There have been a few bits of bad news relating to the film industry in recent weeks, notably for me the passing of Stan Winston. So I thought it wouldn't hurt to mention a bit of good news Today is Ray Harryhausen's 88th birthday He is the man I most admire in the film industry so I hope he has a really great day relaxing and/or celebrating. I'll be picking out one of his films to watch later on and watching it this evening. I think it will be "Mysterious Island" or "First Men In The Moon" as it a while since I watched either of them.
Although it is now over 20 years since he produced his last feature film, Clash of the Titans in 1981, he has been keeping busy on all sorts of projects writing books, lecturing and attending conventions all around the World. He is even moving back into making films. After supervising the colourisation of a classic 1930's version of 'She' produced by his mentor Willis O'Brien and three of his own early films he is now going to be Producer for a film entitled 'War Eagles' due for release in 2010.
Just in case anyone doesn't know who I'm talking about, just take a look at his entry in the IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366063/
I think is a fairly safe bet you will know or have seen at least one of his films at some time. Possibly his best known epic was 'Jason and the Argonauts' way back in 1963. The really interesting thing to note about this is the title credits which show:
Special Visual Effects by Ray Harryhausen
The point being he did everything, unlike in modern films where this work is carried out by 'a cast of thousands'. I hope he is around for a very long time to come.
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