Sim is superbly insinuating as the detective arriving with a few questions for the complacent residents of a grand Edwardian home

Jb Priestley’s drawing-room melodrama of Edwardian guilt and fear is rereleased for its 70th anniversary; it is an intricate clockwork mechanism ticking inexorably to the final reveal, with beautiful monochrome cinematography and thoroughbred character-actor faces looming out of the screen like a bad dream. It was adapted by Desmond Davis from Priestley’s stage play, directed by Guy Hamilton and unforgettably stars Alastair Sim as the implacable Inspector Poole, with his cool professional insolence, a needling, insinuating manner and sonorously droll voice; it is a performance to put alongside Sim’s Scrooge and his Professor Potter in School for Scoundrels.

It is 1912, and the inspector arrives unexpectedly at the sumptuous home of well-to-do magistrate and captain of industry Arthur Birling (Arthur Young), who is hosting a dinner party...

Studiocanal are proud to announce the release of a spectacular 4K restoration of the gripping mystery thriller An Inspector Calls (1954) for its 70th Anniversary this year, available on 4K Uhd, Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital from 7 October, so to celebrate we are giving away a 4K Uhd & Blu-Ray to a lucky winner!

Based on J.B. Priestley’s classic stage play, the film stars the incomparable Alastair Sim (A Christmas Carol), Arthur Young (The Lady with a Lamp), Jane Wenham (The Teckman Mystery), Olga Lindo (Sapphire), Brian Worth (Holiday Week) and Eileen More (The Green Man). The new restoration will be available for the first time on 4K Uhd plus 4K Blu-ray, DVD and Digital from 7 October.

The Birling family are rich, pampered and complacent. It is 1912, and the shadow of the impending war has yet to fall across their lives. As they sit down to dinner one night, a knock at...

Director best known for the 1981 film classic Clash of the Titans

Desmond Davis, who has died aged 95, was a British director widely known for his 1981 Hollywood film fantasy Clash of the Titans, a saga of Greek myths and legends, thrilling duels to the death, and fearsome creatures and visual effects that were brought to the screen by the great animator Ray Harryhausen.

Harryhausen’s creativity was matched by a stellar cast, with two film newcomers, Harry Hamlin as Perseus and Judi Bowker as Andromeda, joined by Laurence Olivier as Zeus, Claire Bloom as Hera and Maggie Smith as Thetis.

Lyon, France – Since its launch in 2015, Talking Pictures TV has become the fastest-growing independent channel in the U.K. with a growing library of British film and TV titles that span five decades, according to founder Noel Cronin.

Noel Cronin attended the Lumière Festival’s International Classic Film Market (Mifc) in Lyon, France, where he took part in a roundtable discussion on distribution of heritage cinema.

His 24-hour channel offers feature films and TV series from the 1930s to the 1980s, reaching some 850,000 viewers a day and 2.6 million a week. Talking Pictures TV is available in the U.K. on the Sky digital satellite platform, Freeview and other satellite outlets.

Talking Pictures TV grew out of Cronin’s DVD distribution company, Renown Pictures.

“We acquired several old libraries – mostly B-features, but good ones,” Cronin explains. “We started to release them on DVD and they sold quite well. … We felt there...

It’s a Brit sex comedy that addresses the basic facts about boy-girl petting — and not much else. A noted ‘adult’ role for Hayley Mills, it pairs her with an unlikable Oliver Reed, trying his damnedest to affect natural charm. Was Reed the reason Hayley chose as her next picture a story about a lady studying penguins?

Take a Girl Like You

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date June 19, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Hayley Mills, Oliver Reed, Noel Harrison, John Bird, Sheila Hancock, Ronald Lacey, Penelope Keith, Imogen Hassall, Pippa Steel, George Woodbridge.

Cinematography: Dick Bush

Film Editor: Jack Harris, Rex Pyke

Original Music: Stanley Myers

Written by George Melly

Produced by Hal E. Chester

Directed by Jonathan Miller

Wait a minute — when exactly did they finally stop calling young women, ‘birds?’

When the Hollywood studios all but collapsed at the end of the 1960s,...

The worlds of fantasy and horror have long been intertwined. We’ve seen it with Tim Curry’s Darkness, the villain in Ridley Scott’s Legend. It was present in Conan the Barbarian, when Conan fought against a giant snake. Even Desmond Davis’ Clash of the Titans mixed a world of Greek mythology with some rather horror-based visuals, […]

The post Oscilloscope Brings a Taste of November to February appeared first on Dread Central.

