Friday, November 25, 2011

'Creature from the Black Lagoon' remake-inspired concept


The original idea for 'the Creature from the Black Lagoon' actually came from Amazonian legend. In the 40's, Producer william Allen overheard cinematographer Gabriele Figeroa (who shot 'the Pearl' and 'night of the Iguana' for John Huston, amongst others) telling the tale of a half-fish, half-man during a dinner party at Orson Well's home. Figeroa actually claimed that he had SEEN the creature and could produce a photo of it. During my research of Amazonian wildlife, I found that the legend also matches the Amazonian River Dolphin, a pinkish, almost human-like creature, and that the local tribes believe that it is a Shapeshifter. Unlike many of the other 'Gill Man' that I've seen, I wanted to approach it from a different angle, and try to make my Creature more like a Neanderthal man, and make him look more like one of the local tribespeople, but with subtle fish properties.
Back in the 80's, John Carpenter was attached to do a remake (and after his treatment on 'the THING', I was a lot more than excited to hear this..), and this is kinda what inspired this design. In reality, it would never fly...it's just too far from the original film version and would probably piss people off..heh, So I did it on my own, for kicks, and this is the only place you will ever probably see it. Enjoy.

P.S. hope you all had a good Thanksgiving