War Eagles

King Kong is probably my favorite movie of all time. This book makes me think that, if War Eagles had been made, it might have eclipsed Kong. An engrossing 'what-if' story, this includes everything you wanted to know about a movie that never happened - a lost valley full of ape-men, allosaurs, vikings on flying eagles, and a Nazi-analogue of a SHIELD Helicarrier-precurser all fighting in a battle over the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Production notes, stills, sketches, this book has everything. Highly recommended for fans of stop-motion animation, the old pulps, King Kong, and film history.

This book is of extreme interest because it collects the existing information on the greatest film NEVER made, WAR EAGLES, which was being made by the team that brought KING KONG to life. As a lifelong fan of visual effects pioneer Willis O'Brien, it was a treat to see the script versions, production illustrations, OBie's vfx solutions, and especially a selection of frames from the test reel that was produced of giant eagles with their riders fighting a ferocious allosaurus in a Lost Land... The research, enhanced by the national treasure known as Bob Burns, is well-presented and it makes for an enjoyable read. There are, however, two things to be aware of. There is a paperback edition of this book that doesn't include the four color images, but only two of them, so be sure to get the hardbound. The color frame blow-ups are printed on the outside back cover in both editions, where they can be damaged during shipping/handling; I had scratches thru mine.I was hugely annoyed with Amazon that in listing these books, it seemed like they were entirely different, so I bought BOTH; turns out they are virtually identical. HOWEVER, if I hadn't, I wouldn't have gotten the more complete version (the hardbound). My only complaint is that the paper quality of both editions is wretched. Reproductions of printed pages are almost illegible. And much worse, the photo reproductions - arguably the #1 reason I was buying the books - are ghastly and sub-par to such an extent if I had seen these in a bookstore, I would have probably not bought either.

War Eagles has been a legendary film since at least since the early days of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine in the 60s. Through the years, in various books and magazines, I've encountered fragments of this unmade 1939 Technicolor epic -- a few stills, some intriguing drawings, and a few animation models sold once in an auction. I had a vague idea of the film's plot and some of the special effects that would have appeared in it, including Willis O'Brien dinosaurs like the ones in King Kong. I was intrigued enough by the promise of a book that collected all those fragments into one place to order a copy. Even if I'd had no interest in the film though, I would have found this story entertaining. Conover's book is a superb study in the forensics of modern cultural archaeology. It's also a brilliant account of how a film that could have been one of the greatest fantasies ever filmed didn't get made. The script and notes provide a vivid idea of what the movie would have looked like too. Lots of wonderful illustrations though I would have happily paid more to have the paintings reproduced in color. Some of the most intriguing things about Conover's quest are the pieces that are still missing, most notably the reel of test footage that was shot early in the film's planning. Fascinating in many ways, War Eagles would be good reading for anyone interested in Hollywood history.

This is the most complete on the information on the history of the greatest almost made movie! It even has the complete script of the final script before the project was halted. I'd make it today as a parallel world story like "Sky Captain" which I loved.

Fascinating, lavishly illustrated account of a project that I wish some enterprising filmmaker would still try to realize!

Great volume on a sadly never produced movie. But EVERYTHING is here to create the movie in your mind.

A good way to re discover the wonder of yesterday’s cinema.

On the surface, 'War Eagles' documents the strange fate of "the greatest movie NEVER made" -- Willis O'Brien's followup to 'King Kong', destined to overshadow that film so completely as to make Kong a minor footnote in cinematic history. "Obie" envisioned a lost world of Viking warriors, soaring astride monstrous eagles, who swoop to our rescue when NYC is invaded by enemy dirigibles, culminating in the greatest aerial melee ever imagined by man. But America's fear of drawing the gaze of pre-war Nazi Germany was so great that the studio shut it down and obfuscated any trace of the film before major production could begin.But that's only what the book is ABOUT. What this book IS is an adventure tale. The hero is author David Conover: artist, writer and self-described movie-obsessive who walked away from his job and, with the full support of his wife, dedicated years of his life to finding the lost traces of 'War Eagles'. Along the way we meet the scant few surving men who lived the tale, their memories now faltering; unearth literal scraps of paper and celluloid secretly in the hands of today's master filmmakers; and best a few seemingly jealous and evil protectors of arcane knowledge, bent on keeping the past buried. It is a saga that would make Indiana Jones proud.I highly recommend this book to anyone who grew up in the Monster Culture age. If you ever built a model of Frankenstein, or when trick-or-treating as the Wolfman, or sat in wonder and terror as Kong tears through his chains, you will enjoy this book and feel that great sense of loss that the author does in 'War Eagles' demise.