'Making Love': Groundbreaking romantic gay drama returns to the big screen As part of its Anniversary Classics series, Laemmle Theaters will be presenting Arthur Hiller's groundbreaking 1982 romantic drama Making Love, the first U.S. movie distributed by a major studio that focused on a romantic gay relationship. Michael Ontkean, Harry Hamlin, and Kate Jackson star. The 35th Anniversary Screening of Making Love will be held on Saturday, June 24 – it's Gay Pride month, after all – at 7:30 p.m. at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. The movie will be followed by a Q&A session with Harry Hamlin, screenwriter Barry Sandler, and author A. Scott Berg, who wrote the “story” on which the film is based. 'Making Love' & What lies beneath In this 20th Century Fox release – Sherry Lansing was the studio head at the time – Michael Ontkean plays a...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier Born in 1907, Olivier remains one of the most revered actors of the 20th century. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil. Olivier played more than 120 stage roles Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh What a Lovely War,...

By Tim Greaves

Numerous actors have occupied the role of Sherlock Holmes over the decades, some more suited to the shoes of author Arthur Conan Doyle's famous consulting detective than others. One of the finest portrayals is that by Ian Richardson. Yet, sadly, his is also one that is often overlooked, not leastways because he played the character just twice (in a pair of 1983 films made for television), but also because his light was to be quickly eclipsed a year later by the arrival on TV screens of Jeremy Brett, whose interpretation of Holmes is considered by many to be the definitive one.

Sy Weintraub – who produced several Tarzan movies throughout the 60s and was executive producer on the popular long-running Ron Ely TV series –teamed up with Otto Plaschkes (whose producer credits include Georgie Girl and The Holcroft Covenant) with the intention of making several Holmes adventures headlining Richardson.

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier Born in 1907, Olivier remains one of the most revered actors of the 20th century. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil. Olivier played more than 120 stage roles Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh What a Lovely War,...

Jaws from James Bond

One movie character who scared me as a child was Jaws, the shiny-toothed James Bond villain. Those silver teeth freaked me out, big time – I remember the early sequence from The Spy Who Loved Me was particularly chilling: Jaws lures a defenceless older man into a trap, and proceeds to bite into his neck, killing him. While we're shown no violence, the whole scene terrified me: the way Jaws walked slowly towards the man in a knowing, menacing way, and the idea of him simply biting the man to death (though at least he had the courtesy to stun the victim first).

Being bitten by Jaws isn't like being bitten by a vampire – he drinks no blood. Instead, he just seems to sink those artificial teeth into flesh and tear a hole big enough to cause fatal bleeding. Whenever I'd watch that scene, it made me deeply uncomfortable,...

“Release the Kracken!”

The original 1981 Clash Of The Titans screens this Friday and Saturday nights (June 13th and 14th) at midnight at the Tivoli Theater as part of their ‘Reel Late at the Tivoli’ Midnight series.

Clash Of The Titans, the 1981 account of the old mythological stories you were forced to read in junior high, featured Ray Harryhausen’s last great set piece: Perseus’ encounter with the snake-haired Medusa in a fire-lit cave. Stylized with great mood lighting, beautifully blocked and directed by Ray, the sequence is a beauty of spine-tingling, slithering menace. Seeing giant scorpions rise from the blood of Medusa’s head is visceral icing on the cake. Clash Of The Titans was Ray Harryhuasen’s final film and likely the only one a generation of his fans saw in theaters when it was new. Clash Of The Titans has everything previously denied Ray Harryhausen and producer Charles H. Schneer...

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier Born in 1907, Olivier remains one of the most revered actors of the 20th century. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil. Olivier played more than 120 stage roles Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh What a Lovely War,...

A new pair of Mondo posters inspired by Desmond Davis’ 1981 fantasy epic Clash of the Titans are scheduled to go on sale some time tomorrow. The posters which were created by artists Francesco Francavilla and Dave Rapoza, feature the famous creature creations of the late, great Ray Harryhausen.

Both posters go on sale Friday January 3 at a random time. Follow @MondoNews for more information.

The post Two Beautiful Posters for ‘Clash of the Titans’ by Mondo Artists appeared first on Sound On Sight.

