The Primevals
Encyclopedia
The Primevals is an uncompleted stop-motion fantasy film directed by David W. Allen
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The film dates back to the late sixties, when Dave Allen pitched an epic fantasy to a group of Hammer Films executives. He developed the idea over the years, and in 1978 he began production with producer Charles Band. The film was the subject of a cover story in Cinefantastique
that year, but despite the interest, the production was shut down. Production was started and stopped over the years until 1994, when funding was in place and a new production was begun.
Filming was completed in Romania that year with a new cast. Over the next couple of years, post-production and stop-motion effects sequences were worked on by Allen, but since his untimely death in 1999, the film has remained in limbo. Friends of Allen vowed to complete the film according to the plans and storyboards created by Allen prior to his death. Largely this has been the work of colleagues like Chris Endicott, who assisted Allen on the stop-motion sequences in the film. At present, due to financial difficulties, the puppets and props have been put into storage, and work on the film has been suspended. However, a workprint exists.
David W. Allen
David W. Allen was a film and television stop-motion model animator.Considered among the finest stop-motion model animators, Dave Allen has contributed some of the best stop-motion sequences to many feature films, rivaling the work of other premier model animators Ray Harryhausen and Jim...
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The film dates back to the late sixties, when Dave Allen pitched an epic fantasy to a group of Hammer Films executives. He developed the idea over the years, and in 1978 he began production with producer Charles Band. The film was the subject of a cover story in Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...
that year, but despite the interest, the production was shut down. Production was started and stopped over the years until 1994, when funding was in place and a new production was begun.
Filming was completed in Romania that year with a new cast. Over the next couple of years, post-production and stop-motion effects sequences were worked on by Allen, but since his untimely death in 1999, the film has remained in limbo. Friends of Allen vowed to complete the film according to the plans and storyboards created by Allen prior to his death. Largely this has been the work of colleagues like Chris Endicott, who assisted Allen on the stop-motion sequences in the film. At present, due to financial difficulties, the puppets and props have been put into storage, and work on the film has been suspended. However, a workprint exists.