Wizards of the Lost Kingdom

UCM.ONE releases the film “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom” in HD on the label M-Square Classics as a limited media book with DVD and Blu-Ray together with a 16 page booklet in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This legendary fantasy classic by Roger Corman from the 80s enjoys absolute cult status in movie fan circles!

Synopsis:

After the evil wizard Shurka (Thom Christopher) has killed the king of a forgotten empire and his court magician, the young warrior Simon (Vidal Peterson), who is also well versed in the art of magic, sets out to defeat the powers of evil with the help of a magic ring. For he wants his kingdom, which is now enslaved by three sinister magicians, to be one again. On his adventurous and dangerous journey he meets the forest wizard Hurla, the good-natured monster Gulvak and the veteran fighter Kor (Bo Svenson). They join him to defeat the forces of evil together…

The first edited version of the film was only 58 minutes long, but Roger Corman wouldn’t be Corman if he hadn’t skilfully incorporated elements from his other fantasy films to ultimately reach the 79-minute cinema length.

About director Héctor Olivera:

The Argentinian author, director and producer Héctor Olivera – born on 05 April 1931 – made his first steps in the film industry at the age of 17 as second assistant director. At the age of 25 he founded his own production company, Aries Cinematográfica Argentina, one of the last Argentine film studios still producing today, and from then on he appeared primarily as a film producer.

In 1968 he made his directing debut with “Psexonálisis. 26 movies followed, some were praised by the critics for their clear political messages, but others were slated because of their commerciality and cheap execution. One of the most outstanding films of his career is “Funny Dirty Little War” from 1983, which won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 1983 and the Grand Prix at the Cognac Festival du Film Policier in 1985. The success of “Funny Dirty Little War” brought him into contact with Roger Corman, for whom he made five films, the first three in 1985: “Barbarian Queen“, a barbarian flick set in ancient Rome, followed by “American Scorpion“, an action-heavy drug thriller with John Schneider as DEA agent, and last but not least “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom“, another trip into the fantasy genre. 

With “La Noche de los Lápices” he interrupted his work for Corman for a short time in 1986 and delivered a relentless criticism of the regime in Argentina. In 1989 he resumed his collaboration with Corman and turned to more commercial films with “Two to Tango” and “Play Murder for me” (1990). With “El caso maría soldedad” (1993) and “Una sombra yapronto serás”(1994) his career as a feature film director gradually came to an end. Between 1994 and 1998 he shot a total of 81 episodes for three Argentinean TV series: “Nueve Iunas“, “De poeta y de loco” and “Laura y Zoe“. At the beginning of the 2000s he once again took the directing chair for three films: ANTIGUA VIDA MÍA was made in 2001, AY JUANCITO, for which he won the “Best Director” award at the Cairo International Film Festival, is from 2004, and his last film so far, EL MURAL, was made in 2010.

About Roger Coman:

Roger William Corman was born on 5 April 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. After his studies at Stanford University and his service in the navy Corman ventured briefly into the film world as a messenger for the production company 20th Century Fox. He then studied English literature at Oxford, but soon returned to Hollywood, where he began working as a literary agent. In 1953 he produced his first movie “Highway Dragnet“. Two years later he made his debut as a director with two western films.

In the following years Corman mainly worked as a director for the film production company AIP of Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson. He has made films in various genres such as western, gangster and horror  as well as science fiction films for young audiences. In addition, he developed new genres such as rocker and rock’n’roll films, which appealed to young people with their rebellious themes. With his rocker film “The Wild Angels” from 1966 Corman already anticipated the legendary “Easy Rider” (1969) by Dennis Hopper. In the 60’s Corman also became famous for a whole series of film adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s literature whose basic ideas he tried to incorporate into horror movies.

Original title: Wizards of the Lost Kingdom

Director: Héctor Olivera

Screenbook: Ed Naha

Actors & actresses: Bo Svenson, Vidal Peterson, Thom Christopher, Barbara Stock, Maria Socas, Dolores Michaels, Edgardo Moreira, Augusto Larreta, Marcos Woinsky, Marina Magali, Norton Freeman, Arch Gallo, Mark Peters, Rick Gallo, Patrick Duggan, Art Tass Art Tass, arl Fountain, Ernie Smith, Nick Cordm Carl Garcia, Hellen Grant, J.C. Topper, Richard Paley, Daniel Ripari

Producers: Frank K. Isaac, Alejandro Sessa

Executive producer: Roger Corman

Cinematography: Leonardo Rodríguez Solís

Technique & Cameras: Miguel Amengual, Juan José Fabio, Oscar González, Ever Latour, Hans Ritter

Sound: Pedro Marra, Jorge Stavropulos

Editing: Silvia Ripoll

Special effects: Ricardo Lanzoni

Stunts: Arturo Noal, Daniel Ripari

Costumes: Beatriz Quiroga, Gloria Van Hartenstein, Jill Osmon Modabber

Casting: Stan Shaffer

Music: James Horner

 

Production company: Trinity Productions

Year of production: 1985

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Countries: Argentinien, USA

Language: Englich

Synchronisation: German

 

Lenght: 79 Min

Rating: FSK 12

Aspect ratio: 1.77:1

Sound: Mono

Resolution: HD

Other titles:

English: Wizard Wars (Working title)

German: Der Zauberring

French: Les magiciens du royaume perdu

Spanish: Los hechiceros del reino perdido

Italian: L’anello incantato

Russian: Волшебники Забытого королевства

Start USA: October 1985

Start Germany: May 1986

Mediabook-Start (Blu-Ray & DVD) Germany: November 29, 2019

VoD-Start Germany: November 29, 2019

In the year 1970 Roger Corman created with “von Richthofen and Brown” his last directing work for two decades. With his production company New World Pictures, which in 1983 was rebranded under the name Concorde – New Horizons Corp., he appeared exclusively as a film producer. He created movies like 1972 “Boxcar Bertha” by Martin Scorsese, 1975 “Capone” by Steve Carver or 1978 “Piranha” by Joe Dante. In the year 1990 he returned to the director’s chair for a short stint with “Frankenstein Unbound“. After that he continued his activity as a producer to realize such successful movies as the “Death Race“-series. Altogether Corman produced more than 200 movies.

