Peter Jackson Unveils His Childhood Movie

COMMENTS (4)

• Happy Birthday, Ray!

  This tribute was to celebrate Ray’s 90th birthday.

  It is a downright shame that VES (Visual Effects Society) has NEVER honored Ray at their annual awards. Although previous honorees including Bob Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Jim Cameron all credit Ray as their main source of inspiration to be filmmakers, Jeff Okun, VES Chair (also previous Awards Chair(, Eric Roth (VES Executive Director) and, somehow, the VES membership have not felt inclined to recognize Ray at the same level as those he inspired.

  A founding board member of VES once stated, “Actions will speak for themselves. When the motivations for these actions come into question, problems will arise”.

  So, the question is…what could possibly be VES motivation for so blatantly ignoring Ray at the VES Awards?

  As Ray is now 90, and his travel is limited, it is certainly understandable that he may no longer be up to the trip to LA. However this does not explain how VES could pass Ray over during its previous eight years of awards recognition.

  Shame on VES!

  We all owe a great debt to Ray Harryhausen. Few filmmakers have ever had the impact on storytelling that Ray has provided…and, even today with all of the cg visual effects, Ray’s stop motion animation still sets the bar, and his work will always be regarded as truly extraordinary.

  Comment by Tom — Thursday, 15 July 2010 17:08 UK  Reply to this post

• Looks a darn sight better than King Kong or The Lovely Bones.

  Comment by Rich S. — Thursday, 15 July 2010 17:16 UK  Reply to this post

• We all know how much Peter loves and admires Ray Harryhausen’s films. That just makes his version of “King Kong” all the more disappointing. Rather than do an update of the 1933 film Ray Harryhausen has called his greatest influence, Peter chose to do a version of “Kong” which more closely resembles the horrible 1976 version which Ray deplores and dismisses at every opportunity. Maybe Peter doesn’t really love Ray as much as he claims.

  Comment by Robert Wilson — Thursday, 15 July 2010 18:02 UK  Reply to this post

• That clip is beyond funny but I give it an A for effort! I loved Ray Harryhausen and the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad as a kid, too. It showed the endless possibilities of depicting creatures in live action films way before CGI and digital effects. Seems it inspired the teen-aged Peter Jackson as well. Maybe Jackson might try his hand at rekindling that 7th Voyage/Sinbad remake project that fell through a few years back (this only after he does the Hobbit films, of course).

  For those in LA, the Academy is showing this as part of a Ray Harryhausen double feature this Fri 7/16 at the Sam Goldwyn Building. An exhibition of Harryhausen’s work will also be on display at the museum before the show and the exhibition runs through 8/22. Come watch the work of this great poineer and watch Cyclops chow down!

  http://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2010/harryhausen.html

  Comment by blessedinLA — Thursday, 15 July 2010 19:19 UK  Reply to this post