Donald P. Borchers discusses working with John Alcott on 3 movies including "The Beastmaster" (1982)

Описание: Donald P. Borchers discusses Fuji ASA 500, water trucks, and forced development, and working on 3 movie with John Alcott including "The Beastmaster" (1982).

"The Beastmaster" (1982) is an American sword and sorcery film directed by Don Coscarelli and starring Marc Singer, Tanya Roberts, John Amos and Rip Torn. Loosely based on the 1959 novel, "The Beast Master," by Andre Norton. The film is about a man who can communicate with animals, and who fights an evil wizard and his army.

In the kingdom of Aruk, witches (Janet DeMay, Christine Kellogg, Janet Jones) tell high priest Maax (Rip Torn) a prophecy that he will die at the hands of King Zed's (Rod Loomis) unborn son.

Maax sends one of his witches to kidnap and kill the child, but before she can, a villager (Ben Hammer) rescues the child and raises him as his own son in the village of Emur.

Named Dar, the child (Billy Jacoby a/k/a Billy Jayne) learns how to fight and develops his ability to telepathically communicate with animals.

Years later, a fully grown Dar (Marc Singer) witnesses his people being slaughtered by the Juns, a horde of fanatic barbarians allied with Maax.

Dar, the only survivor of the attack, journeys to Aruk to avenge his people. In time, Dar is joined by a golden eagle he names Sharak, a pair of thieving ferrets he names Kodo and Podo, and a black tiger he names Ruh.

Dar meets a slave girl called Kiri (Tanya Roberts) before getting himself lost and ending up surrounded by an eerie half-bird, half-human race who externally dissolve their prey for nourishment. As the bird-men worship eagles, they spare Dar when he summons Sharak and give him an amulet.

Dar soon arrives at Aruk where Maax had assumed total control with the Juns' support. Maax has taken the children of the townspeople and is sacrificing them to his god, Ar.

After having Sharak save the child of a townsman named Sacco, Dar learns that Kiri is to be sacrificed. On his way to save her, Dar is joined by Zed's younger son Tal (Joshua Milrad) and his bodyguard Seth (John Amos), and learns that Kiri is Zed's niece as the three work to save her. While Seth gathers their forces, Dar helps Kiri and Tal infiltrate the temple and rescue King Zed.

An obstinate Zed leads his forces to attack the city, despite the prudent warnings of Dar, who leaves the group in anger. They all are easily defeated and captured, and Dar decides to return to save them from being sacrificed.

In the conflict that follows, Maax reveals Dar's relationship to Zed before slitting Zed's throat and facing the Beastmaster. Despite being stabbed, Maax is revived by a witch and, when he attempts to kill Dar, Kodo sacrifices himself to cause the high priest to fall into the sacrificial flames.

The victory is short-lived as the Jun horde approaches Aruk, arriving by nightfall to face the trap Dar and the people set for them. Tal is wounded as Dar succeeds in burning most of the Juns alive while defeating their chieftain (Tony Epper) before the bird-men arrive to consume those remaining.

The following day, Seth invites Dar to be the new king, but Dar explains that Tal would make a better king, and he leaves Aruk. Dar sets off into the wild with Kiri, Ruh, Sharak and Podo, who has given birth to two baby ferrets.

"The Beastmaster" began with a screenplay in the early 1980s written by Paul Pepperman and Don Coscarelli. The two writers based their film on Andre Norton's 1959 novel, "The Beast Master". The writers changed the story dramatically. Norton was unhappy with the liberties taken with the film's script and asked for her name to be removed from the credits.

When Coscarelli signed on as a director, Pepperman became the film's producer and brought in co-producer Sylvio Tabet to finance the project. The budget of $9 million was raised, giving director Coscarelli his highest budget to work with up until that point in his career.

The film was shot in California's Simi Valley and in Los Padres National Forest's Lake Piru in Ventura County, and Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.

The black panther was actually played by 3 tigers, all of which were dyed black.

The score was composed and conducted by Lee Holdridge. It was recorded in Rome with members of The Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia of Rome and the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Rome. The soundtrack album was originally issued by Varèse Sarabande.

United Artists acquired domestic distribution rights and premièred "The Beastmaster" in theatres on August 19, 1982. It was released in 16 cities in the United States on 165 screens and opened in fifth place on its opening week, then added eight more cities and 66 screens in its second week.

It subsequently received significant local TV and cable airplay, notably on HBO, TBS, and TNT. It was shown so often on TBS, it became a joke that TBS stood for "The Beastmaster Station," and Dennis Miller joked that HBO stood for "Hey, Beastmaster's On."