SECTION R ᔢ OBITUARIES, R5 ᔢ PASTIMES, R6 Inside Outside THE PAGES OF REVIEW ACROSS THE COUNTRY

John Doyle channel surfs the Event: The Calgary International Chil- election coverage and picks dren’s Festival, featuring 88 theatri- cal and musical performances from the early front runner, R2 around the world, begins today. Quentin Tarantino defends Theatre: Montreal’s Théâtres du Monde festival continues with Lars giving Fahrenheit 9/11 Norén’s Guerre, a story of a family top Cannes prize, R3 destroyed by a modern conflict.

DVD: Steven Spielberg’s Saving Pri- The pub where Oliver Reed vate Ryan returns to shelves in a new drank himself to death has two-disc edition in commemoration become a shrine, R3 of the 60th anniversary of D-Day.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL ᔢ CANADA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ᔢ GLOBEANDMAIL.COM ᔢ TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2004 He’s the millionaire scribe

Hari Kunzru raised eyebrows with his huge advances. Will his second novel place him in the pantheon of great authors?

BY NICK RYAN, LONDON onto the literary scene two years ago with an audacious debut novel, t is a quiet street. The house is The Impressionist. The comic tale of large, but not immodestly so. an Anglo-Indian boy constantly Like its new owner, it is in many swapping identities, it placed his Iways easy to miss. literary credentials firmly on the The door opens, the shaven head map. It was shortlisted for the Whit- behind it tilts pensively. The eyes bread Prize and Guardian First are recessed within brown sockets, Book Award as a result. In 2003, giving the impression of deep Kunzru was listed as one of Granta thought. The face is long. Then he magazine’s Best of Young British laughs and the youthful Hari Kunz- Novelists. ru emerges from the perma-cool Yet, it was less the character of exterior. “Come on in,” he beckons, Pran and his exploits, more the ru- turning his back on London’s East moured advance that had the liter- End behind us. ary world agog and that initially Pots of paint, boxes, scattered guaranteed so many column pieces of art give little clue to an oc- inches. (The Impressionist is in fact cupation. a sublime first novel, marred only “I’ve only been here a week and a by — a deliberate, Kunzru says — half,” Kunzru offers by way of ex- emptiness in its protagonist.) Had planation. “Just moved.” There is a the publishing world gone mad? characteristic laconic drawl, an ev- Could publishers ever recoup such er so slight nasal twang to his voice. vast figures? Kunzru is reported to He is fond of saying “urrr . . .” as he have said “Oh . . . my . . . god . . .” pauses for thought. when told of the deal by his agent as Friend to luminous contempor- he was sitting in a London café. Pri- aries such as Zadie Smith (White or to this a struggling freelance Teeth), Monica Ali (Brick Lane) and journalist, he was used to filling out Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work tax-exemption status because of of Staggering Genius), books have his low earnings. brought Hari Kunzru upward mo- Now the second book, Transmis- bility: £1.25-million ($3.07-million) sion, is coming out on June 3. Nay- of it, if the stories of his two-book sayers should be assuaged. JASON BELL/CAMERA PRESS advance are true. Newly minted millionaire Hari Kunzru still lives in East End London: ‘I don’t require meditative concentration 24 hours a day.’ Kunzru was the man who burst See KUNZRU on page R5

let’s not forget that he never had a 10th or even a 30th of his more fa- mous protégés’ budgets during his Ray, Fay Wray and destiny heyday. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms cost all of $200,000, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad around $600,000. In fact, virtually all the Ray Harryhausen saw the movie King Kong when he was only 13, conceits you see in a Harryhausen film were done by the man himself and it had a very special effect on him, JAMES ADAMS writes (“Now you see films where they’re crediting 80 persons with special kay, so maybe it doesn’t rank invited the press along. There she reasons: First, he “hadn’t seen her effects”). And while it may have tak- with King Henry’s chat with was, the Queen of Scream, back at for a good many years;” Second, en weeks or months to prepare the OPope Gregory at Canossa in the skyscraper that made her fa- he’s just published a five-year la- effects for one scene in a Harryhau- 1077 or the Elizabeth Taylor-Rich- mous in 1933, when she played the bour of love, a huge, colour-packed sen picture, when it came time to ard Burton hookup in Rome in reluctant girlfriend of the besotted, hardcover of his life and art retail- shoot that scene, “90 per cent of the 1962. Still, Ray Harryhausen’s doomed giant ape King Kong. ing for $50 in the U.S. and a hefty time it was done in the first take be- meeting with Fay Wray at New There he was, the dapper, courtly $75 in Canada. Units, in other cause the money was so tight.” York’s Empire State Building a cou- chap who saw Wray in King Kong at words, must be moved, just as Kong Harryhausen got out of the movie ple of weeks ago had to have been Grauman’s Chinese Theatre when moved up the 102 storeys of the business in 1981, after his biggest- pretty cool. he was an impressionable 13-year- Empire State Building with a hys- budget movie ever, a $16-million Admittedly, the sparks probably old and decided then and there to terical Fay Wray in his sweaty paw. JOHN MORSTAD/ THE GLOBE AND MAIL romp through Greek mythology didn’t fly. The Alberta-born Wray, dedicate his life to making special Even if you don’t know of Harry- Harryhausen: Spielberg, Cameron and Lucas never forgot his films. called Clash of the Titans, featuring after all, is a frail 97 this year, while effects for the movies. hausen, you know his work — or at Harry Hamlin, Laurence Olivier Harryhausen, who moved to Lon- Or, as he put it during a stopover least the impact of his work. Most of Jason and the Argonauts, The Valley split-screen techniques in Star and Maggie Smith (“The actors got don from Los Angeles 40 years ago, in Toronto a few days after his Wray today’s film buffs have probably of Gwangi. But some of those who Wars, Close Encounters of the Third most of the budget”), suffered a is a touch more spry at 84. None- reunion, “It struck a chord in me never seen the 15 or so movies for did, people with names like Spiel- Kind and The Terminator. drubbing at the box-office and theless, they knew they were mak- that I could not get out of my which Harryhausen did the special berg, Cameron and Lucas, never If, in today’s computer-generat- from critics. “I just couldn’t sustain ing a bit of B-movie history by hav- mind.” effects — films like 1952’s The Beast forgot them, and later went on to ed imagery (CGI) era, some of Har- my enthusiasm any more,” he said. ing a date of sorts on May 15 at the Harryhausen got Wray, who lives from 20,000 Fathoms, 20 Million perfect Harryhausen’s revolution- ryhausen’s effects now seem more Empire State Building because they in New York, to visit him for two Miles to Earth, Mysterious Island, ary stop-motion animation and charming than jaw-dropping, well, See HARRYHAUSEN on page R2

REVIEW EDITOR, ELIZABETH RENZETTI ᔢ FEEDBACK TO [email protected]

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