"Jim Wynorski - They Came From Outer Space" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wynorski Jim)

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is probably the worst of the lot. My story, from which it was
supposedly drawn, actually appears for only a few minutes in mid-film and then mercifully vanishes.

How, you ask, did this come about? Why did I let the producer/ director ruin my tale? The facts are
simple enoughтАФand fairly amusing.

Ray Harryhausen, the animator of the prehistoric beast in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, grew up in
Los Angeles, where we met in 1937, and talked about nothing but dinosaurs. Our dream was to make a
film together one day, I to write it, Ray to animate the lovely creatures.

In early 1952 I got a telephone call from aHollywood producer asking me to come by to look at the
script of a dinosaur film he was making, with Ray Harryhausen as animation expert in charge. I dropped
in, read the script in an hour, and was then asked if I would revise the script.

тАЬMaybe,тАЭ I said. тАЬAnd, incidentally,тАЭ I added, тАЬthis film story bears

a slight resemblance to a tale of mine called тАШThe Beast from 20,000

FathomsтАЩ that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post a few years before.тАЭ

The producerтАЩs face turned to cheese. He swallowed, we exchanged a few more words, and we both
staggered away from each other. Outside, I burst into a shout of laughter. Unwittingly, the people
connected with this epic had borrowed a concept from my Post story, written it into their script, forgotten
where the idea came from, and summoned the original author to revise it!

There was no trouble, no recriminations, no accusations. The next

afternoon a cablegram arrived from the production company asking for

permission to purchase the rights to my тАЬThe Beast from 20,000

Fathoms.тАЭ

The purchase was allowed and the film made. Those of you who have seen it know that it wasnтАЩt much
of a film. All the good things are HarryhausenтАЩs.

When the dinosaur is on camera, things are fine, thank you. When the action stops and the talk begins,
childrenтАФthe best criticsтАФrun up and down the aisles to he rest rooms.

So the film didnтАЩt so much as flake one barnacle off my Post story.

Someday itтАЩll be made overтАФand made right.

ThereтАЩs a happier ending here, I must add. John Huston read тАЬThe Beast from 20,000 Fathoms,тАЭ
thought he sensed the ghost of Melville in it (though I had never read Melville until after I met Huston),
and offered me the job of screenplaying Moby Dick. I accepted and moved up to a greater beast in a
greater book and film.

I cite this personal example because it probably represents, in one form or another, the problems faced
by the writers of the stories in this book and the fate that befell their good children once they reached the