|
The Night Before Christmas Ray had conceived this story way back 1946 as a separate story and an actual film. But then he realized that the story and feel of the tale would have fitted better within the framework of the Fairy Tales. People of the Mist
This potential project came about in 1982 when Michael Winner came in contact with Ray about a project that he had acquired the rights to. Ray flew to Spain to meet with him and go over the already written script. The story told about two brothers who lose their heritage in England and travel to Africa to seek a new fortune. One is killed saving a woman from a lion and in return she leads the other brother on a quest to find the Land of the Mist, situated on a huge undiscovered plateau, where the largest rubies in the world are to be found. Arriving on the plateau they see a holy mountain shrouded in mist and encounter a race of soldiers and priests dressed in ancient costume. In the City of the Mist they are given food and, left to their own devices, find their way to the strange mountain where they find the rubies and a mural that tells of the slaying of the gods. A mist descends and before the brother becomes unconscious he sees weird forms in the swirling clouds. On waking the priests accuse the brother of desecration and sacrifice him to their god Jal, a massive statue whose mouth forms the platform from which he is pushed into a sacred pool. He survives the fall and below the statue he discovers a chamber containing flickering screens, switches and blinking lights and it is here that we learn the secret of the mist. Alien beings are controlling the people and mankind began its evolution in the valley. Unfortunately these beings are now corrupt and somehow the brother escapes to tell the people what he has seen. He tells them that he can destroy these man-eating creatures by diverting the pool's water into their chamber. The people dam the river and as the water rises other creatures appear and begin killing the people. The waters reach the mountain's dormant volcano which begins to erupt, and although the brother escapes to return to England, the City and the Valley of the Mist are destroyed along with the alien creatures. Some of the creatures that we would have seen were many Dinosaurs, a Man-Eating Plant with many tentacles, some prehistoric eagle like creatures that this lost civilization used for travel thru the skies, the lizard like alien creatures and the massive sacrifice creature Jal. After the audience tests were carried out it was discovered that this kind of film was no longer popular and there for not profitable....shame it seemed to have potential!
The Princess Bride In early 1982 British producer Milton Sobotsky from UK-based Amicus Production approached Ray about this story based on the actual book. Apparently he believed that a good film could have come out if this story, but after reading Milton's screenplay Ray was not impressed with the way it had been handled and that his involvement in the project was minimal. Milton tried to re-write the screenplay but eventually the whole idea was dropped. R.U.R In 1945 while Ray waited to me mustered out of the Army in New York he came around to read the book by Karel Capek. R.U.R was a factory that designed robots to do tasks that humans find dull and boring, but the latest model proves to be superior than its makers! they unite and seek to kill their makers and take over all mankind. Interesting story that at the time would have fitted fine with the genre of films that were being produced in those days. But Ray opted to go with the Fairy Tales instead which were more commercial and affordable. Ray to this day still thinks that the concept of Robots taking over is still a good one....we agree also! The Satyr
A cross between The Lost World and Gwangi this story tells about a Circus owner who is traveling through Mexico who hears a legend of great caverns, known in mythology as "the Underworld" in which still live creatures that have a direct connection with the pyramids of Mexico and Egypt. Financed by a millionaire and accompanied by two adventurers who are looking for deposits of oil, they discover a ruined pyramid in the deepest part of the jungle under which is a shaft- the entrance to the underworld. Lowering themselves into the abyss they discover a nightmare world of caverns in which five creatures of legend who have been waiting to escape into the upper world dwell. A Sphinx, a Cyclops, a Mermaid, a Griffin and finally a Satyr of enormous size. It is this last creature that is the personification of evil and is feared by all other creatures and gods in the underworld. Dynamiting his way through the caverns, the circus owner released the creatures and they fight each other and some of the explorers are killed. Those that are left flee, closely pursued by the Satyr, but although the adventurers seal the entrance with dynamite, the creature breaks through "like a giant genii" Somehow the circus owner and his colleagues capture the creature and display him in the circus, but during a performance he breaks loose, fighting and killing an elephant. After destroying the town, he makes his way back to the caverns of the Underworld, where he seals himself inside, away from the eyes of mankind.
Sinbad and the Seven Wonders of the World
This was a project that came up after the completion of Clash of the Titans, it involved Sinbad visiting the seven wonders of the ancient world, Sinbad attends the coronation of the Caliph of Egypt who sends him on a quest to assemble a small gold pyramid, the sections of which are hidden within the seven wonders located in the four corners of the ancient world. He would have visited The pharos in Alexandria where he met Ali Baba, The Rhodes and the submerged head of the Colossus within which hides the Dragon of Rhodes, a huge deadly eel. To Halicarnassus and the Mausoleum and the Warriors of Ashes-Frightening skeletal horses, Ephesus where battles the Amazons and their goddess Hecate...and more. Such a good premise but like Force of Trojans it was forgotten due to cost restrains and seemingly more commercial ideas..
Sinbad goes to Mars
The project would have merge the ancient character with space?? now at the time the 1970's there was a boom in science fiction and it seemed like a viable project so much that Charles Schneer commissioned Kenneth Kolb (the writer of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad screenplay) to produce and treatment. They were not impressed with the script so Ray and Charles brought Beverly Cross to re-write it, with this revision the story took more of a Egyptian/Martian feel to it In short the idea was similar to the 1994 film Stargate. This opened up the doors for more interesting creatures such as a Martian Sphinx, the Roc, a Canal creature which resembled a moray eel and a monster Jellyfish that Sinbad encounters while sailing along the canals of Mars. After two years of preparing for this project the whole thing fell thru...its weakness Sinbad and Mars??? interesting but by the end of the two years the sci-fi craze had died out...
|
