A Toho
and Hammer co-production, the film was first proposed
back in 1976; however, delays kept pushing it back tell
it ended up being a project for 1978, and was featured in Toho's annual lineup for that year. The project was far enough along that advance
posters were already created as well. Although some reports point
that the film might have still been in production as
late as 1979 before the movie was finally canned.
The cast from the project, as stated on the poster,
are: Bryan Forbes as director, Teruyoshi Nakano as special
effects director, David Frost, Euan Lloyd, Michael Carreras,
and Tomoyuki
Tanaka as producers.
Work on the film had actually already commenced on
Toho's part by the time that the financial backing from
Hammer fell through. Art director Yasuyuki Inoue had already designed and created the Nessie prop
by the time the project was finally axed. Furthermore, a 250 page script had also been created for the concept. This wasn't
the first time a co-production between Toho and a foreign
company resulted in one of the companies pulling out
after production had started though, the first being
the TV version of Varan
in 1958. However, after the rights issues involving
another failed joint venture, Latitude
Zero (1969), following its initial theatrical
release, this project was most likely best deemed left
unfinished.
The project is also sometimes referred to by its longer
title: Nessie: The Loch Ness Monster.
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