage gives hope that if it does happen, the film will be an exciting one:

Meanwhile various fans have been prolific. Here is some concept art by artist Jorge L. Fernández — in order (1) The fall of the flying saucer on the River Plate Stadium with the protagonist Juan Salvo continuing his journey toward the centre; (2) A Mano, the invader; and (3) a Cascarudo (“Crab”) — one of the giant insect “stormtroopers”:

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Kaiju Search-Robot Avery has also pointed the way toward some very decent El Eternauta footage, a faux trailer and Making Of reel made by film students:

This fan-made retro poster is also an excellent piece of work:

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A picture of the Gurbas by “alcatena”:

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Read the comic:

El Eternauta I

Posted in Comics, Film, Flying Saucers, Giant Bugs, Giant Monsters, Graphic novels, News, Pictorial art | 4 Comments

Gigantor Dressed Up In Brand New Pixels

Posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Robert Hood

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The Japanese giant robot Tetsujin 28 has had many incarnations. Created in manga form in 1956 (written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama), it spawned several anime series, was renamed as “Gigantor” for US TV, and appeared in a recent live-action movie — Tetsujin niju-hachigo [aka Tetsujin 28] (Japan-2005; dir. Shin Togashi):

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Not only that, Tetsujin 28’s popularity was recently confirmed when a full-size statue of him was unveiled at Wakamatsu Park in Kobe, Japan:

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Now, the much-anticipated CG remake of Gigantor (as the giant robot is named in the US) — or Tetsujin-28 according to its Japanese origins (see Robot War Espresso article) — has finally been given the green light.

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Due for release in 2011, the film is being made by Hakari Productions and Imagi Studios, despite the less-than-stellar box-office performance of their CG remake of Astroboy. It has previously been referred to as “Tetsujin 28” or “T28” (which is still the title that appears on the website), and it is the name that appeared on the teaser “test” trailer that was released earlier in the year:

However, more recently its primary title is being given as the Americanised Gigantor on IMDb. No director is named either here or on the website, but the film is listed as “Filming”.

This appears to be a very promising project and may help Imagi out of some of their apparent financial difficulties. Let’s hope it’s worthy.

Images:

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Vote now!

On the website, they’re asking visitors to indicate whether or not they are interested in seeing this film, obviously to gauge the film’s drawing power and perhaps as part of their strategy to encourage funding. So when you go to check out the website, if you want to see the film, go on and tell them so! When you visit the website, the “Vote” panel comes up after the teaser trailer runs.

  • Source: Official website via Avery

Addendum:

Kaiju Search-Robot Avery has discovered the following advertisement, which features Tetsujin 28 himself:

Posted in Animation, Giant Monsters, Japanese, Mecha, Robots, Teaser | 7 Comments

Frankenstein 1910

Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 by Robert Hood

Credited as the first film version of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel, Frankenstein (1910) was written and directed by J. Searle Dawley for the Edison Manufacturing Company. For a long time it was considered lost, represented only by a few images of the Creature, especially this one:

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However, an original nitrate print of Dawley’s Frankenstein finally turned up in Wisconsin in the mid-1970s (IMDb) in the possession of a private collector named Alois F. Dettlaff.

Dettlaff was a strange man and kept a tight grip on his find. As a result, it was rarely seen in his lifetime and probably suffered deterioration that an expert restorer could have prevented (Silent Volume).

The film’s IMDb entry contains this interesting observation:

This is one of the only Frankenstein films where the monster is truly created. All Frankenstein films that followed assembled body parts from various corpses to make the monster. In this film, Frankenstein uses chemicals and “potions” to create the monster. The “creation” scene was made by filming a monster-dummy burning, and then playing the footage backwards.

Frankenstein (1910) starred Augustus Phillips as Frankenstein, Charles Ogle as the Monster, and Mary Fuller as the doctor’s fiancée. It is available for download here (being in the public domain), but fortunately it has also been placed on YouTube:

Next year is the 100th anniversary of this first cinematic version of the iconic novel — to be precise, on 18 March 1910. Remarkable achievement, especially as it was filmed in three days.

