Marg, the Princess Warrior

To celebrate Canada Day I wanted to highlight Marg Delahunty, the Princess Warrior.  Here in Canada we have a long-running political satire/sketch comedy show called This Hour Has 22 Minutes.  In the 90s, Mary Walsh originated this hilarious character who still makes the occasional appearance.

Only in Canada would a comedian have such unprecedented access and leeway. Marg Delahunty was frequently a visitor at Canadian parliament and she had interviews with two sitting prime ministers, Jean Chretien and Stephen Harper.

Her costume is clearly modelled after Lucy Lawless' Xena: Warrior Princess which I have covered here and here.

Marg has even been a force for political activism, campaigning actively against former Prime Minister Stephen Harper with the Marg Brings Change campaign.

Happy 150th birthday, Canada! and long live Marg, the Princess Warrior!

Xena's Costume on Display

Today on Twitter, producer Rob Tapert shared the news that one of Lucy Lawless' hero Xena costumes will be on display at the Christchurch Arts Centre from now through October.  When production ended in 2001, Pacific Renaissance donated one of Xena's costumes, complete with sword, chakram, whip and saddle bag; and one of Gabrielle's costumes, complete with sais to the Museum of New Zealand.

In this short video from 2011 we get up close with the costumes in the museum. I've grabbed some screenshots that show some great details on Xena's costume.  The host notes that Xena's boots are quite large. That's because they were built on top of running shoes for comfort.

The exhibition is called We Could Be Heroes: the gods and heroes of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. More information can be found here.

RIP Ray Harryhausen

I was deeply saddened to hear today that the legendary Ray Harryhausen has passed away at the age of 92.  Harryhausen's is one of a handful of names I would select as the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century.  His work on classic fantasy epics like Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger will be well known to fans of the sword and sandal genre.  He was a pioneer in the world of visual effects, designing stop-motion animation techniques that would be used for decades.

If you ask almost any filmmaker who has worked in sci-fi, fantasy and horror who one of their earliest influences is they will say Ray Harryhausen.  As a character and creature designer he was years ahead of his time.  As an animator he understood that each character must have its own personality.  He knew how to bring those personalities to life in service of a story.  Harryhausen directed the film sequences he worked on and was also instrumental in crafting the stories for his films.  Thanks to him, thousands of kids have built model dinosaurs in their basements and spent their summer vacations writing epic tales of fantasy.

Harryhausen has been a personal hero of mine since childhood.  I regret that I never had a chance to meet him.  His amazing body of work will continue to inspire and astound for generations.  If you haven't discovered his films I highly recommend them.  The world is a little less fantastic today.

Female Samurai Armour

In London, on November 6, 2012, Bonhams will be holding a Fine Japanese Art auction.  One of the lots in particular caught my eye.  Lot 292 is a set of armour for a female samurai!  I didn't realize there had been female samurai so I did a little research.

Apparently, samurai is not quite the right title for these women warriors.  They were known as onna-bugeisha.  They were trained with weapons to defend their households and their honour in times of war but many did fight alongside men in battle.

Japanese history records several very significant onna-bugeisha, including Empress Jingu and Tomoe Gozen.  There is plenty to read about these warriors if you're interested in more.

This armour was designed for a small women of less than five feet.  The mask was carved with a moustache and snarling teeth to disguise the fact that the wearer was a woman.  It is made of copper, iron and leather.  It's different from male samurai armour in that it is designed more like kimono so a woman could dress herself, preserving her modesty.  The armour is expected to fetch $30,000-$40,000.

The auction also includes several examples of male samurai armour.  The pieces are beautiful and terrifying!  I wouldn't want to face any of them in battle!

Immortals Costumes at Auction

Premiere Props is holding a Hollywood VIP auction this Saturday July 21 and there are several costumes and props from Tarsem Singh's beautiful Immortals.  Bids can be made online at iCollector.com.  These pieces are obviously the "leavings" from the collection.  There are no spectacular items but some good deals can probably be had.

First, here are two costumes worn by Henry Cavill as Theseus:

Next, costumes worn by Stephen Dorff as Stavros and Alan van Sprang as Dareios:

Here's a memorable piece worn by Freida Pinto as Phaedra:

My favourite of the bunch is this hoplite costume which captures some of the more creative design elements and motifs of the film.

There's also a large selection of prop weapons and prototypes available.

Ted Raimi at Fan Expo 2001

I didn't find Tim Raimi especially friendly or gracious when I met him in 2001.  He waved me up to his table and then proceeded to ignore me and have a five minute conversation with his girlfriend about what she should bring him for lunch!

However, he made up for it during his stage appearance when he invited fans to sing the Ballad of Joxer the Mighty with him (the Illusia version from "The Bitter Suite").

RIP Andy Whitfield

I was sad to learn today that Andy Whitfield has lost his battle with cancer.  He passed away yesterday morning at the age of 39 surrounded by his family in Sydney.

Whitfield was diagnosed with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma 18 months ago.  In the summer of 2010 he completed his treatment and seemed to be doing much better but the cancer returned a few months later.  He battled until the end and will always be remembered as a warrior.

Coming Soon: Conan The Barbarian (2011)

Marcus Nispel's new Conan the Barbarian film is being released on August 19, 2011. It stars Jason Momoa as the titular barbarian.  Over the next month or so I thought I'd write some posts about the original Conan films and maybe some about Red Sonja and Kull the Conqueror as well.  For now, here are some teaser images from the new film.

Momoa is certainly not as huge as Arnold Schwarzenegger was when he played the role but he's still incredibly well-muscled and he looks wild enough to me.

You can view the trailer and some beautiful images on the official website.

On August 2, the original Conan films are coming to blu-ray.  I'm not sure how good they'll look when you can see every little detail.  We'll have to see how much work Fox has done to restore them.  On July 26, the first season of Conan the Adventurer is coming to DVD for the first time.  Robert E. Howard fans are going to have quite a summer!