Prolific television and film director whose output included the internationally successful 1983 drama Kennedy

Jim Goddard, who has died aged 77, was among the most prolific and distinguished television drama directors of his generation. Bleak and violent atmosphere and vivid characterisation were the hallmarks of his more than 200 distinctive works over the course of four decades. His Kennedy (1983) was shown simultaneously on Us network television, in the UK and Germany, and achieved the highest recorded viewing figures to that date for a televised drama.

Goddard's work included the 13-part drama Fox (1980), Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983) and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982), the early Channel 4 version of the RSC production. The power and visual immediacy of his directorial style owed as much to arthouse film as it did to his abilities as a painter. Indeed, he never forsook painting, which he studied at the Slade in London, or his love of set design,...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away last month at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson,...

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier Born in 1907, Olivier remains one of the most revered actors of the 20th century. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil. Olivier played more than 120 stage roles Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh What a Lovely War,...

Raquel Welch wigs vs. Ray Harryhausen monsters: One Million Years B.C. [See previous post: "Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan Dies."] Without Charles H. Schneer as producer, Ray Harryhausen created the visual effects for the 1966 camp classic One Million Years B.C. — though, admittedly, his work in that movie played second fiddle to Raquel Welch’s physical effects as a blonde-bewigged (?) cavewoman parading around Earth’s pre-history in a cleavage-enhancing fur bikini. Whereas in producer Hal Roach’s 1940 effort One Million B.C., lizards made up as dinosaurs made life difficult for Victor Mature and Carole Landis, in the creationist-style pre-history of the 1966 (sort-of) remake, Raquel Welch and fellow caveman John Richardson had to square off against Harryhausen’s stop-motion models of giant reptiles. (Photo: Raquel Welch One Million Years B.C.) [Please scroll down to check out TCM's beautiful Ray Harryhausen tribute.] Starring James Franciscus and featuring Earth vs. the Flying Saucers‘ Richard Carlson, The Valley of Gwangi (1969) was Harryhausen’s next-to-last mid-level effort. Both The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), with John Phillip Law,...

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier Born in 1907, Olivier remains one of the most revered actors of the 20th century. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from the title role in Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man and the kindly but determined Nazi-hunter in The Boys from Brazil. Olivier played more than 120 stage roles Richard III, Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice in The Entertainer. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh What a Lovely War,...

British comedy writer David Croft has died at the age of 89.

The famed writer and producer, who was behind BBC comedy classics including Dad's Army and 'Allo 'Allo!, passed away in his sleep at his home in Portugal on Tuesday.

A statement from his family reads, "The family of comedy legend David Croft OBE are sad to report that David died peacefully in his sleep at his house in Portugal earlier today. He was a truly great man, who will be missed by all who had the great fortune of knowing and loving him. We know that he would have been proud that you had all been watching."

Croft's career began in the army after he enlisted during World War II and his experiences in the military went on to provide much of his inspiration for popular sitcoms Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum, which were written with collaborator Jimmy Perry.

He was also behind shows including 'Allo 'Allo!, Hi-de-Hi, Are You Being Served and its 1990s spin-off Grace and Favour.

Croft retired from work at Britain's BBC in 1993 and he was made an Officer of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1978 for his services to television. He was also honoured with the 1981 Desmond Davis award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for his contributions to the entertainment industry.

When the Clash of the Titans remake was announced, we all had a pretty good idea of what the film would be about. After all, why stretch too far from the 1981 Desmond Davis movie? But with a sequel going into production, it's been a mystery as to exactly what the new story would tackle and what characters/actors would return. Today we get the answer. ScreenRant has received a press release announcing that Clash of the Titans 2 - apparently no longer called Wrath of the Titans - has gone into production, and included is the full cast list and plot details. Set 10 years after Perseus (Sam Worthington) defeated the Kraken, the hero is trying to live a quiet life as a father to his son, Helius. But while this is going on, things are going a bit crazy on Mount Olympus, as the gods can no longer control the...

Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans remake was total pants. 3D conversion job or not. Nevertheless it did enough coin to warrant a sequel. Only in Hollywood! One vaguely good thing about the proposed sequel is Jonathan Liebesman’s involvement. Sure he’s made two duff features thus far but the South African director looks set to have made a goodun with Battle: Los Angeles (please be as good as the trailer makes out).

Talking to Collider and reported via Total Film, the director set out his stall with this:

“For me, taking Greek mythology and all that fantasy and putting it in a real world that’s epic, like Gladiator, like a big Ridley Scott movie. And taking all that fantasy and putting it in, grounding it, making it feel real, that’s the movie that I wanted to see when I walked into Clash 1 and that’s...

