The Lost Worlds of Ray Harryhausen exhibition is currently running at Waterside Arts in Sale, Greater Manchester, until January 2025 – and there’s an auction of some of Harryhausen’s work coming up this month at Propstore, too.
The free The Lost Worlds of Ray Harryhausen exhibition, produced in association with The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation and based on the book by John Walsh, Harryhausen: The Lost Movies, displays rare and previously unseen treasures from animation legend Ray’s archive, with artwork, models and test footage from his unmade films.
Waterside is an award-winning, vibrant destination for performance, culture and events in the heart of Sale.
This latest Harryhausen exhibition has gained extensive mainstream media coverage, including from Granada Reports, who spoke to Harryhausen Foundation Collections Manager Connor Heaney about the exhibit, alongside The Stranglers vocalist Hugh Cornwell, who shared his love for Ray Harryhausen’s work. The Guardian also covered its opening last month.
Ray Harryhausen is known as the mastermind behind some of Hollywood’s most iconic cinematic special effects. Inspired by John Walsh’s book Ray Harryhausen: The Lost Movies, the exhibition explores the origins of Ray’s creative career, with a detailed look at Ray’s experimental phases and groundbreaking techniques in work such as the Jupiterian.
Developed in partnership with The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, this exclusive exhibition sheds light on Harryhausen’s creative process. Tracing Ray’s evolution as a filmmaking genius, it takes a detailed look at Ray’s visual language expressed through different cinematic genres; myths, martians and creatures.
This is a wonderful opportunity to immerse yourself in the worlds of a visionary animation pioneer, who influenced some of the biggest Hollywood directors of our time, the show features some of Ray’s defining moments. It includes unseen drawings from his iconic films, Jason and the Argonauts and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, accompanied by unseen projects and untold stories.
“George Lucas was quoted saying that without Ray Harryhausen there would have been no Star Wars,” Heaney told Granada Reports.
“Peter Jackson described the Lord of the Rings trilogy as his Ray Harryhausen movies and so many others grew up with his movies”.
• The Lost Worlds of Ray Harryhausen: Creatures, Martians and Myths is open at The Lauriston Gallery, Waterside, Sale, 10.00am – 5.00pm Monday – Saturday until 4th January 2025. | Free | Web Guide | Always check opening details before travelling long distance
Propstore Auction offers Harryhausen magic, in a good cause
Propstore’s upcoming Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction running 14th – 17th November 2024, includes a number of Ray Harryhausen-related items, offered for sale to support the Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation’s future projects, including the ongoing preservation of their historic Creature collection.
Items include scripts, sketches by Harryhausen drawn during preproduction of The Valley of the Gwangi, rare reference stills from Ray Harryhausen’s personal collection, used in the production of Jason and the Argonauts. These incredible images capture key scenes like the skeleton battle and the towering Talos, alongside exclusive illustrations of Triton, Jason, and even a cut scene with Cerberus.
Bidding is now open here on the Propstore website. Don’t miss your chance to own a piece of Harryhausen’s magic.
• The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation is a registered Scottish Charity (No. SC001419)
• Harryhausen: The Lost Movies by John Walsh (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
A journey into the thrilling films that almost could-have-been, from the mind of the stop-motion genius who revolutionised Hollywood special effects.
Known for his iconic stop-motion creatures, Ray Harryhausen was at the forefront of Hollywood special effects for much of the 20th century. His films include One Million Years B.C., Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts, among others. But for every film that reaches the big screen, half a dozen projects are never realised.
Harryhausen: The Lost Movies explores Harryhausen’s unrealised films, including unused ideas, projects he turned down and scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor. This book includes never-been-seen-before artwork, sketches, photos and test footage from the Harryhausen Foundation archives.
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Animation, Art and Illustration, downthetubes News, Events, Exhibitions, Film, Other Worlds
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