Ray Harryhausen’s Models Restored

Set to go on display at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema, the largest and widest-ranging exhibition of Harryhausen’s work ever seen. Read more about it HERE. 

Marking the stop motion pioneer’s centenary, the models will join newly restored and previously unseen material from Harryhausen’s matchless collection and archive, from 23 May 2020.

Ray’s daughter, Vanessa Harryhausen is currently writing a book to accompany next year’s landmark exhibition, to give her own perspective on her father’s ground-breaking career and collection. It will mark the first time Vanessa has spoken about her father’s work in such detail and will include a personal biography of her father, from the beginnings (in the 1930s) through to projects he was working on just less than a decade ago.

Ray’s movies directly inspired many of today’s greatest filmmakers, including John Landis, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Peter Jackson. Some of Harryhausen’s models from The 7th Voyage stirred a young Landis into a lifetime of creating films.

Writing specifically for the legendary filmmaker’s 2020 centenary celebrations next year, and sharing the massive impact Harryhausen has had on him, Landis said: “The 8-year-old me was no longer sitting in my seat at the Crest Theater in West Los Angeles, I was on the beach of the island of Colossa and as awe-struck and fearful as Sinbad and his crew when the first Cyclops made his appearance. I was spellbound by Sinbad’s adventures and marvelled at the Cyclops, the Two-Headed Roc, the fire breathing Dragon and the Skeleton brought to life by the evil magician Sokurah. Only later did I learn that these extraordinary beasts were really brought to life by the magician Ray Harryhausen.

“The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was a truly life-changing experience for me. Thrilled by the movie I went home and asked my mother, “Who does that? Who makes the movie?” She replied, “Well a lot of people honey, but I guess the right answer is the director.’ And that was that – I would be a director when I grew up. All of my energy went into that goal and I read everything about film I could get my hands on.”

My personal favorite was Talos (above) from Jason and the Argonauts (1963.) That movie and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) also benefitted from having musical scores by the great Bernard Herrmann. Article and more pictures HERE.