Director: Louis Leterrier Writer: Travis Beacham and Phil Hay DVD and Blu-ray release date: July 26 2010 Studio: Warner Home Video No of discs: 1 Region: 2 Price: From £9.99-£15.93 Running Time: 102/106 mins (DVD/Blu-ray) Certificate: 12 Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, Pete Postlethwaite, Jason Flemyng, Izabella Miko, Nicholas Hoult Desmond Davis’ 1981 film, Clash of the Titans, is fondly remembered, mostly for Ray Harryhausen’s inventive use of detailed models to create cutting-edge special effects for its day. Sure, today it looks dated and is often drenched in affectionate nostalgia but despite this, it still manages to kick the butt of Louis Leterrier’s 3D remake. Contemporary Titans has little in common with its predecessor, aside from an all star cast, some plot similarities, a continuous string of action sequences and the brief token appearance of Bubo, the mechanical owl. In Leterrier’s reprise, it is “the era of man” – humans have become restless,...

Despite lukewarm openings, sequels are now in the pipeline for 3D blockbusters How to Train Your Dragon and Clash of the Titans, after combined takings of more than $750m

They have been battling it out in 3D for box office supremacy on both sides of the Atlantic for much of the past month. Now it seems How to Train Your Dragon and Clash of the Titans are both set to get the sequel treatment.

DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon failed to take off with much gusto when it arrived on cinema screens, opening with just $44m (£29m) in the Us on 26 March. But it has shown impressive legs, and returned to the No 1 spot this weekend in its fifth week of release. In total, the film has taken $372m (£245m) worldwide, putting it behind only Kung Fu Panda and the Shrek movies in DreamWorks's canon.

"It's not where you start,...

Hollywood’s escalating war on originality is far-reaching. Independent films are finding it more difficult than ever to find distribution, tent-pole summer releases have a set a new precedent for mindless banality and virtually every film ever released will be remade, twice, by the end of next year. But perhaps the most troubling effect of Hollywood’s favorite sin of commercialism before art is the adverse effect it’s having on film criticism. Sure, despicable abominations like Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” make great subjects for witty, ranting reviews. But when any given Hollywood release is virtually indistinguishable from any other, as is generally the case, the criticisms all tend to be the same.

For example: I often find myself writing things like, “The acting was atrocious, the script could have been written by a 3rd grader and the direction was all over the map, but at...

Pictured Above: Ray Harryhausen and his Medusa from Clash of the Titans. Photo courtesy of Ray Harryhausen.

Director Louis Leterrier has raised a box office monster from the deep with his remake of the classic Clash of the Titans, this time starring Sam Worthington as the heroic Perseus who takes on the terrifying creatures of the ancient world.

It comes nearly three decades after the original Clash of the Titans roared on to the big screen.

Back in 1981, the Titans were directed by Desmond Davis and brought to life by the stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen, the film's co-producer (with Charles H. Schneer) and creator of special visual effects.

Harryhausen's meticulously-animated creatures - from an era before computer-generated effects - are by now as legendary as the beasts themselves, with his work also seen on screen in such films as 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), One Million Years B.C....

Crafting a new version of Clash of the Titans shouldn't be a difficult task. You've got a hero, a quest, a few monsters and a handful of gods and humans kicking around as interested parties. It's fun stuff, as long as the proportions are all correct. The first time this story was told, by writer Beverly Cross and director Desmond Davis in 1981, the result wasn't good by any stretch, but it had an undeniable charm. Thank the loving stop-motion animation from Ray Harryhausen, in part. But that film also felt like myth, even if it was myth stripped down and dressed back up as a studio picture. This version, directed by Louis Leterrier, is a lot like his last movie, The Incredible Hulk, if you replaced the personality of Edward Norton and Tim Roth with a flatline piece of work by Sam Worthington and big extra dollop of CGI. The...

Now that you've seen it, what did you think? Its been 29 years since Ray Harryhausen and Desmond Davis unleashed the original Clash of the Titans upon the world and now the Greek gods are all back again for another battle. Louis Leterrier's new Clash of the Titans remake hits theaters this weekend. But is it any good? How does it compare to the original? Do the effects look better in contrast to Ray Harryhausen's work? How is the story? How are the characters and performances, including Sam Worthington and Gemma Arterton? If you've seen it, leave a comment below, and let us know what you thought of Clash of the Titans! To fuel the fire, actually really enjoyed this Clash of the Titans remake. I don't think that it's better than the original Ray Harryhausen movie and it's not one of my favorites of this year, but I...

