News Flash!
Damnation Alley's
LandMaster Vehicle
Found!
In July of 2000, my friend Michelle and I headed down to the Los Angeles Film School to attend the 2000 Visual Effects Festival. On the second day we bumped into Habib Zargarpour. Habib (associate visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic) recently completed effects work on "The Perfect Storm." While Michelle, Habib and his friend were sightseeing around Burbank they came across the impressive LandMaster vehicle! It was created by Dean Jeffries Designs for use in the 1970's sci-fi film "Damnation Alley."
This custom designed vehicle was constructed specifically for the Armageddon-like film called "Damnation Alley." This was a military vehicle that could travel anywhere. The mid-section could also bend 90 degrees. Are those Firestone AT tires?!?! From the Popular Science article:
"Three independent drive sources running from a gasoline power plant. Uses semi truck parts in the drive train. Can operate with the front or rear wheel axel out of commission. Side and top hatches on the main unit and rear and top on the after section. Full running lights and brake lights for urban street use. External video camera is mounted on the forward pylon located just behind the front top hatch. Could also house the antenna. All pylons are hardened and armored. Can operate in water and will remain sealed when fully submerged. Can float while half full of water." - 1977 March issue of Popular Science magazine.
The LandMaster vehicle as it appeared in July 1999.
Habib Zargarpour gets a closer look at the Land Master vehicle.
Additional LandMaster Links:
We also bumped into Habib again at the Visual Effects Festival 2002 in San Rafael, California. He told us he worked on the first 30 seconds of "The Bourne Identity" as well as effects for "Signs" opening in August. Habib mentioned that "Signs" was getting higher ratings than "The Sixth Sense" originally rated.
