In commemoration of the opening today of a remake of Clash of the Titans, I contribute a modest history of giant f**king scorpions in cinema to The Auteurs’ Notebook, for today’s Topics, etc. Above, a couple of the aforesaid creatures as created by Willis O’Brien for The Black Scorpion.
The scorpions in THE BLACK SCORPION aren’t (entirely, anyway) Willis O’Brien’s creations: that credit should go mostly to Wah Chang (with an uncredited assist from Paul Blaisdell): http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0151853/
I’m guessing as to the identity of said chap – I suspect he knows his way around the undead – but it probably also has to do with the fact that the 1981 Clash of the Titans seemed to be on TV every damn weekend through the 1980s and well into the 1990s in his home country (I’m from 1973, as it were).
Thanks for the expansion, Mr. Stephens. Maybe that’s got something to do with why Harryhausen didn’t broach the issue when writing about his own scorps in his “An Animated Life.” Who can say.
I haven’t read Glenn’s article yet, but a quick question – is anyone actually planning on checking out this remake this weekend? I have vague memories of watching the original on the telly as a child (or parts of it, anyway) but, no, no interest in seeing this new thing. Is the original worth revisiting?
Graig wrote: I haven’t read Glenn’s article yet, but a quick question – is anyone actually planning on checking out this remake this weekend?
With Louis Leterrier as the director, I imagine there will be a lot of shallow focus, needless and arbitrary cutting, along with poor use of the scope frame. So count me out on seeing this one.
Graig– I’ll probably see the remake when it comes to the dollar show. It sounds abysmal, and the 3D is supposedly borderline incompetent, but I really, really like Sam Worthington– I think he’s a really solid, at times subtle actor who is capable of investing real emotion into the action-character template. Compare his body language in Terminator 4 and in Avatar alone and one can see what range he has, especially compared to, say, John Cena. That said, again, the remake does look like crap, which is, again, why I’m not going to spend more than a dollar to see it theatrically.
The original is worth revisiting but, as Glenn points out, it certainly lacks compared to the other Harryhausen adventures. I saw all the Harryhausen films, which all pre-dated me, at around pretty much the same time– my mid-teens– and I remember finding CLASH somewhat disappointing.
P.S.: with most shots either being medium shots or close-ups, thus further making it look like a Syfy Channel television show.