RAY HARRYHAUSEN
Presents
Inspired by the original concept by Merian C. Cooper
- creator of KING KONG
“This book is wonderful!” - Ray Bradbury
In 1933 Merian C. Cooper, the legendary film producer, brought the motion picture King Kong to the screen. The movie was an instant classic. In the late 1930s, Cooper hoped to give filmgoers an even more ambitious adventure story in a project entitled War Eagles. Pre-production had begun on this epic project with special effects wizard Willis O’Brien, but fate intervened — in the form of World War II — and the production was put on hold. After the war, Cooper returned to Hollywood, but the project was never brought back to life.
Ray Harryhausen, the undisputed master of stop-motion animation responsible for such cinema classics as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans, got his start in the motion picture industry working with Cooper and O’Brien on the famous 1949 film Mighty Joe Young. Harryhausen was familiar with War Eagles, having come by the production office in the late 1930s as a high-school student fascinated by the work done by Cooper on King Kong, She and The Last Days of Pompeii. It was an experience that changed his life. After Cooper’s death, Ray Harryhausen and his production partner and agent Arnold Kunert contacted the Cooper estate and acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to Cooper’s dream project.
Producer/publisher Debbie Bishop, in partnership with Harryhausen and Kunert, began working on a “Ray Harryhausen brand” of visually exciting projects under the trademarked Harryhausen/ Kunert banner of “Ray Harryhausen Presents.” The first title to surface for this new brand became War Eagles. Enlisting the talent of writer Carl Macek (of Robotech fame), Cooper’s story of grand adventure at the outset of the Second World War began to take shape. Working from Cooper’s personal notes for War Eagles, a new story was crafted by Macek and Bishop that incorporated elements from various sources as well as logical extensions to the story. The result is a rip-roaring novel of high-adventure reminiscent of the best pulp fiction and motion pictures of the 1930s.
The novel’s plot revolves around the exploits of a publicly-humiliated Army Air Corps test pilot, court-martialed and discharged from the service for an unauthorized flight that ultimately endangered the life of President Roosevelt. The pilot takes the only job he can get – flying an experimental airplane around the world from pole to pole. When his plane is unexpectedly attacked and crashes on an uncharted island above the Arctic Circle, the pilot discovers a strange land inhabited by a lost tribe of Norsemen who ride giant eagles and, in a surprising turn of events, become America’s only hope against a devastating sneak attack by the Nazis and their powerful new electromagnetic weapon.
Getting the opportunity to bring this classic story to light after all this time is what drives Harryhausen and Kunert and their team of creators. “I have always hoped to honor my two great heroes, Merian C. Cooper and Willis O’Brien, by producing a film version of Cooper’s remarkable project,” Harryhausen said. “And this book is an important first step in that direction."
War Eagles is scheduled to be published in July, 2008 by Angel Gate, the publishing arm of Bishop’s Left Field Film Corp. Distributed by National Book Distributors www.nbnbooks.com
The feature film version of War Eagles is currently in development for a co-production between Ray Harryhausen Presents, Left Field Film Corp and Hand Picked Films.
|
CARL MACEK
An American writer, producer, marketing and development consultant for the motion picture industry, Macek is one of the key persons responsible for bringing the current wave of Japanese animation (anime) to the West. Macek first came to public attention in 1985 as the producer, writer and story editor of the influential animated television series Robotech - considered by many fans and critics as one of the titles most responsible for igniting anime fandom in both North America and the rest of the world outside of Japan.
Macek has worked as a script writer for the animation industry for nearly 25 years - moving back and forth between television series to feature films. He recently wrote the original screenplay for the feature-length animated adaptation of Brian Pulido's Lady Death. War Eagles is his first novel. Macek is also the author of several non-fiction books including The Art of Heavy Metal: Animation for the Eighties and Robotech Art III: The Sentinels.
Carl currently lives in Southern California with his wife Svea and their dog Miya, where he is hard at work writing several new books and screenplays.
Books by Carl Macek
McGill's Survey of the Cinema (co-author)
Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (co-author)
Heavy Metal: Animation for the Eighties
Robotech Art III: The Sentinels
www.carlmacek.com
|
RAY HARRYHAUSEN
Academy Award Recipient, Legendary Filmmaker, Visual Effects Icon - London, England. Harryhausen (b. 1920) is the undisputed master of stop-motion photography. Inspired by King Kong, still the ultimate example of the technique, at age 13, Harryhausen soon became the protege of Kong's creator, Willis O'Brien. His work on films including Mighty Joe Young, Jason and the Argonauts, The Valley of Gwangi, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and others brought magic to millions. Now Ray Harryhausen presents the dream project created by Merian C. Cooper as the first entry in Ray’s new series of novels, Ray Harryhausen Presents.
Books by Ray Harryhausen
ISBN: 0823084000 The Art of Ray Harryhausen
ISBN: 0823084027 Ray Harryhausen, An Animated Life
MERIAN C. COOPER
In addition to devising the original story for War Eagles, Merian C. Cooper was the creator/producer/director of the original 1933 version of King Kong and is the charismatic subject of Mark Cotta Vaz’s biography, Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper. He was an Indiana Jones character in real life, a war hero, ace fighter pilot and producer of many celebrated films.
MORE ABOUT THE WAR EAGLES NOVEL
Angel Gate books are distributed by National Book Distributors www.nbnbooks.com
Contact: Angel Gate: info@angelgatepress.com |
