Exhibition devoted to Hollywood special effects legend to open in Edinburgh in October

The biggest ever exhibition devoted to Hollywood special effects legend Ray Harryhausen is to get an extended run in Scotland after its unveiling had to be delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The National Galleries of Scotland will be unveiling its Ray Harryhausen exhibition in October.

The National Galleries of Scotland has announced that its celebration of the stop-motion animation pioneer will now run for almost a year after its new opening date of 24 October.

The show, originally due to be staged for just five months at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, will showcase models, artwork, miniatures, screenplays and archive footage from the late filmmaker’s personal archives.

Creatures used in films like Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years BC and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger will take centre stage in the exhibition, which will span four decades.

The exhibition will explore how the trailblazer inspired future Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Sir Peter Jackson, Tim Burton and Guillermo del Tor and classic movies like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Mars Attacks!, Jurassic Park and Pan’s Labyrinth.

The show has been developed in collaboration with the foundation set up by Harryhausen and his wife Diana before the couple passed away within five months of each other in 2013. They were regular visitors to Scotland thanks to her family connections - she was the great grand-daughter of the explorer and missionary David Livingstone.

Highlights of the show, which will run until September 2021, including Harryhausen’s original models of the iconic skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts, the Cyclops from the Sinbad films and the Eye of the Tiger and Medusa from Clash of the Titans.

The exhibition will also feature the young Harryhausen’s very first models, including a marionette inspired by the gorilla from King Kong, conceived by the film’s special effects supervisor Willis O’Brien, and an original model gorilla from Mighty Joe Young, the first film the pair worked on together, which effectively launched Harryhausen’s career.

Fans will be able to book up tickets three months in advance for the show after sales open on 2 September.

Harryhausen’s daughter Vanessa said: “Our plans to celebrate dad’s centenary in Edinburgh are so exciting. If he was still around, he would be so enthused. The space gives us great scope to display as many of his models and artworks as possible, as well as personal items which have never been exhibited before.”