Among the movies in which he appeared himself are the thriller “Silence of the Lambs” (1990), the social drama “Philadelphia” (1993) or “The Manchurian Candidate” (2004). In 1998 he was honoured with the first award for a producer at the Cannes film festival and in 2010 he received the Honorary Oscar Award for his life’s achievements. Roger Corman is married to Julie Ann Halloran with whom he has four children. 

About Bo Svenson:

Bo Svenson was born on 13 February 1941 in Gothenburg, Sweden, as the son of the singer Lola Iris Viola and the royal bodyguard Birger Ragnar Svenson. At the age of 17 he emigrated to the USA, where he enrolled in the US Marine Corps for six years until his honorable discharge. The beginning of his remarkable acting career was marked in 1965 by the popular familyTV-series “Flipper“. Until the beginning of the 1970s television remained his home and especially in the adventure series “Here comes the Bride” he often appeared as “The Big Swede“. In 1975 he finally took over his first big role and replaced Joe Don Baker in the sequel and the TV series of the successful movie “Walking Tall“. One year later followed one of his probably best known roles as Michael McBain in Bob Clark‘s “Breaking Point“, which led to further role offers for film and television. Especially worth mentioning is his role in Enzo Castellari‘s “The Inglorious Bastards” from 1978, one of Quentin Tarantino‘s favorite movies. Tarantino‘s Inglorious Basterds from 2009 may not be a remake of Castellaris’ classic, but it does refer to it; including a cameo by Svenson as an American colonel.

With a size of 1,97m Svenson was cast primarily as the Northern or Eastern European bad guy, for instance as the Russian agent Ivan in an episode of the TV series “Magnum” (1982). Svenson continued his career with various TV and film roles and was not limited to any specific genre. In 1984 he played the law enforcer in “Man Hunt“, took the sword as a clever warrior Kor in Héctor Oliveras fantasy movie “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom” (1985) and stood in front of the camera in “Delta Force“(1986) alongside Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin. His ambition in sports, including as a judoka at the World Championship, gave him a good positioning as an action actor, and he was also successful in other sports such as ice hockey and car racing. In 1985 he was appointed to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is still a member today. In the mid-1990s he tried his hand at directing and in the early 2000s as a screenwriter, but it is still his work in front of the camera, with 127 film and television roles alongside over 100 Oscar winners and nominees, that has established him as a multi-faceted actor. Important film awards and outstanding leading roles have been denied him to date, but Svenson himself says about his work as an actor:

“I never cared about who played the lead role, who was the second banana, or where I stood. Was I banana number five? Anyway, I had a lot of fun! My career was never very important to me, it was all about life!”

Swords, Wizards, Barbarians – Fantasy Cult of the 1980s

In 1982, a genre emerged that would flood the cinema screens with pure testosterone for a decade and well into the 1990s: The Barbarian Film. Probably the best-known representative of the genre is “Conan the Barbarian” from 1982, which marked Arnold Schwarzenegger’s breakthrough in the film industry, was continued two years later and was remade in 2011. And after Arnold Schwarzenegger took the sword of the god Krom to oppose the evil snake cult with thief Subotai and warrior Valeria, dozens of wild men and women, mostly scantily clothed, conquered the cinema screens and TVs. The dazzling trashy low-fantasy pearls of the 1980s gave testosterone fans (master-) works such as “Ator – The Fighting Eagle” (1982), “Red Sonja” (1985) or “The Barbarians” (1987).

Roger Corman also contributed his part and in 1985 handed over the directing assignment for “Barbarian Queen” to Héctor Olivera. Here Lana Clarkson as Barbarian Amethea stirred up ancient Rome. This was followed by “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom“, in which Bo Svenson and Vidal Peterson performed in the leading roles. In the film the young Simon sets out to gain a ring of power and defeat an evil magician. Even though the film is little appreciated today and is regarded by some as one of the worst representatives of the genre, it was considered at the time to be a slight improvement on Roger Corman‘s barbarian films.

Wizards of the Lost Kingdom | Trailer (German)

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Comments

“Wizards of the Lost Kingdom is an absolute stroke of genius from Roger Corman.” (neon-zombie.net)

“This movie is probably one of the most amusing Corman movies of the ’80s.” (Craneshot)

“Trash, however, is a one-eyed blind man: The obscure plot doesn’t take itself very seriously and offers variety and action with its episodic structure.” (Wilsonsdachboden.com)

“Corman shows himself to be a master of recycling. So he uses scenes from “Deathstalker II – The Death Hunter” and “Powers of Light” to spice up this famous fantasy bullshit.” (thevideovacuum.blogspot.com)

“Wizards of the Lost Kingdom is definitely entertaining.” (ofdb.de/review)

“Trash at its best, like experiencing “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” on a very bad trip.” (somethingawful.com)

Equipment and technical data of the media book

Movie in the original long cinema version, 16-page booklet | Picture format: DVD WS 1.78:1 (anamorphic); Blu-Ray WS 1.78:1 / 1080p 23,976 | Total running time Blu-Ray 79 Min, DVD 75 Min | Sound format: DVD Deutsch DD 2.0, English DD 2.0; Blu-Ray: Deutsch DTS- HD Master Audio 2.0, English DTS- HD Master Audio 2.0 | FSK 16

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