Poster details
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- Title
- Dragonslayer
- AKA
- Il drago del lago di fuoco [The dragon from the lake of fire] (Italy)
- Year of Film
- 1981
- Director
- Matthew Robbins
- Starring
- Peter MacNicol, Caitlin Clarke, Ralph Richardson, John Hallam, Peter Eyre, Sydney Bromley, Chloe Salaman, Ian McDiarmid
- Origin of Film
- USA
- Type of Poster
- Quad
- Origin of Poster
- UK
- Year of Poster
- 1981
- Designer
- Vic Fair
- Artist
- Brian Bysouth
- Size (inches)
- 30 1/16" x 40"
- SS or DS
- SS
- Tagline
- Its talons tear. Its breath burns. It is terror. And only sorcery can destroy it.
Great artwork by Brian Bysouth, from a design by Vic Fair, for this wizard versus dragon fantasy tale, which was co-produced by Disney and Paramount and directed by Matthew Robbins (opens in a new tab) (Batteries Not Included). Apparently the effects for Vermithrax the dragon were given 25% of the film’s budget and were realised by several different teams, including Phil Tippet (opens in a new tab) at ILM (opens in a new tab) (final design and model), Brian Johnson (opens in a new tab) (special effects) and Ken Ralston (opens in a new tab) (flying scenes).
‘Go-motion’ (opens in a new tab), a variant of stop-motion animation using computer-controlled cameras and developed by ILM for The Empire Strikes Back, was used for the scenes showing the dragon flying and walking with the intention of making these scenes feel more realistic.
Whilst Guillermo Del Toro (opens in a new tab) was preparing to film his ultimately doomed version of The Hobbit (opens in a new tab), he stated (opens in a new tab):
One of the best and one of the strongest landmarks that almost nobody can overcome is ‘Dragonslayer.’ The design of the Vermithrax Pejorative is perhaps one of the most perfect creature designs ever made.
In 2012 I met and interviewed Brian Bysouth.
The US one sheet is markedly different but is also something of a classic, with artwork by Jeffrey Catherine Jones (opens in a new tab).
