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Willis O’Brien color concept art for Gwangi

Currency:USD Category:Memorabilia Start Price:3,000.00 USD Estimated At:3,000.00 - 5,000.00 USD
Willis O’Brien color concept art for Gwangi
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(Warner Bros./Seven Arts, 1969) This incredible illustration is the long lost marquis color concept drawing by Willis O’Brien for his story, Gwangi. Done in watercolor and pencil, it depicts a dinosaur, a cowboy on horse, and a bull, against a painted desert setting. These are all characters that recurred throughout Willis O’Brien’s completed films, and the unsold stories he wrote. After leaving home in his teens, Willis O’Brien was as a cowboy, a cartoonist, and a boxer, just to name a few of his many vocations. This colorful life experience is where he fueled his genius of bringing the prehistoric past and the present to collide on the screen through innovative stop motion animation. He started his iconic film making journey working for Thomas Edison and then moved on to such epic creations as The Lost World and King Kong, always coming up with new story ideas throughout his career. In 1941, he looked to RKO production chief, David O. Selznick to produce Gwangi, which was truly one of his pet projects. Selznick turned the film down, but in 1969, Ray Harryhausen, O’Brien’s protégé brought this story to movie theaters everywhere. This is a rare opportunity to own a beautifully rendered stand alone example of artwork drawn by the stop motion icon himself, Willis O’Brien.