Last Unicorn update

4 Comments

Almost a year ago, I posted about the alleged upcoming live-action movie of The Last Unicorn. Today I happened to discover that the official website has been updated sometime in the past couple months; it now says "We expect to start initial photography in 2004 with a release date towards Christmas 2005."

I still have doubts about whether the project is real. But if it's a hoax, it's certainly an extensive one, and there are some good artists involved; the site is filled with art, storyboards, and photos. The video they used to have of a CGI unicorn seems to have been replaced with a movie of a live horse. The site explains:

The unicorn will be a trained horse (in fact 6-8 identical horses) altered by CGI extensions, make-up and occasionally full CGI replacement.

The other creatures will be animatronics, CGI creations and prosthetics in combination. The cat will be a trained animal with CGI muscle replacement.

I don't see any sign of the script that I think used to be downloadable from that site. (I know I got it from somewhere on the web; I thought it was that site.)

The locations section says: "The film will be shot in Hungary, Wales, Ireland, Morocco and South Africa." There are some gorgeous photos of Wales in the photo gallery there.

I hope the movie turns out to be both real and good. That may be too much to ask for, but I'll keep hoping 'til I find out otherwise.

4 Responses to “Last Unicorn update”

  1. David Moles

    “CGI muscle replacement”! Wow! That sounds way better than steroids! Where can I sign up?

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  2. SarahP

    Really a hoax? I’ve been keeping an eye on the site too, and it seems totally genuine, but what do I know?

    Mia Farrow as Molly Grue, though. Hmmm.

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  3. Jed

    I don’t really think it’s a hoax. But I do have a few reasons for retaining small doubts about the project’s reality:

    Most of the cast are the same actors who provided voices for the animated version 20 years ago. Certainly possible (especially since they’ve switched the roles around), but also seems like the kind of thing a hoaxer would do.

    All of the information available online about the project (including the IMDB’s info) appears to come from this one site.

    There were no updates to the site for about two years (but they seem to have started updating it again recently, so this probably shouldn’t count against them).

    It appears to have been at more or less the same “going to start filming soon” stage of development for at least the last year.

    I’ve never heard of a real production company providing a downloadable copy of the script (though they’ve taken it offline now). And the beginning of the script (which was all I read) tracks much more closely with the novel than I usually expect from a movie script.

    Finally, I don’t want to invest a lot of hopes in it and then find out I was tricked. 🙂

    But if they do actually start filming sometime soon, or if I hear about the movie from a reliable source that didn’t get its info from that site, I will happily set aside my doubts.

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  4. Jed

    Btw, on April 12 René Auberjonois will be doing an online chat; if anyone wants to attend that and ask him about the movie and report back, I’d love to hear what he says.

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