DUNE – 1984
(Only printed in Europe)
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Airport ’79: The Concorde
Berkey’s art was only used for the program book, not the poster….
The prelim art:
Berkey’s 2nd prelim:
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When Worlds Collide – 1977
“OOPS”: Notice that the spaceship is heading towards the Earth, when it is supposed to be heading away from the Earth! Back in the 1990’s when Michael Friedlander was preparing his PAINTED SPACE art book he asked John “why” the spaceship was facing the wrong way — John told him that it was what the studio wanted him to do!
Below: I clipped this movie ad from the newspapers back there in 1980, this had to be done by Berkey! I’ve never seen it printed anywhere else….
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ORCA 1977
John Berkey’s ORCA prelim sold on eBay for $616 in October 2010…
Below: My ORCA 3D cutout movie program book…
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The Lift – 1985
This was Berkey’s finished comp for the lobby poster for the 1985 Sigma/Warner Bros horror movie for the European/UK market — (printed in Jane Frank’s Catalog #24) — I’ve never found a copy of the printed poster.
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Berkey’s 1979 BLACK STALLION
“The paintings I created for films have been the most widely used. I have done work for about forty different films and no two projects were alike. Some were begun after reading a script while others had still or pre-production artwork provided. I remember doing a movie that involved a horse as a main character. They wouldn’t tell me anything about the horse other than it was black. The scene was described as water, a ship on fire, and a boy clinging to a horse. The idea behind not providing me with information on the horse was that I could come up with a more heroic horse if I had not seen the real one. Although the painting was used, I never saw it in print. I worked on many movies from sketches to finished paintings where the work was not used. I fell fortunate to have painted posters for a few big movies and whether a piece was used or not, there was always an appreciation of the artistic effort.” John Berkey, 1991
Another artist re-painted this scene…
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Raising the Titanic – 1980
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Berkey’s 1983 SUPERMAN III
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Star Trek – 1979
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Berkey’s 1979 METEOR movie poster
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The Towering Inferno – 1974
ABOVE: Berkey’s art for the 1975/76 book The Glass Inferno — this was in ILLUSTRATORS 17 — (I have yet to find a copy of this pocketbook!)
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The Neptune Factor – 1973
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King Kong – 1976
Berkey’s Original Kong Art is up for auction on www.ha.com !!!
The head of Kong as Berkey painted him:
The 1st version of Kong on the Twin Towers:
BELOW: With the foreground building included!
Berkey posing Kong’s hand & arm:
A really nice resin model of Kong is for sale on eBay:
Here it is after it’s put together and painted:
BELOW: Berkey’s King Kong in the November 1976 PLAYBOY magazine:
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Jurassic Park Prelims
Jane Frank sold this Jurassic Park Prelim for $182.50 on eBay in April 2011
John Berkey’s other JURASSIC PARK Prelim
Unfortunately there never was a John Berkey JURASSIC PARK movie poster….
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(More to Come)