The name Ray Harryhausen may not be familiar to everyone but to those who do know it, his name stands as a landmark in the history of a genre and cinematic art, the art of dimensional stop-motion animation. Ray made his name by developing fantastic stories and creatures based on legends and mythology and creating a unique genre of fantasy films during the 1950s, 60s and 70s that took the movie making world, and the public, by storm. Ray Harryhausen stands as a beacon to today’s fantasy filmmakers as the creator who inspired them and made the impossible possible.  

At last, here is Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan, the definitive documentary about this living legend. Aside from interviews with the great man himself, shot over five years, there are also interviews and tributes from a lot of filmmakers and special effects artists such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, Terry Gilliam, John Landis, Joe Dante, Guillermo del Toro, Robert Zemeckis, Rick Baker, Phil Tippett, Dennis Muren, Douglas Trumbull and many many more…

For the first time Ray have provided unprecedented access to film all aspects of the collection including models, artwork and miniatures as well as Ray's private study, where he designed most of his creations, and his workshop where he built them. In addition the documentary will use unseen footage of tests and experiments. Never before has so much visual material been used in any previous documentary about Ray.

This definitive production will not only display a huge part of the unique collection but will illustrate the influence that Ray's work has had on film makers during the past fifty or so years.

Watch this space for further updates and screening dates.

Film clips:

The first trailer

The second trailer

Dynamation explanation by the great animator Randy Cook

Stills:

Models gallery

Casting gallery

Behind the scenes

Websites:

The Official Ray Harryhausen Website

The Internet Movie Database

The Facebook Page

Reviews:

Bleeding Cool (US)

Sci-Fi Universe (french)

L'Ecran Fantastique (french)

Cinemafantastique.net (french)

Forgotten Silver (french)

Paperblog (french)

Colossa (spanish)

Written and directed by

Gilles Penso

Produced by

Alexandre Poncet

Associate producer

Tony Dalton

Original music

Alexandre Poncet

Animated sequences

Sacha Feiner

Editing

Gilles Penso

With

Ray Harryhausen

James Cameron

Steven Spielberg

Peter Jackson

Tim Burton

John Landis

Joe Dante

Terry Gilliam

Robert Zemeckis

Guillermo del Toro

Nick Park

Simon Pegg

John Lasseter

Henry Selick

Rick Baker

Phil Tippett

Dennis Muren

Randy Cook

Ken Ralston

Douglas Trumbull

Vincenzo Natali

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Peter Lord

Caroline Munro

Martine Beswick

Colin Arthur

Christopher Young

Greg Broadmore

Andrew Jones

Robert Townson

Vanessa Harryhausen

Tony Dalton