Robbins also directed The Legend of Billie Jean (a personal favorite of mine) and is thrilled that this is also a movie that seems to have resurfaced a bit as of late and he reflects on how he got an empowering film for women made when there weren’t a lot of those from that era, and the confusion of hiring two actors with the last name “Slater” to play brother and sister (Helen and Christian; the latter of which told us recently he had a huge crush on the former), but weren’t related in real life. It may not be quite fair to say "they don't make them like they used to" because the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies really upped the Dragonslayer style and In the aftermath, villagers inspecting the dragon's corpse credit God with the victory. The king arrives and drives a sword into the dragon to claim the glory for himself. As Galen and Valerian leave Urland together, he confesses that he misses both Ulrich and the amulet. He says, "I just wish we had a horse." Suddenly, a white horse appears, insinuating that the power of the amulet is now within Galen himself. The couple mount the horse and ride away. A few moments later, the stage is literally filled with screams, the first of many full bodied surround elements that seamlessly draw the listener into the The costumes were designed by Anthony Mendelson, who consulted the British Museum, the London Library, and his own reference files to evoke the designs of the early Middle Ages. They are roughly stitched and use colors that would have been possible with the vegetable dyes of the time. The costumes of Casiodorus and his court were designed of fine silk, as opposed to the coarsely woven clothes of the Urlanders. [3] Music [ edit ]

He continued, "I was almost afraid that I would have to speak up on these very sensitive sore spots, these wounds, so to speak. They were way ahead of me. The first thing they did was show me five clips to demonstrate the kind of thing they were going to be doing. In every instance, suddenly, the grain was gone out of the night sky, and suddenly the fringing around Peter MacNicol's hair was gone. They were aware of everything." Highfalutin descriptions of artistic intent aside, Dragonslayer is cited as one of Guillermo Del Toro’s favorite fantasy films, and rightfully so. It’s exactly the fantasy epic that studios wanted to produce in mass quantities, but this effort actually has the fictional world colored in well enough to stand above the rest. Plus, as you may know, the dragon that needs slaying is a practical effects marvel that came from the innovative minds at Industrial Light and Magic. Yes, that’s right, Phil Tippett of Star Wars fame took the original concepts for the dragon and developed a reference model for Danny Lee of Disney. This model was then used to create the final creature, which consisted of several different effects and animation models. Every penny spent on the result is right up there on the screen, as the Dragon’s Lair sequence during the climax still astounds. Oh, and this film inspired the development of Go-Motion, ILM’s mostion-control technology being adapted to stop-motion animation. I don’t remember big cheers at the finale; the end of Vermithrax plays as downbeat, not a glorious victory. Barwood and Robbins have Richardson’s Ulrich employ the ‘Father Karras’ method of defeating the monster, a gag that I’ve always argued is itself stolen from a near-legendary finale of, of all things, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The Wolf Man, Father Karras and Ulrich all make suicidal gestures to destroy a conventionally un-killable evil — Dracula, the spirit of Pazuzu, and the hell-dragon Vermithrax. From another viewpoint, another friend said the demise of the monster is simply copied from Jaws— something Vermithrax grabs to eat, blows up in his face. Guillermo del Toro gives Hobbit update". ComingSoon.net. Evolve Media, LLC. November 12, 2008. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019 . Retrieved September 5, 2019.

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released every catalogue release with this level of TLC. This is one of the finest the studio has ever offered and easily one of the best looking of any Dragonslayer also got an Oscar nomination for Best Score, and went up against, to this day, one of the most famous scores of all time, Chariots of Fire. Simulations Publications, Inc. produced the board game Dragonslayer, designed by Brad Hessel and Redmond A. Simonsen. [26]

Hal Barwood & Matthew Robbins put everything they had into a medieval sword ‘n’ sorcery epic, filmed in England and finished in California by the best artists at ILM and VCE. It’s basic gee-whiz sorcerer- George vs. The Dragon material, but more brutal than expected. Word of mouth about some unnecessarily gory scenes tipped off parents that it wasn’t safe for small fry. Fantasy fans applauded its formidable dragon Vermithrax Pejorative, brought to life via second-generation stop-motion animation, and it’s still admired by stop-motion professionals. The 4K resolution delivers every slimy, fiery detail. Clarity/Detail: Dragonslayer debuts from Paramount with a pretty stunning 4K transfer. This is a magnificent restoration with a care that you normally see given to much more esteemed classics. Its quite crisp, with plenty of detail and looks wonderfully filmic. Colors are very lovely and there’s a nice scope of depth here on display. I don’t think you could have asked for a better transfer on this (Or really any movie you buy, its that good). The pre-release effects buzz was that the little group of stop-motion animators that created the Hologram chess board in Star Wars would help bring Dragonslayer’s title monster to life. As Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett and Peter Kuran were already ‘names’ we anticipated a dragon like none before.NEW A Long Way to Urland - Pre-production begins in England as the film takes shape. The young filmmakers seek gritty medieval realism through the production design, cinematography, and costumes. The Final Battle– the film’s stage-bound climax filmed against a blue screen. Editing, sound design, and Alex North’s music score. Meanwhile, while StudioCanal is officially known to be prepping a new 4K Ultra HD release of Nicolas Reog’s The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) for release in the UK on February 27, 2023, our sources are telling us that the US release from Lionsgate will likely be a Best Buy exclusive. The US release is still TBA, but is expected sometime in late Q1.

In addition to the standard 4K Blu-ray release, the studio will issue a Limited 4K Blu-ray SteelBook Edition. INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE: Production woes at every turn, horrific baby dragons, and the challenge of creating Vermithrax’s iconic lair plague the filmmakers. Phil Tippett offers a mini-masterclass on crafting powerful creature performance through detailed animation. NEW Into the Lake of Fire - Production woes at every turn, horrific baby dragons, and the challenge of creating Vermithrax's iconic lair plague the filmmakers. Phil Tippett offers a mini-masterclass on crafting powerful creature performance through detailed animation. You also directed literally one of my favorite movies, The Legend of Billie Jean. In the last couple years, I’ve showed that movie to probably around 10 people and they all love it.A LONG WAY TO URLAND: Pre-production begins in England as the film takes shape. The young filmmakers seek gritty medieval realism through the production design, cinematography, and costumes. It required really rethinking the animation process,” he continues. “But what you can do very easily is change the speed on it. We had one of the very first, little tiny Mac computers attached to something like 16 stopper motors. And the way that the stepper motors work is they have pulses that go out. And so Bess figured out what the relationship was between the pulses and the frames. When I'm animating the thing, it's happening in real time. You would count out 6, 12, 18, 24 so I knew where I was in time, I could see where I was in space. And that's how we did it.” The production design provides us with a glimpse of the dirty Middle Ages. This isn’t like most films with noble knights but with greedy, selfish individuals who do best only for themselves. This was a deliberate choice of Robbins who wanted a gritty film. Nearly all of the outdoor scenes were shot in North Wales. The final scene was shot in Skye, Scotland. VERMITHRAX PEJORATIVE: The filmmakers take on the daunting task of bringing a dragon to life like never before, utilizing every ounce of movie magic available including Phil Tippett’s breakthrough go-motion animation, cutting-edge practical animatronics, visual effects, and compositing.