O'Brien spent significant pre-production time on projects that never came to fruition.
Get it today with Same Day Delivery, Order Pickup or Drive Up. Pre … It was conceived as a like-minded follow-up to KING KONG by that film's creators Willis "Obie" O'Brien and Merian C. Cooper, but never made it to production.
He first left home at the age of eleven to work on cattle ranches, and again at the age of thirteen when he took on a variety of jobs including farmhand, factory worker, fur trapper, cowboy, and bartender. Planned as a full Technicolor production at MGM in the late 1930s, WAR EAGLES would have eclipsed Cooper and long-time SFX partner Willis O'Brien's KING KONG as the greatest fantasy epic of the period had it not fallen victim to pre-war studio politics and the rise of Hitler's Third Reich on the eve of World War II. Today all that remains of this would-be epic are some conceptual drawings, production notes and a shooting script, all of which are reproduced here (a reel of special … This latest addition to Philip J Riley's Alternate History of Classic Filmonsters series is a collaborative effort with fellow film historian David Conover that delves into one of the most famous unproduced motion pictures of all time, Merian C. Cooper's legendary WAR EAGLES! Not quite, but the 1939 production WAR EAGLES is an intriguing piece of film history.
It was conceived as a like-minded follow-up to KING KONG by that film’s creators Willis “Obie” O’Brien and Merian C. Cooper, but never made it to production. Back then, only Warner Brothers were willing to take a stand against the Nazis – most other studios didn’t want to lose a potentially profitable marketplace.
Long considered a lost film effort, Conover's research has actually uncovered a … For decades, stop-motion fans and film researchers considered an early, coverless draft attributed to Willis O'Brien-- but actually written by Harold Lamb and James Ashmore Creelman-- to be the only existing script for WAR EAGLES, but Conover's discovery of the original typescripts at the USC film library in 2003 turned up 7 more drafts and multiple revisions that eventually led to the final Hume draft. Though too many of his most ambitious projects — War Eagles, Gwangi, Valley of the Mist — were never to be realized at all, even his decidedly lesser efforts conveyed a sense of style and charm that was characteristically his own.
They had three rooms filled with the paintings and drawings of the potential picture. In 1949, 16 years after his ground breaking work on "King Kong", Willis O'Brien worked as Chief Technician on another gorilla picture for Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Shoedsack called "Mighty Joe Young". Willis O’Brien was going to do the special effects work. 7: Although his father William O'Brien was self-educated and a noted etymologist. Cooper and his SFX partner Willis O’Brien planned to make War Eagles in the late 30s, but it fell victim to pre-war studio politics and the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich. It would have been a really spectacular picture at the time.
Detailed models and sets were built and Technicolor test footage featuring stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and his crew (including Kong/Mighty Joe Young creators Marcel Delgado and George Lofgren) was shot, and the exciting tale of a lost race of Viking warriors astride giant prehistoric eagles doing battle with Nazis over the skies of modern day Manhattan almost reached the screen until the reality of impending war … 6: O'Brien spent significant pre-production time on projects that never came to fruition.
they include "Creation" (1931), "War Eagles" (1938), "Gwangi" (1941).
The father of "stop-motion" animation, Willis O'Brien (1886-1962) was a Hollywood special effects innovator most famous for his work using miniature models of a gorilla in King Kong. A young Ray Harryhausen would animate most of the animation, but O'Brien did come up with the designs for the film.
It was conceived as a like-minded follow-up to KING KONG by that film’s creators Willis “Obie” O’Brien and Merian C. Cooper, but never made it to production.
Long considered a lost film effort, Conover's research has actually uncovered a richly detailed …
and "Valley of the Mist" (1950). Detailed models and sets were built and Technicolor test footage featuring stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and his crew (including Kong/Mighty Joe Young creators Marcel Delgado and George Lofgren) was shot, and the exciting tale of a lost race of Viking warriors astride giant prehistoric eagles doing battle with Nazis over the skies of modern day Manhattan almost reached the screen until the reality of impending war …