Posted in Archival, Film, Horror | 1 Comment

Raiga Poster and New Images

Posted on Monday, November 16, 2009 by Robert Hood

This newly released poster for Shinkaijû Raiga [aka Deep Sea Monster Raiga] (2009; dir. Shinpei Hayashiya) raises several questions about the movie.

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Among the questions that should be on the tip of your tongue are: “What on earth is that Casper-like floating critter about two-thirds of the way down the poster on the right?” and “What the hell is that object the guy with the eye-patch is surfing in on?”

Below is a picture of it from the film itself, crashing into the side of a building. Yes, it’s rather large!

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And here is the guy in the eye-patch:

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Kaiju Search-Robot Avery has uncovered two new pictures of Deep Sea Monster Raiga himself, one rampaging, and the other worn out by all the rampaging director Hayashiya demanded of him:

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Tanks move in to get him while he’s snoozing:

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If in the picture below the jaws belong to Raiga, that man is either very big or Raiga really has been worn down:

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No  comment on this one:

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Some images of the cast at a promotional event:

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Thanks for those, Avery!

Source: Official website

Addendum:

The strange “golden” object mentioned in Question Two sits atop the Asahi Beer Building in Asakusa, Tokyo, and is indeed a local landmark. Variously described as a “golden sperm”, a cloud, and who knows what else, the Asahi PR Division say that it was designed like “yeast of the beer” and black building under it is the glass (Asakusa Samurai). Anyway, built in 1989 and designed by architect Philippe Starck, it is the symbol of the beer manufacturers “at a location where Asahi has been making beer for over a century” (Reference).

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Posted in Daikaiju, Film, Giant Monsters, Independent film, Japanese, Update | 3 Comments

Weekend Fright Flick: Ataque de Pánico!

Posted on Sunday, November 15, 2009 by Robert Hood

You must watch this short film! Yes, you must! There’s no argument.

It’s an almost poetically beautiful alien invasion via an armada of space ships and giant robots, with superb SFX and apocalyptic destruction, all to the music of John Murphy from the 28 Days Later… soundtrack.

Watch it now! You won’t regret it.

Ataque de Pánico! [aka Panic Attack!] (Uruguay-2009; short [4:48 min]; dir. Fede Alvarez)

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[Note: Normally I like you to watch the embedded version of the films I post, but in this case, I’d recommend following the link to YouTube so you can watch it at a larger size. Awesome! It may not have a plot, but it’s a great piece of visualisation.]

FYI, what the news reporter says is: “The situation is alarming, overwhelming; what you can see over there are robots, or, as far as we understand, probably robots…”

Posted in Flying Saucers, Giant Monsters, Robots, Science Fiction, Weekend Fright Flick | 5 Comments

Assault Girls: The Bigger Picture

Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 by Robert Hood

Along with a groovy new poster comes some fascinating news about Mamoru Oshii’s latest film, Assault Girls — last discussed here upon the recent release of a fantastic trailer. Twitch has provided a more detailed synopsis that increases my already-high levels of anticipation regarding this film — a scifi adventure about sexy girls with guns vs giant sand-serpents — by revealing that the story takes place in the same artistic environment as Oshii’s previous live-action opus, the superb VR scifi drama Avalon.

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New Synopsis:

The story takes place in an in-game virtual space called “Avalon (f)”, a barren desert-like battlefield, resembling a devastated world after a nuclear war. “Avalon (f)” is a world full of gigantic monsters. It is a fictional world where an endless “hunt”, known as “play”, repeatedly takes place. The drama centers around a sniper who pilots a camouflage fighter plane; a sorcerer who can freely transform herself; a woman fighter equipped with an assault rifle on a horseback; and a large-framed man equipped with an anti-tank rifle. There is also the “Game Master” who watches the players from the air.

In a world where giant Sunakujira (Sand Whales) monsters crawl the earth, storming battleships fly high up in the sky, and assault rifle muzzle flashes go off everywhere, can anyone shoot down the mutant monster, Madara Sunakujira (Spotted Sand Whale)? If so, who?!

