Cornelius And Zira: Introducing "The Skull"

Sunday, 10 May 2020

Introducing "The Skull"

The Skull, the original version of what was to eventually become Cornelius And Zira, was made in 1975. A complete collection of screenshots will follow soon.

Cast:
Cornelius: David Barclay
Dr Milo: Gary Cook
Dr Zaius: Bernie Drummond (Dave in one or two shots)
General Ursus: Brian Clitherow (Gary in a couple of shots)
Gorilla scout: Bernie Drummond

Written, produced and directed by David Barclay.
Story by Gary Cook.

Makeup by Dave. Costumes by Dave and Gary. Sets constructed (and excavated) by Dave, Brian and Gary. Cinematography by the cast and Dave's dad.

Dr Zaius (Dave)

General Ursus (Gary)

Becoming Milo: this brief film shows the transformation process from human to ape.

This was made on Standard 8mm cine film in 1975 and was unearthed in 2020.

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CORNELIUS AND ZIRA

THE SIXTH OF THE "APES" FILMS - AND THE BEST! In 1977, a group of teenage friends from North London recreated the world of the Planet Of The Apes in a short 8mm film, made on a shoestring budget over the course of the year and featuring home-made makeup, costumes, props and scenery, Helmed by lifelong puppeteer David Barclay, who went on to bigger and better things as a world-famous animation, motion-capture and puppetry professional in such epics as The Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Little Shop Of Horrors and Cats And Dogs among many others, CORNELIUS AND ZIRA forms a bridge between the sci-fi classics BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES and ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES and reveals the untold story of how Cornelius, Dr Zira and Dr Milo fled the imminent destruction of Planet Earth. The main cast comprises David Barclay as curious chimpanzee archaeologist Cornelius and Jackie Lawrence as his wife, animal psychologist Zira, with Gary Cook (your host) as Dr Milo, Ernest Morris as the devious Dr Zaius and Frank Seymour as gorilla soldier Aboro. Produced and directed by David Barclay, who also created the prosthetic makeup in the style of the legendary John Chambers. This blog contains a collection of photos and animated screenshots, some of which you might have seen on my main Apes blog, Archives Of The Apes. Bear in mind that the original movie is on 8mm film, and much of the material presented here is third- or fourth-generation copies, so the quality may sometimes be a bit ropy.

CORNELIUS AND ZIRA