CACHE OF THE TITAN

NEW EXHIBITION OF ITEMS FROM MASTER ANIMATOR AND SPECIAL EFFECTS GENIUS RAY HARRYHAUSEN

- ADAM MAIDMENT

THE ANIMATOR and producer Ray Harryhausen was the 'special effects wizard' behind iconic films from the golden age of cinema like Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.

He has been named by both George Lucas and Peter Jackson as one of their biggest inspirations.

But Ray, who died in 2013 at the age of 92, had lots more projects to his name - and many of them went unrealised, only existing in various sketches, props, concepts and storyboards that have gathered dust since being created.

For the last few years, it has been up to filmmaker John Walsh, who is also the author behind Harryhausen: The Lost Movies, to dust off and sort through the vast collection, which has been hailed as one of the largest animation archives in history aside from the Walt Disney Company.

"He made 16 films but there were a good few he didn't make between each one," John told the Manchester Evening News.

"He was quite resistant about telling me about them, because unmade film projects are not necessarily always something to be shouted about they are often thought of as a personal and a professional failure rather than a treasure trove of unmade wonders." John's connection to Ray was decades-long and began in the late 1980s when he was a student at the London Film School and took an unlikely chance that set their relationship in motion.