One usually associates Rupert Bear with Nutwood, but in this marvelous images from a 1960's annual, here are his pals, pigs, badgers et all, gliding across the surface of a new planet as if they belonged there. And Rupert himself, of course, supervises from his personal UFO. Who else Albert Bestall and his heirs could have made space seem ...
This is a picture of a galaxy which has put its feet up. Dating back to the early days of the universe, it began its career creating stars as fast as it could. And then, for some reason, decided its stellar family was big enough, and stopped. What does that mean for the inhabitants of the stars it did create, billions of years ago? Have they evolved mightily since then? Are they the wise and far-seeing aliens of our dreams? Who knows. But this is what has just been reported about these...
This poster for Brock’s fireworks perfectly conjours up for me the cosy world of my 1950’s northern England childhood. We never actually had a bonfire in our back garden, which was a bit small for that, but we did let fireworks off there, and the Big Bonfire was just across the park from our house. For weeks anticipation grew as we watched the park keepers add autumn leaves, fallen branches, old bedframes, decrepit sofas and all sorts of wonderfully inflammable things to the growing pyramid. Topped of course, by Guy...
Some of the images that find their way into my sculptures, which I’ll upload from time to time as I come across them …...
Absolutely Anything is a comedy I began writing with Monty Python’s Terry Jones many years ago. Terry and I became friends when he directed on of the episodes I wrote for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and we’ve worked on projects on and off ever since. We’ve now got an amazing cast for the movie, including Pythons, Robin Williams, Simon Pegg and Kate Beckinsale, and Terry has asked me to do a daily blog from the set when we start shooting at the end of March – so stay tuned. In...
Every now and then I look at one of the toy figures I’ve collected for my sculptures and a little joke occurs to me, which leads me to take a photo. Here are a few of these whimsical creations ...
When the Santa Monica Airport is finally closed down I propose it should be converted into an urban forest, the asphalt replaced by dense, shady stands of trees of all kinds, threaded by bike paths winding past pools and streams, and little unexpected playgrounds, bandstands and bowers. But I don’t just see this as a place of delight and recreation: I want people to work there too. I’d like those winding paths to lead us to eccentric, charming, tree-house-like buildings where cutting edge companies create new products and ideas which...
Treasure Island Kids was the overall title for three children’s movies I wrote for Daybreak Films about a group of children at a summer camp on an island in the Pacific which turned out to be the place where the events of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island had actually taken place. In The Battle of Treasure Island, the first movie, which I directed, the kids arrive at the ramshackle camp and are not impressed with the facilities or the eccentric old couple running it. So much so that they want to...
One of the delights of working on the adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace as an eight hour mini series was that the director, Robert Dornhelm,is a brilliant cook, so script sessions became long leisurely talks over the best combinations of food and wine imaginable. And because writing the script required me to be in Rome for many weeks, staying at the hotel where Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway had been guests and strolling across the city to the offices of Lux Vide, the production company every day, the hardship...
The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne had a long genesis. I originally wrote a screenplay about Jules Verne and Captain Nemo called "Nemo and Me"; this aroused some interest in the UK, where I was then living, but no sales. The executive of an American company then visiting London asked me to write a second Jules Verne feature which she said her boss would soon be in a position to pay for. I plunged into it, but of course the promised funding never came through. I was, however, able to...
