Warlords of Atlantis

Warlords of Atlantis (1978)

An incredible tale of terror and suspense... above and below the sea.

Searching for the lost world of Atlantis, Prof. Aitken, his son Charles and Greg Collinson are betrayed by the crew of their expedition's ship, attracted by the fabulous treasures of Atlantis. The diving bell disabled, a deep sea monster attacks the boat. They are all dragged to the bottom of the sea where they meet the inhabitants of the lost continent, an advanced alien race that makes sailors their slaves.

Date of release
1978-05-01
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (100)
Runtime
1h 36m
Genres
Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Director
Kevin Connor

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $2M
  • Filmed in: Malta and Pinewood Studios

Warlords of Atlantis is a 1978 British adventure horror science fiction film directed by Kevin Connor and starring Doug McClure, Peter Gilmore, Shane Rimmer, and Lea Brodie. The plot describes a trip to the lost world of Atlantis. The screenplay was by Brian Hayles. It was filmed in colour with monophonic sound and English language dialogue, and runs for 96 minutes. It was novelised by Paul Victor.

Production

The film was the fourth action-fantasy collaboration between Kevin Connor, John Dark and Doug McClure. The first three - The Land That Time Forgot, At the Earth's Core and The People That Time Forgot - were made by Amicus Productions, which had since wound up: this movie was made EMI Films, then run by Michael Deeley and Barry Spikings, and Columbia Pictures.

Deeley and Spikings had introduced a system at EMI Films in which they would not make a film unless a US company put up half the budget. Warlords of Atlantis was a part of a slate of six films EMI were making that comprised Death on the Nile with Paramount, Warlords and Arabian Adventure with Columbia, Convoy with United Artists, The Deer Hunter with Universal, and The Driver with Twentieth Century Fox.

Peter Cushing was meant to play a lead role but he was delayed on Star Wars so Daniel Massey played his part. Kevin Connor called the script for Warlords "more intelligent" than others he had made with McClure "because that's what I’m trying to do with this film, put more comment and content into it... to make the audience aware of the folly of mankind in its broadest sense.

Filming started 5 September 1977. Location filming on Malta began on 1 October. A large amount of footage was shot on the island of Gozo. After four weeks in Malta the unit shifted to Pinewood. Filming ended 13 January 1978.

The film was originally known as Atlantis. However it was decided to change the title to avoid confusion with Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961). So the title became 7 Cities of Atlantis. Then the TV series The Man from Atlantis flopped and executives did not want to associate the film with that show, so it became Warlords of the Deep.

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