Krull is a 1983 British science-fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Yates and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It stars Ken Marshall, Lysette Anthony, Freddie Jones, Francesca Annis, David Battley and Alun Armstrong. Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane, still early in their film careers, appear in supporting roles. The story follows Prince Colwyn (Marshall) and a fellowship of companions who set out to rescue his bride, Princess Lyssa (Anthony), from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet.
Development on the film began in 1980, when Columbia Pictures President Frank Price gave producer Ron Silverman the idea to produce a fantasy film. Krull was shot in England at Pinewood Studios and on-location in Italy and Spain. Nick Maley designed the creature and prosthetic makeup effects seen in the film. The film score was composed by James Horner and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
Krull was released in the United States on 29 July 1983, and in the United Kingdom later that December. The film was a box-office bomb upon release, and critical opinion has been mixed, both upon release and in retrospect. Reviewers have highlighted its visual effects and soundtrack, while others have criticized its plot as being derivative and nonsensical. However, in the years since its release, the film has developed a cult following.
Plot
The entity known as the Beast and his army of Slayers travel the galaxy in a mountain-like spaceship called the Black Fortress, intent on enslaving the planet Krull, as he has done to many other worlds. Ynyr recites the prophecy that was given for him to know:
Prince Colwyn and Princess Lyssa plan to marry in the hope that their two kingdoms' combined forces can defeat the Beast's army. However, the Slayers attack before the wedding is completed, devastating the native Krull armies, wounding Colwyn, and kidnapping Lyssa.
Colwyn is nursed back to health by Ynyr, the Old One. Ynyr tells Colwyn that the Beast can be defeated with the Glaive, an ancient, magical, five-pointed weapon resembling a large throwing star with retractable blades. Colwyn retrieves the Glaive from a mountain cave, and sets out to find the Black Fortress, which teleports to a new location every sunrise. As they travel, Colwyn and Ynyr are joined by the magician Ergo "the Magnificent" and a band of nine thieves and fighters — Torquil, Kegan, Rhun, Oswyn, Bardolph, Menno, Darro, Nennog, and Quain. The cyclops Rell later joins the group.
Colwyn's group travels to the home of the Emerald Seer and his apprentice, Titch. The Emerald Seer uses a crystal to view where the Fortress will teleport next, but the Beast remotely crushes the crystal with magic. The group travels to a swamp that the Beast's magic cannot penetrate, but Darro is lost to a Slayer attack, and Menno to quicksand. A changeling agent of the Beast kills the Emerald Seer and assumes its victim's form, but the agent is discovered and killed by Rell and Colwyn.
Another changeling is instructed by the Beast to seduce Colwyn. This is meant to convince Lyssa that Colwyn does not love her. However, he rejects the changeling's advances, and Lyssa – witnessing this through a vision provided by the Beast — affirms that love triumphs over might. The Beast, though, forces her to consider marrying him so that he will halt the Slayers' attacks.
Ynyr leaves the group to seek the Widow of the Web, an enchantress who loved Ynyr long ago and was exiled to the lair of the Crystal Spider for murdering their only child. The Widow reveals where the Black Fortress will be at sunrise. She also gives Ynyr the sand of an enchanted hourglass to keep the Crystal Spider at bay and the injured Ynyr alive. As the Crystal Spider attacks the Widow, Ynyr returns to the group to reveal the location of the Black Fortress. As he speaks, he loses the last of the sand and dies.
The group captures and rides magical Fire Mares to reach the Black Fortress. The Slayers at the Fortress kill Rhun, while Rell sacrifices himself to hold open the crushing spaceship doors long enough to allow the others to enter. Quain, Nennog, and Kegan are killed as they make their way through the fortress. Ergo transforms into a tiger to save Titch from a Slayers' attack. Colwyn, Torquil, Bardolph, and Oswyn are trapped inside a large dome. The latter three fall through an opening and are trapped between walls studded with huge spikes, which kill Bardolph.
Colwyn breaches the dome and finds Lyssa. He attacks the Beast with the Glaive, which becomes embedded in the Beast's body. With nothing to defend themselves, Lyssa and Colwyn quickly finish their wedding ritual. This gives them the power to manipulate fire, with which Colwyn slays the Beast. The Beast's death frees Torquil and Oswyn, and they rejoin Colwyn, Lyssa, Ergo and Titch. The survivors make their way out of the crumbling fortress, which is pulled into space.
As the heroes return home, Ynyr repeats the prophecy that the son of the queen and king shall rule the galaxy.
Cast
Production Development and writing
In 1980, Columbia Pictures president Frank Price asked producer Ron Silverman to create a fantasy film inspired by Dungeons and Dragons Silverman stated, "Frank Price said to us 'how would you like to do a movie based on Dungeons and Dragons?'" Silverman agreed to do so and hired Stanford Sherman to work on the screenplay. Sherman wrote the "bare bones" of the plot and Columbia quickly approved it. While the essence of the plot was never altered during development and production, the first draft of the film was titled The Dragons of Krull, where the Beast was initially planned to be a dragon; however, the creators changed the Beast to a more "reptilian" creature for the final film, leading to the final title Krull. Also a monstrous snake woman was cut because of similarities with Medusa in Clash of the Titans, which had been released just a couple of years earlier.