By Sean O’Connell

Clash of the Titans (**1/2 out of 4)

Let’s keep things in perspective. Louis Leterrier isn’t attempting to revitalize Shakespeare, perform a shot-for-shot remake of “Citizen Kane,” or commit John Kennedy Toole’s allegedly unadaptable “A Confederacy of Dunces” to film. He’s updating Desmond Davis’ 1981 fantasy “Clash of the Titans,” which itself was a gooey, golden block of creamy Velveeta. And he does a pretty good job.

That sounds like a halfhearted recommendation, and “Clash” is a halfhearted adventure, picking up pace for a handful of action sequences but content to jog in place when swords aren’t being swung at imaginatively mystical creatures.

Leterrier’s “Clash” is as cheesy as Davis’ original, but this is a bitter wedge of Gouda that’s far angrier than its fanciful predecessor. The largest shift saddles half-human/half-God Perseus (originally Harry Hamlin, now Sam Worthington) with a vengeful...

Louis Leterrier, director of the first two Transporter films and The Incredible Hulk, brought his high energy approach to a remake of Clash of the Titans. Instead of Ray Harryhausen stop motion monsters, Leterrier.s Perseus fights intense CGI creatures. There may be one easter egg for Harryhausen fans, but Leterrier wanted to stay away from too many references to the original film.

Leterrier Behind Clash of the Titans

.I met a few of the original cast members, but I didn.t want to do it,. Leterrier said. .Bubo was the only thing we wanted to pay homage to the artistry of Ray Harryhausen and not make it like an homage movie. We wanted to make this movie our own movie and just wink at Desmond Davis/Ray Harryhausen.s movie..

With larger-than-life mythical beasts, breathtaking vistas spanning the depths of hell to the heights of Mt. Olympus, and battles to the death between man and the gods, “Clash of the Titans” is a mammoth spectacle that will grab audiences from the first scene and take them on a wild, 3D ride through an ancient Greece only imaginable in the 21st century.

“It’s a big, fun adventure, a big escapist movie, and I love escapist movies,” says director Louis Leterrier. “The story is heroic, it’s mythic, it’s romantic, it’s about fulfilling your destiny. There’s fantasy and fun, and it’s a bit scary, too. Add to that an unbelievable cast like Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson, and it was truly an exhilarating experience.”

With Leterrier at the helm, the stars of the film were eager to step into the mythical world. “I am always...

How to Train Your Dragon takes top spot at the Us box office to seize the initiative in the lucrative battle for 3D bragging rights. But there will be furrowed brows at MGM after a damp-squib start for Hot Tub Time Machine

The winner

You wait years for a 3D movie, then four come along at once. Give or take a few weeks. One month after Alice in Wonderland debuted in cinemas (at a time when Avatar was still a potent force), DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon soared to the top of the charts on $43.3m. This was a strong debut – not as high as DreamWorks' Monsters Vs Aliens, which debuted on $59.3m exactly a year ago, mind – that sets up the well-reviewed family adventure for a promising run.

Alice dropped off around 50% in its fourth weekend and earned a further $17.3m to bring the tally to $293.1m.

By the year 1981 the film world had already been rocked by the arrival of a tiny film called Star Wars. Special effects were never going to be the same again and yet stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen wasn’t going to let a little thing like George Lucas change the way he went about his work.

Clash of the Titans was going to be his swansong and he knew full well that the industry was changing, but rather than adapt, he thought it best to stay true to his roots and call it a night.

It may not be the best film he had worked on but it remains one of the most memorable cinematic experiences in my life. I didn’t see the film on release, in fact I wasn’t born until 1983 but I will never forget the first time I was introduced to Perseus.

I was in primary...

Chicago – The Winter Olympics coverage on NBC made it impossible for viewers to ignore the fact that there is indeed a “Clash of the Titans” remake coming out in April. This may seem redundant, since the vast majority of modern fantasy has in some way ripped off Greek mythology. Both “Harry Potter” and “Percy Jackson” include a variation on Medusa, the reptilian villain with snake hair and a stoney stare.

