Ray Harryhausen Presents the Pit and the Pendulum...

[MouthForWar]

This looks really cool. I remember the trailer turned up on youtube a couple years ago. Nice to see it come to DVD. Even if its only a short (7 minutes I think), it looks absolutely stunning and at least the DVD looks packed with special features. A stop motion Poe adaptation produced by Harryhausen? Sign me up!

Harryhausen-Produced Pendulum Comes to DVD
Source:ShockTillYouDrop.com
August 18, 2008


The Pit and the Pendulum, Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story of judgment, condemnation, hope and redemption is realized in this stop-motion animated adaptation - executive produced by animation and visual effects legend Ray Harryhausen and directed by animation veteran Marc Lougee (Celebrity Deathmatch, Dinosapien) - hitting DVD August 25th.

A tale of judgment and condemnation, the film portrays a solitary prisoner in the cold grip of the Spanish Inquisition. Condemned and alone, he's left to suffer a fate worse than death in the dreaded dungeons. Entombed in darkness, he struggles with hope and faith while his captors employ fiendish machinations in their efforts to unhinge him. The Pit and the Pendulum combines the classic aesthetic of stop-motion animation, cutting-edge digital visual effects and sound design.

The DVD features exclusive behind-the-scenes video depicting the production of the film, from conception to final post production. Interviews with members of the crew include director/creative producer Marc Lougee, writer Matt Taylor, composer Philip Stanger, stop-motion animator Mike Weiss, the 5.1 surround sound design team from Urban Post Productions, and the visual effects artists Gudren Heinz and David Alexander from Switch VFX in Toronto, ON.

Other features include:

• A tour of the Foley Studio at Urban Post Production
• A 5.1 surround mixing session and breakdown for the film
• Production stills
• Storyboards
• Conceptual art gallery
• Easter eggs
• Secret links to online materials

More details on The Pit and the Pendulum can be found at ThePitandthePendulumShortFilm.com.

[Gwangi]

Apologies for re-opening an ancient thread. Was finally able to see this. It is really for the ardent stop-motion fans out there. It is an interesting bit, if only seven minutes long.

What Ray Harryhausen’s participation in this is unknown. He was an executive producer, but not sure if he had any input on the project. In Ray’s book, he stated that he had always wanted to do an Edgar Allen Poe story, namely “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”. I guess this was a close as he got, and indeed this ended up being his last production he was involved, if in name only.