Steve Tesich was brought in to write a "second version" of the script. Tesich's version of the screenplay was discarded as dialogue-heavy and lacking in special effects, so the first script was used and re-edited instead. There was one point in the writing process where it was planned that Lyssa would turn into the antagonist near the end of the story, but this was not part of the final screenplay, given that the production team didn't want her to be "less than pure". Lysette Anthony, the actress who played Lyssa, explained that she "thought that was a little boring".
After the first draft was finished, the writing and production team considered Peter Yates to direct the film. Two months after they asked him to join the project and after he finished directing Eyewitness (1981), Yates read the screenplay of The Dragons of Krull. He was "intrigued" with what he read and accepted the position of directing the film as a "challenge". He reasoned in a 1983 interview that Krull would be one of those rare films that "can take full advantage of today's special effects techniques" and would differ from his more realistic previous works in that he would have to make the movie entirely based on his imagination. The film was in a year of pre-production, which involved Sherman editing the script, Yates creating storyboards, Stephen B. Grimes and Derek Meddings coming up with set concepts, and Ken Marshall and Anthony being cast as Colwyn and Lyssa, respectively. Because the expensive sets had already been built and were based on the screenplay by Steve Tesich, Sherman had to adapt his original script to fit the sets.
Filming Yates described making Krull as "complicated" and "just so enormous". Special effects artist Brian Johnson stated in a 2009 interview that Yates hated working on the film so much that in the middle of shooting, he took a vacation to the Caribbean, which led to the special effects artists taking a three-week break from the project.Debord, Jason (23 April 2009). "Interview With Brian Johnson, Special Effects Artist (Special to the OPB)". Original Prop. Retrieved 27 August 2017. The production was initially arranged to be shot at several locations because Krull was first planned as a medieval-style motion picture. As it went through multiple drafts, the screenplay transformed into entirely fantasy, which meant most of the film would be shot on sound stages, and only a minority of the sequences would be filmed in actual locations in Italy, Spain, and England for only a few weeks. A total of 23 huge sets were built and the film was shot at more than ten sound stages at Pinewood Studios. Krull was an expensive film to produce, with a budget of $30 million. Marshall and Meddings reasoned that the huge budget was due to several changes of concepts in the script that led the designers to have to repeatedly alter the designs of the sets.
Filming began on 25 January 1983. The first sequence shot was the scene where Ynyr (Freddie Jones) climbs a huge spider web in order to confront the Widow of the Web. Jones did not use any safety wires because the wires would have been visible. Stop-motion animator Steve Archer spent two weeks creating the first model of the spider in the scene, which was later changed. The spider was made of plexiglass, with solid legs and a hollow abdomen, and eight black eyes made of plastic.CineFex Magazine 1983, No.011-014
Yates's direction of the action scenes that take place at the beginning of Krull was inspired by swashbuckler films such as Captain Blood (1935).Nathan, Ian (10 October 2015). "Krull review". Empire. Bauer Media Group. Retrieved 28 August 2017. However, he wanted to figure out new weapons that gave the scenes a unique swashbuckling feel. Marshall practiced his moves for the sequences a week before filming began. However, by the time shooting of these scenes started, the costumes for the Slayers were recently finished, so much of the fight choreography was altered at the last minute based on the limitations of the costumes.
Pinewood's 007 Stage, one of the largest sound stages in the world, was used for the swamp scene, wherein the Slayers and several changelings encounter Colwyn and his group. Yates described the swamp set as "quite nasty ... we always had people bumping into things." It was filmed during what Marshall described as a "very harsh winter", and the set was too big to be entirely heated, leading to the actors feeling cold and exhausted. The crew members had a hard time seeing through the mist, which led to them accidentally getting into water that consisted of "cork chips".
Rehearsing the scene where Colwyn and his group are being chased by the Slayers in the Black Fortress involved stuntmen taking the part of Colwyn so that Marshall could conserve energy for filming. The scene involved Colwyn and his men encountering a corridor where the floor opened underneath them via two set pieces "the size of a small house" that were powered by liquid and broke apart before quickly slamming back together. Marshall explained that doing the sequence gave him nightmares after it was completed. When shooting of the scene began, Marshall took more time to say his lines than the production crew expected, leading to him not making it from the tunnel in the first take. Only one crew member noticed this and was able to stop the machines controlling the pieces, but Marshall "knew that if the machine didn't stop in five seconds, [he] would be dead". Another take of the sequence was shot the next day with Yates instructing that the speed of the machine be slower. However, Marshall insisted on the machine being sped up and, in the final take, was successful in getting away from the set pieces. Marshall explained, "I had no feeling in my heel for months afterward. It was really hard doing stunts afterwards, too."
Special effects