OMG look at those amazing models… did you know that because the budget of his films was usually very small (the sole exception being his last film, Titans, but most of that went to the cast; Sir Laurence Olivier ain’t cheap!), he reused things he found to help make his models? One of the crab shells from the giant crabs came from a seafood dinner he’d enjoyed with his wife, for instance. He’s like the precursor to Joel!
Sideshow (the collectible statue company) has a series of statues based off of a lot of Harryhausen’s epics. The Cyclops, the Ymir, the Kraken, Kali, Talos, Gwangi; so many are there. I’m hoping they get Medusa, the Harpies, and a few others eventually. I may start collecting the Harryhausen statues if I can find the funds!
When Ray was given his special Academy Award for lifetime achievement, I believe, Tom Hanks was hosting, and he gave probably the highest compliment he could, saying that some people claim Casablanca or Citizen Kane is the greatest film of all time, but in his opinion it was Jason and the Argonauts.
I looked into the exhibition and it doesn’t appear to be a tour sadly. It’s a collaboration between the National Galleries of Scotland and The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation. Seems like it was originally intended for last year to celebrate his life and work on the 100th anniversary of his birth but then lockdown happened so it was deferred to this year. The purpose of the Foundation is to catalogue, preserve and restore these pieces so that exhibitions like this can take place so hopefully something will happen in the future so everyone can enjoy these pieces of history.
There’s an accompanying book by Ray’s daughter Vanessa also titled Ray Harryhausen Titan of Cinema but that’s not the same as seeing these things in real life of course. I picked up a copy there that has an exhibition exclusive cover.
