Planned as a full Technicolor production at MGM in the late 1930s, WAR EAGLES would have eclipsed Cooper and long-time SFX … Having been a long-time fan of King Kong, Merian C Cooper, Willis H O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen I just had to get a copy of War Eagles after reading about this 'lost' epic from 1938-39.
Ray Harryhausen first met 'Obie' in the War Eagles production office, and was amazed at the pre-production work alrerady done. Also included is the full, never-published final draft of WAR EAGLES by Cyril Hume (screenwriter of MGM's Tarzan series and the sci-fi masterpiece FORBIDDEN PLANET) along with Merian C. Cooper's original treatment and production designer Howard Campbell's notes and budgets for the ill-fated production. In 1938-39, legendary filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Willis O'Brien (King Kong) teamed with screenwriter Cyril Hume (Forbidden Planet), and under the production banner of MGM Studios, came up with a film project they hoped would rival RKO's … Turns out that back when men were real men and women were real women (aka the thirties), special effects giant Ray Harryhausen planned a movie he was supposed to shoot together with Meriam C. Cooper of King Kong fame. Per Amazon's description of the Conover/Riley book: Planned as a full Technicolor production at MGM in the late 1930s, War Eagles would have eclipsed Merian C. Cooper and long-time SFX partner Willis O'Brien's King Kong as the greatest fantasy epic of the period had it not fallen victim to pre-war studio politics and the rise of Hitler's Third Reich on the eve of World War II.
Also included is the full, never-published final draft of WAR EAGLES by Cyril Hume (screenwriter of MGM's Tarzan series and the sci-fi masterpiece FORBIDDEN PLANET) along with Merian C. Cooper's original treatment and production designer Howard Campbell's notes and budgets for the ill-fated production. Not quite, but the 1939 production WAR EAGLES is an intriguing piece of film history. This latest addition to Philip J Riley's Alternate History of Classic Filmonsters series is a collaborative effort with fellow film historian David Conover that delves into one of the most famous unproduced motion pictures of all time, Merian C. Cooper's legendary WAR EAGLES!
Archive of original scripts and production material from the un-produced Merian C. Cooper and Willis O'Brien prehistoric fantasy, War Eagles. The movie should be called War Eagles, and here’s the plot, courtesy of the Bristol Bad Film Club: Also included is the full, never-published final draft of WAR EAGLES by Cyril Hume (screenwriter of MGM's Tarzan series and the sci-fi masterpiece FORBIDDEN PLANET) along with Merian C. Cooper's original treatment and production designer Howard Campbell's notes and budgets for the ill-fated production. Today all that remains of this would-be epic are some conceptual drawings, production notes and a shooting script, all of which are reproduced here (a reel … It was conceived as a like-minded follow-up to KING KONG by that film’s creators Willis “Obie” O’Brien and Merian C. Cooper, but never made it to production.
Detailed models and sets were …