Medusa has been giving young moviegoers nightmares for decades, thanks to Ray Harryhausen, whose distinctive stop-motion effects have enhanced cinema since the early 40s. Their herky-jerky movement has a life and immediacy that simply can’t be mimicked by today’s all-too-fluid CGI. 1981’s “Titans” marked the last time Harryhausen served as “special visual effects creator.” It’s a tribute to his mastery that the film still has a timeless grandeur, despite the fact that its effects now seem to...

Today we have five new photos from Clash of the Titans, a modern version of the 1981 Greek mythology film directed by Desmond Davis. Check them both out below (click either for a larger version):

Clash of The Titans, Mads Mikkelsen (Draco) and Alexa Davalos (Andromeda)

In Clash of the Titans, the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on Earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts,...

If any of you aren't yet aware, there's a little movie coming out at the end of March called Clash of the Titans. Directed by Louis Leterrier, the film follows the adventures of a young warrior named Perseus (Sam Worthington) as he fights off a horde of magical, mythological beasts. Amazingly, however, this story was previously told, and not just by the Greeks that made it up in the first place: it turns out that director Desmond Davis made a film with the same title in 1981 featuring stop-motion effects work by none other than the great Ray Harryhausen.

In anticipation of their upcoming remake, Warner Home Video released Clash of the Titans on Blu-ray this week, not only to provide improved picture and sound for existing fans, but rekindle interest in both films' subject matter for a whole new generation. And while I will reserve judgment on the merits of the original's storytelling,...

A second featurette on Warner Bros. Pictures’ upcoming remake Clash of the Titans has come online. The featurette highlights the differences between the remake and the original film directed by Desmond Davis.

“Clash of the Titans” is a modern version of the 1981 Greek mythology film directed by Desmond Davis.Ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only...

Filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas grew up fascinated by the amazing stop-motion magic from model maker Ray Harryhausen. His films were cutting edge forays into the realms of monsters, science fiction, and fantasy for decades. His Jason and the Argonauts remains one of the best Greek myths brought to film and his work only got better through his Sinbad films.

By 1981, though, Lucas rewrote the special effects rulebook with Star Wars followed soon after by Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The effects were aided by computers, the model makers improved the technology and the scripts grew stronger and more sophisticated.

As a result, when Harryhausen unleashed Clash Of The Titans in the summer of 1981, it was not well received by an audience who considered his work a thing of the past. Despite its all-star cast, the movie featured a then unknown Harry Hamlin in the...

Great new, the third TV Spot for mythology movie about dangerous and neverending struggle for power that can lead to world destruction – Clash of the Titans – has been revealed.

Clash of the Titans is a modern version of the 1981 Greek mythology film directed by Desmond Davis.

Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld.

With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny.

The remake directed by Louis Letettier from a...

The 1980s produced more cheese than the entire state of Wisconsin put together, but it also produced a number of movies that are considered beloved classics. Somewhere in between those extremes is Clash of the Titans , the 1981 epic directed by Desmond Davis and starring the likes of Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith and Ursula Andress as the Greek Gods on Mount Olympus and Harry Hamlin as Perseus, a great warrior and the son of Zeus who is put through a series of tests to rescue the Princess Andromeda before she's sacrificed to the fiercest monster imaginable. The movie featured some of Ray Harryhausen's great stop-motion creatures and an annoying mechanical owl named Bubo, but for many people, it was also their first introduction of Greek mythology, so it's no wonder that 28 years...

When we learned of the Louis Leterrier remake of the 1981 almost-classic Clash of the Titans we were in two minds.

We loved the original, the Harryhausen swansong and the wealth of classical acting talent on offer combined with a charm and great production design to bring the Gods to life.

Now, riding the CG and 3D wave we’ve got a look at the updated version in the trailers and images, and it looks bigger, fiercer and far more action packed than the Desmond Davies film.

There’s a new featurette doing the rounds today, giving the cast and crew the chance to give us their take on the film, and the characters they play. The talking heads are immersed in a lot of footage, and it does its job of teasing us just the right amount.

MovieWeb have the featurette, which is embedded below. Enjoy!

A series of new character posters for Warner Bros. remake of “Clash of the Titans” have been unleashed via Ugo.

The remake directed by Louis Letettier from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan stars Sam Worthington as Perseus, Gemma Arterton as Perseus’ love interest Io, Ralph Fiennes as Hades, Liam Neeson as Zeus – Hades’ brother and father of Perseus, Danny Huston as Poseidon, Mads Mikkelsen as Draco, Alexa Davalos as Andromeda, Jason Flemyng, Izabella Miko, Nicholas Hoult and Pete Postlethwaite.

