Cinefantastique Online

LAWRENCE FRENCH celebrated his 20th anniversary as a contributor to Cinefantastique Magazine with his cover story on the making of THE RETURN OF THE KING. As Cinefantastique’s longtime San Francisco correspondent, he has written numerous stories about Pixar and Lucasfilm, and interviewed such genre stalwarts as Vincent Price, Tim Burton, Ray Harryhausen, John Lasseter, Phil Tippett and Ray Bradbury. He is also the editor of the highly regarded website on Orson Welles, Wellesnet.com. His book as editor of Richard Matheson’s Edgar Allan Poe scripts for THE HOUSE OF USHER and THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM was published by Gauntlet Press in 2007, with a second volume on TALES OF TERROR and THE RAVEN due out in 2008. For Cinefantastique Online, he curently writes the regular column Supernal Dreams.

One of the great joys about writing for Cinefantastique, was to find that actors like Elijah Wood and directors like Peter Jackson actually enjoyed talking to you! It was thanks to the very good reputation CFQ enjoyed in the biz. So we never had very much difficulty in convincing most fantasy filmmakers to speak with [...]

While watching the extended DVD version of LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING the other night, I was once again enthralled by the magnificence of the production, and thought back to several of the interviews I had done on the movie that never made it into CFQ’s December 2003 issue on the film.

Director [...]

Since Ray Harryhausen recently completed a mini-tour of California in February, here - in advance of the opening of 10,000 YEARS, B.C. - are some of Ray’s comments on his own prehistoric dinosaur epic from 40 years ago: ONE MILLION YEARS, B.C.

LAWRENCE FRENCH: After doing THE ANIMAL WORLD, you didn’t work with dinosaurs again until [...]

At next Sundays Academy Awards show, art director Robert Boyle will be awarded with an honorary Oscar. While he certainly deserves such an honor, it’s rather amazing to consider how many living genre artists have been overlooked in this area. Today, in an article in The Washington Post, Ann Hornaday argues that Roger Corman is [...]

There’s a feeling that Doug Liman is constantly pursing the truth. On this film, everything outside of the teleportation had to feel completely real to him. In doing so, he demanded the most of everyone working with him.
—Hayden Christensen
Given all the worn out genre retreads Hollywood turns out these days, it’s nice to report that [...]

Ray Harryhausen’s epic s-f fantasy film, EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS saw him destroy the White House and other sacred American monuments in Washington, D.C. during those long and dreary McCarthy era-years. It has been re-issued and restored in a colorized version on Columbia DVD, just in time to remind us that our own [...]

CLOVERFIELD has apparently been the recipient of a great deal of Internet hype, which I must confess, I was totally unaware of. In fact, I almost skipped seeing the film, thinking it might be just another awful fifties monster on the loose rip-off. However, on the basis of hearing that Phil Tippett’s Berkeley studio was [...]

Given the great abundance of award worthy effects films that are released each year, one has to wonder why the Academy in all its great wisdom, continues to announce a list of seven finalists for the effects Academy Award and then insists on whittling it down to only three nominees.
Every other award category (except for make-up [...]

32 years ago today, on December 24, 1975, we lost an artist  many would agree was the the greatest film composer to ever set music to celluloid images: Bernard Herrmann.  It’s also amazing that such a distinguished composer spent so much of his time working on movies of the fantastique.  Remember, that Herrmann was composing during a time when genre films [...]

Director Francis Coppola stopped by the beautifully remodeled Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco December 22 to answer questions from the audience after a screening of his lyrical new movie, YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH.  It is based on an allegorical novel by the Romanian philosopher, Mircea Eliade,  and Coppola shot it (quite gorgeously) on locations throughout Romania. 

Coppola’s remarks offered much [...]