Dragonslayer

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I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time. The last time I saw Dragonslayer was on HBO when I was a kid in the 80s. (I don’t recall seeing it in the theater.) I remembered some of the story beats and the big moments, but it was fuzzy in my brain, like an old school standard def video, until now. Because a watchable transfer hasn’t been available basically since its release, there’s a whole generation who hasn’t seen Dragonslayer. Which includes a small role played by pre-Emperor Palpatine Ian McDiarmid that Robbins swears got McDiarmid the role in Return of the Jedi. (Then he says he’ll ask George Lucas himself to be sure when he sees him at lunch the next day. I wish I could go to this lunch.) But Lucas would have very much seen Dragonslayer since this wound up being the first non- Star Wars film that had its effects done by Industrial Light and Magic. And they’d get an Oscar nomination for their trouble, but wound up losing to another ILM movie called Raiders of the Lost Ark. A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin once ranked it the fifth-best fantasy film of all time, and called Vermithrax "the best dragon ever put on film [with] the coolest dragon name". [21] Vermithrax is mentioned as an Easter egg in a list of dragons' names in the fourth episode of that book series adaptation, Game of Thrones. [22] Fantasy author Alex Bledsoe stated: "...everyone has a 'first dragon', the one that awoke their sense of wonder about the creatures. For many it's Anne McCaffrey's elaborate world of Pern, where genetically engineered intelligent dragons bond with their riders; for others, it's Smaug in The Hobbit, guarding his hoard deep in a cave. But for me, it was the awesome Vermithrax from the 1981 film, Dragonslayer." [23] Laughs] Yeah, exactly. But from the same studio, wouldn’t you know it? But I was amazed really at how far the technology today has gone to clean up the mess. Instead of a squeaky-clean Lucas realm, Urland is a pre- Middle Ages mud & rags kingdom, in transition from the old magical world of sorcerers and demons to religion. Did Barwood & Robbins make a basic commercial miscalculation? The genre wants fun, excitement and uplift, and Dragonslayer instead leans toward horror. Teenaged girls are sacrificed without mercy, followed by a graphic scene in which the dragon’s goblin-like offspring devour a virtuous, brave princess. Nothing in the show prepares us for that level of gore.

Paramount should have AT MINIMUM added a Blu-Ray (non-4K option inside this case (there is PLENTY of room for two discs) and a PAPER version of the digital code (which they have done in the past, as this is not my first Paramount movie). Vermithrax Pejorative (17:48): An in-depth look at the dragon seen in the film, from inspirations to final design on the screen. The animators manage some great shots with moving cameras, as when the creature crawls out of the hazy darkness of the cave. One spectacular shot shows the reptile rearing up and vomiting yellow flame at the cavern ceiling. Vermithrax is given just enough personality to be loathsome. It is also given a bit of motherly sympathy when it discovers that Galen has chopped its babies into ugly dragon-bits. We’re disturbed by the dead girls and the dead monsters. About 25% of the film's budget went into the dragon's special effects. Graphic artist David Bunnett was assigned to design the look, and was fed ideas on the movement mechanics, and then rendered the concepts on paper. They decided early to emphasize flying, because the most important sequence is the final battle. Bunnett gave it a degree of personality, deliberately trying to avoid the creature from Alien, which he believed was "too hideous to look at". [3] Ken Ralston's flying model of the dragon, Vermithrax Pejorative Simulations Publications, Inc. produced the board game Dragonslayer, designed by Brad Hessel and Redmond A. Simonsen. [26]

Watch 'Dragonslayer' on Paramount+

Robbins does admit that Ralph Richardson had to do considerable hiking up and down hills. He also says that Lord of the Rings was indeed an influence, as was the then-new Dungeons and Dragons gaming activity. He thanks exec producer Howard W. Koch for interfacing with the film’s two producing studios — keeping Disney and Paramount from interfering.

Harmetz, Aljean (September 9, 1981). "HOLLYWOOD IS JOYOUS OVER ITS RECORD GROSSING SUMMER". The New York Times . Retrieved October 10, 2017. Without buying a fully 4K blu-ray player (which will only play 4K movies and do NOTHING else), I basically have a disc that is useless. Yes, yes. But it was my pleasure to work with Alex North who was a very distinguished senior entity. He’d been a legend and had scored many great movies, that he wanted to do Dragonslayer was, I mean, it’s a wonderful score. He deserved that nomination. When you listen to that music, it’s pretty adventurous.

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So you said you have been avoiding watching it for a long time, so were you nervous at all digging into this again? How it might hold up? Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish of the film. Facial features and textures can be made out pretty clear form any reasonable distance in the frame.