“Clash of the Titans” is a modern version of the 1981 Greek mythology film directed by Desmond Davis.Ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus...

An International trailer for Warner Bros. remake of “Clash of the Titans” has just gone online over at IGN.

“Clash of the Titans” is a modern version of the 1981 Greek mythology film directed by Desmond Davis.Ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god, defy his fate and create his own destiny.

Those of you who have seen Desmond Davis' original 1981 masterpiece Clash Of The Titans will know that the film has a well-rounded finale, an epic conclusion that literally puts the icing on the cake. Even when I was watching the film as an 8-year-old (playing sick and staying home from school) I wondered what could happen next? It's such an epic story that it's almost shocking to me there have been no sequels. Thankfully, Warner Bros. is looking to turn the remake into a brand new trilogy, at least that's what Louis Leterrier thinks. "We've talked about it loosely," Leterrier told MTV. More...

Great new photos from “Clash of the Titans,” remake of 1981 original movie directed by Desmond Davis, have appeared online.

Clash of the Titans

“Clash of the Titans” is a modern version of the 1981 Greek mythology film directed by Desmond Davis.Ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld.

With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus and unleash hell on earth. Leading a daring band of warriors, Perseus sets off on a perilous journey deep into forbidden worlds. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, he will only survive if he can accept his power as a god,...

The second trailer for Warner Bros. remake of “Clash of the Titans” has been revealed.

Clash of the Titans

The remake directed by Louis Letettier from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan stars Sam Worthington as Perseus, Gemma Arterton as Perseus’ love interest Io, Ralph Fiennes as Hades, Liam Neeson as Zeus – Hades’ brother and father of Perseus, Danny Huston as Poseidon, Mads Mikkelsen as Draco, Alexa Davalos as Andromeda, Jason Flemyng, Izabella Miko, Nicholas Hoult and Pete Postlethwaite.

“Clash of the Titans” is a modern version of the 1981 Greek mythology film directed by Desmond Davis.Ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades, vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers...

While many of us were less than impressed with the first trailer for Clash of the Titans when it hit the web. It looked pretty, but mostly the line “Titans Will Clash” left many people a little worried about how the studio would handle the Desmond Davis classic.

Recently, the Internets got their collective hands on the first posters from the film, showing off Sam Worthington taking down Medusa, riding Pegasus, and a cool new tri-fold poster. Warner Bros. immediately got wind and forced those on the web featuring the posters to take them down. Now it looks like the studio has “officially” released the images in high quality for our enjoyment, and they do look pretty cool.

Alongside Worthington as Perseus, the film stars Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), and Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace). Check out the full-sized posters after the jump for Clash of the Titans,...

Desmond Davis' classic tale of swords, sandals and stop-motion animation may have a special place in our movie-loving hearts but some things it didn't have includes a buffed-up Sam Worthington, a slinky Gemma Arterton, some massive CGI creatures and a whole load of heavy guitar riffs. That's why we're looking forward to director Louis Leterrier's reinterpretation of Clash Of The Titans with quite a bit of anticipation.

Luckily, we've been given an early look at the brand-new trailer for the upcoming blockbuster, courtesy of those fine folks over at Yahoo! Movies.

Shaping up to be an effects-heavy tale of Greek deities and ancient giants kicking off against a brooding hero a million miles away from Harry Hamlin permed goody-goody, it's sure to be one of the big hits of 2010.

Take a look at the trailer in the player below or here in glorious hi-def. Don't forget to give...

You know what this morning needs? Giant scorpions and rock music, that's what. So it is with immense joy that we can bring you the Clash of the Titans teaser trailer, delivering both in a veritable rock-and-scorpion cornucopia - with a side-order of Sam Worthington making leather mini-skirts look manly.Worthington, of course, plays Perseus, the demi-god son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) who's pissed off at Daddy and determined to both thwart his plans and rescue a princess, Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) who's going to be sacrificed to the monstrous Kraken. He does this by taking on a succession of different monsters in order to prepare for the Kraken.Of course, you're not going to get any of that from this teaser. What you'll get here is a)anger; b)rawk; c)people running; d) giant freakin' scorpions; e)swordplay; f) screaming; g) Neesom getting cross; h)Worthington staying cross; i)giant freakin' scorpions.