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So the narrative takes place in an in-game virtual space named “Avalon (f)”? This makes sense of some of the images included in the trailer — the serpent that pixelates into oblivion when killed, the blurry air of surrealism, the floating sphere, the non-naturalistic movement — and is something we might have guessed given the initial music that plays, resembling as it does the brilliant musical soundtrack of Avalon.

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I find this connection an extremely felicitous one as Avalon is one of the more intelligent and interesting science fiction films to come out over the past decade. Hopefully Assault Girls will follow in its footsteps.

  • Source: Twitch via Avery
Posted in Daikaiju, Film, Giant Monsters, Japanese, Posters, Science Fiction | 1 Comment

Ilya Muromets

Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 by Robert Hood

The main purpose behind this entry into the Backbrain archive is simply to note the existence of an old film I hadn’t known about — one that features a very cool monster.

Eye-Filling Spectacle! Man Against Monsters!

Ilya Muromets [aka The Sword and the Dragon] (Soviet Union-1956; dir. Aleksandr Ptushko)

Based on an ancient legend, this Russian film includes a wealth of fantasy elements, simply going on the images I’ve been able to track down. Not the least of them — and the one that sparked my interest in the film — is the one below, a classic moment straight out of what is probably the first major dragon-slaying film, Fritz Lang’s Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924).

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Synopsis:

Ilya Muromets is a heroic warrior who succeeded in protecting the Russian land from evil enemies, defeating their thousands-strong army. He saved Russia from various monsters, such as Nightingale the Robber and Gorynych the Serpent. This was the first Soviet wide-screen motion picture. Participating in the shooting were 106, 000 soldiers-extras and 11, 000 horses – the record numbers in the history of world cinema (as documented in Patrick Robertson’s “The New Guinness Book of Movie Records”, published in 1993). (from Ruscico website)

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Ilya Muromets was released in Japan during the Showa Period — on 10 March 1959 (according to the IMDb), about five years after the iconic giant monster film Gojira (aka Godzilla) made its box-office mark — and (apparently) by Toho, the production company that singlehanded invented the daikaiju eiga genre. Notice the logographic lettering in the lower left-hand side of the card (the picture of the dragon) above. We discovered this image on a Japanese blog, and the author of the article clearly considers that the film was released as part of the Showa-period development of the daikaiju eiga genre. It is certainly possible to see a potential influence on Godzilla’s greatest enemy, the three-headed Ghidrah [later King Ghidorah], who first appeared in the 1964 film San daikaijû: Chikyû saidai no kessen [aka Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster]. The author refers to the dragon (which is three-headed: see poster below) as the “incarnation of capitalism” — interpreted as such by the Soviet regime —  and points out similarities with the Japanese “legend of the eight dragons”.

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In its original undubbed, widescreen aspect (rather than the dubbed, pan-and-scanned and cut US version available online), Ilya Muromets looks as though it is a spectacular and inventive fantasy epic.

Ruscico, the Russian Cinema Council [see review], has released the film in its original aspect ratio and with subtitles.

More images:

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And here is the US trailer, though the poor quality of the print does not do justice to the original’s visual beauty:

References:

Posted in Archival, Daikaiju, Dragons, Film, Giant Monsters | 4 Comments

Gaining Altitude

Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 by Robert Hood

Snakes on a Plane I wasn’t particularly interested in. Huge Tentacled Monsters Just Outside a Plane? — now that’s more like it!

Altitude (Canada/US-2010; dir. Kaare Andrews)

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Synopsis:

After a mysterious malfunction sends their small plane climbing out of control, a rookie pilot and her four teenage friends find themselves trapped in a deadly showdown with a supernatural force.

Earlier “Demo” Trailer:

Altitude stars Jessica Lowndes, Ryan Donowho, Michelle Harrison, Landon Liboiron, Ryan Grantham, and Jake Weary. Director Kaare Andrews is well-known as a comic writer and artist, having been involved with such titles as Spider-Man and The X-Men, and has provided award-winning covers for The Incredible Hulk.

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The film is currently in post-production and is due to drop in all its tentacled glory in 2010.

Posted in Film, Giant Monsters, Giant Squids, Horror, News | 2 Comments