The Beastmaster

The Beastmaster (1982)

Born with the courage of an eagle, the strength of a black tiger, and the power of a god.

Dar, the son of a king, is hunted by a priest after his birth and grows up in another family. When he becomes a grown man, his new father is murdered by savages and he discovers that he has the ability to communicate with animals, which leads him on a quest for revenge against his father's killers.

Date of release
1982-08-16
TMDB
6.3 / 10 (487)
Runtime
1h 58m
Genres
Fantasy, Adventure, Action
Director
Don Coscarelli
Collection
The Beastmaster Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $14.1M
  • Budget: $9M
  • Earned 1.6× its budget
  • Based on: The Beast Master

The Beastmaster is a 1982 sword and sorcery film directed by Don Coscarelli and starring Marc Singer, Tanya Roberts, John Amos and Rip Torn. Very loosely based on the 1959 science fiction novel The Beast Master by Alice "Andre" Norton, the film is about a man who can communicate with animals, who fights an evil wizard and his army.

Production

Beastmaster began with a screenplay in the early 1980s written by Paul Pepperman and Don Coscarelli. The two writers based their film on Andre Norton's 1959 novel The Beast Master. The writers changed the story dramatically as the original novel had the hero named Hosteen Storm who was a veteran soldier of Navajo descent in a futuristic science fiction setting.

Coscarelli was frustrated while making the film, during which he feuded with the film's executive producer predominantly over the film's editing and casting. Coscarelli originally wanted Demi Moore for the role of Kiri, but the executive producer overrode his choice and had Tanya Roberts cast. The role of Maax was originally written for Klaus Kinski, but he was not cast over a salary dispute.

The black "panther" was actually played by a tiger, which they dyed black since tigers are easier to handle for filming. During production, the tiger wasn't allowed to be on set at the same time as children or other animals, since it might harm them.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended