Bob's ART du Jour

Hi, I'm Bob Eggleton and this is my painting and "life in general blog" but mostly paintings. Usually they're for sale. Anyway, if you like something contact me at zillabob@cox.net and ENJOY!!

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Location: New England, United States

I am a Hugo award-winning fantasy/SF artist who works on both publishing projects and film concept work(such as Jimmy Neutron and most recently, The Ant Bully) but I have a passion for landscape work, small paintings and exploring the properties of paint. This blog will mostly showcase my "painting-for-the-day" as kind of a personal voyage. I'll also be inserting sketches,photos and ideas of projects I am working on, that I can, when I can, so look for those every so often(usually as paint is drying!)

Saturday, March 08, 2008

10.000 B.C.

Yes, you've seen this painting before, but it's appropriate to the topic! And, my wife and I are working on a book that employs mammoths as a central part of the story.
I saw 10,000 B.C. and it's ALOT of fun. Doesn't ask much from the audience but so what, it has MAMMOTHS in it...or "Mannocks" as they are called. The locations are stunning as are the FX works which include the total realization of wooly mammoths. It's not a new concept in films but Roland Emmerich has a penchant for re-inventing genres anyway, save for the 1998 GODZILLA adaptation which was a misfire from the get-go. He does "epics" quite well and this is no exception. Borrowing a dash from his "Stargate" roots, he returns to the concept of an ancient culture ruled by a demigod-like being, a kidnapped woman and her starcrossed lover. Has dashes of "Conan" and all that Hyborean Age stuff and a calling back to some films of yore that haven't been seen in awhile:
ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966) in which you only had to know three words-"Tumak", "Loana" and of course "AKITA!" which is an all-purpose word that can mean "Help!" "Success!", "Thanks" or, as my buddy Joe Bob Briggs observes "Sex". But who was caring about the dialogue? Most of us were caressing the sight of Ray Harryhausen's amazing stop motion dinosaurs and oogling the sight of Rachel Welch in a fur bikini. Or was it the other way around?Whatever, it's a fun if, implausible prehistoric romp that made dinosaur geeks and Creationist nuts equally happy. A rare thing indeed.
PREHISTORIC WOMEN(1966) Martine Beswick and her gal pals run around in sets that were used from ONE MILLION YEARS previously, so that Hammer could squeeze a bit more out of what were at the time, expensive sets to make. This one, a modern hunting party in Africa winds up in making a wrong turn into a lost ravine and into the clutches of amazonian prehistoric girls who'd either make love to them or kill them and they wouldn't care. Ah, such is the life.
WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH(1970) Ah, more "Akita!", this time with a more advanced society involved in Paganism, Sun worship and...more DINOSAURS! This time it was Victoria Vetri prancing around and, Jim Danforth animated dinosaurs including the unforgettable "Dano-saur" which was completely made up but had personality that the CG dinos of today can only wish for. (Pssst-Warner Bros-put this one on DVD-Akita!!)
CREATURES THE WORLD FORGOT(1971) The official "third" entry in Hammer's "prehistoric saga" that's so obscure it's a film that the world...forgot. More cave people and this time not even the budget for dinosaurs, only a big rubber snake. Oh I get it! "AKITA!"(sex, in this context).
THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT(1975) We did alot of "forgetting" in the 70's! I even forgot to include this one so I came back and added this. A WW1 German U Boat with British/Americans who have seized control, becomes lost in the south Atlantic and finds a lost continent with dinosaurs and cave people. For the time it was pretty goofy fun stuff-that moved along at a fair clip-and was based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs book. Also it had some great miniature work.
THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT(1977) A very forgetful decade! Sequel to the former has a rescue party going to the same continent and finding metal-age bad guys who have Frazetta paintings on the drapes of their sacrificial chamber!!
AT THE EARTH'S CORE(1978) Based again on a Burroughs book. Good cast with Peter Cushing and Doug McClure and hordes weird prehistoric monsters and...slave girls/guys. Two words worth the price admission during our 70's pre-pubescense: Caroline Munro.
QUEST FOR FIRE(1981) More mammoths(elephants in disguise) and more cave people. This one benefitted from a truly "different" feel to it thanks to it's director and some good location shooting in Canada. A friend of mine at the time, worked on the dentures for the cast. He gave a "making of" slideshow at a local church that, unbeknownst to him were all Fundies. To say the least, they were a tad confused...
CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR(1986) with Daryll Hannah running around with face paint as a cro mag lady. The film was a total bomb and, after a short theatrical run went straight to cable and VHS(remember those?). Shows you that a bestselling book into a big movie do not always work well.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Bob, you probably weren't trying for an exhaustive list, but I'd like to include "The Valley of Gwangi", with it's great Harryhausen effects. No cavemen along for the creationists but where else ya gonna find an Eohippus and an Allosaur together!

7:50 PM  
Blogger Bob Eggleton (Zillabob) said...

Oh I could have listed a zillion films...Gwangi, Dinosaurus..I had to kind of limit it to a few. I covered Harryhausen well, with One Million Years..

8:41 PM  

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