Legend Pin-up FRAMED # 2 Tim Curry Satan aka Lord Darkness

Description

Legend is a 1985 British-American fantasy adventure film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry, David Bennent, Alice Playten, Billy Barty, Cork Hubbert, and Annabelle Lanyon. It is a darker fairy tale and has been described as a return to more original, sometimes disturbing, fables, from the oral tradition of ancient times before reading and writing were widespread. Like the 5th century Aesop’s Fables, and before the sanitized versions by Disney and others, traditional folklore contained harsh knowledge and beliefs in prose, proverbs, verse narratives, poems, songs, rituals, riddles, dramas, and myths.

“Once, long ago”, the ancient Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) laments his isolation in the shadows before sensing the presence of two unicorns who safeguard the Power of Light. Darkness instructs Blix and his fellow goblins to kill the unicorns and bring him their horns so he can roam the world freely after it becomes an eternal night of cold darkness. Meanwhile, Princess Lili (Mia Sara) goes alone to the forest to meet her friend Jack (Tom Cruise), a forest dweller who teaches her the languages of animals before showing her the unicorns who have arrived to the forest. Against Jack’s pleas, Lili approaches the stallion before the unicorn is hit by a poisoned dart from Blix’s blowpipe. The unicorns bolt, and Lili makes light of Jack’s fears and sets him a challenge by throwing her ring into a pond, declaring she will marry whoever finds it. But as the stallion dies from the poison with the goblins taking his horn, the pond freezes over with Lili running off in terror before Jack manages to break free.

For inspiration, Ridely Scott read all the classic fairy tales, including ones by the Brothers Grimm. From that, he came up with an idea for a story about a young hermit who is transformed into a hero when he battles the Lord of Darkness in order to rescue a beautiful princess and release the world from a wintery curse.

While Scott was considering Richard O’Brien to play Meg Mucklebones, he watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show and saw Tim Curry. He thought the actor would be ideal to play the Lord of Darkness because the actor had film and theatrical experience. Tim Curry’s make-up as Darkness in ‘Legend’ is one of the most iconic images in all of fantasy cinema.

With the exception of Cruise and Sara, all the principal actors spent hours every morning having extensive makeup applied. Between 8 and 12 prosthetic pieces were applied individually to each face, then made up, molded and grafted into the actor’s face so that the prosthetics moved with their muscles. Each person needed three makeup artists working on them for an average time of three and a half hours spent applying prosthetics. Actor Tim Curry took five and a half hours because his entire body was encased in makeup. Out of all the characters, the most challenging one in terms of makeup was Darkness.

Curry had to wear a large, bull-like structure atop his head with three-foot fiberglass horns supported by a harness underneath the makeup. The horns placed a strain on the back of the actor’s neck because they extended forward and not straight up. Bottin and his crew finally came up with horns that were lightweight enough. At the end of the day, he spent an hour in a bath in order to liquefy the soluble spirit gum. At one point, Curry got too impatient and claustrophobic and pulled the makeup off too quickly, tearing off his own skin in the process. Scott had to shoot around the actor for a week as a result.

Legend received mixed reviews. Steve Biodrowski of Cinefantastique praised the film, highlighting the makeup design by Rob Bottin and Tim Curry’s performance as Darkness, saying that “because of the visuals (and Curry’s performance, which is mostly limited to the last 20 minutes), the film is worth seeing.” Widgett Walls of needcoffee.com also praised the film, once again highlighting on Bottin’s makeup, focusing on the character of Darkness, saying simply that “Tim Curry’s Darkness is absolutely incredible.”

The film was not a commercial success and did not recover its budget. However, it has won a cult following and was recognized for excellence with the British Society of Cinematographers Award for Best Cinematography in 1985, and multiple award nominations: Academy Award for Best Makeup; Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Award for Best Makeup; BAFTA Awards for Best Costume Design, Best Makeup Artist, Best Special Visual Effects; DVD Exclusive Awards; and Young Artist Awards, and since its initial release, has developed an increasing fanbase. In addition, the release of the Director’s Cut in 2002, with the original soundtrack restored, brought renewed attention to the film.

Timothy James “Tim” Curry (born 19 April 1946) is an English actor, singer, composer, and voice artist, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions, often portraying villainous roles or character parts.

Curry first rose to prominence with his portrayal of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, reprising the role he had originated in the 1973 London and 1974 Los Angeles stage productions of The Rocky Horror Show. Curry garnered further acclaim for his film and television roles; as Rooster in the 1982 film adaptation of Annie, as Darkness in the 1985 film Legend, as Wadsworth in the film of the same year Clue, and as Pennywise in the 1990 horror miniseries It. Some more comedic roles include playing Mr. Hector in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island. Other notable stage roles include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the 1980 Broadway production of Amadeus and as King Arthur in Spamalot in 2005.

In 1988, Curry auditioned for the role of Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but he gave a performance that Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Michael Eisner all found overly terrifying. The role was given to Christopher Lloyd.

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