What movie / series is this ship from?

[Dave]

My first thought was Red Dwarf, but it isn't. It's far too small. Those hanger exits along the side do look a lot like the Battlestar Viper launch pads. But it isn't that either. I expect it is something very niche indeed. If it was a kids programme then maybe something like Star Fleet (X Bomber in Japan, the one Brian May is into, not Star Trek) or Terrahawks. However, searching images of those online only brings up fighter craft images.

 

[HareBrain]

You can see a vfx shot using this ship in this documentary at 17:03:

There's actually quite a lot of potentially useful info (in the four minutes after the 17-min mark). For one thing, it shows the ship crashing into a colony base, which would rule out a lot of the guesses so far. It plays a bit of the film's music, which someone might recognise. It also says (just before the 17.03 mark) that the model was made by Midland Production Corp in Richmond, California. Someone with better Google-fu than I might be able to get a list of sci-fi films they were involved with before 1984.

@Mon0Zer0 , where did the pics come from, and how did you link them with the video?

 

[Toby Frost]

I had a try to find Midland Production Company, but failed to get any decent info. I don't recognise the film, but maybe one of the lower-tier post-Star Wars films has something like that. I wonder if Midland made it themselves, to show off what their company could do? That would seem a bit elaborate, though.

(Thanks to this thread, I now want to see The Ice Pirates, which is probably not a great idea.)

 

[HareBrain]

I wonder if Midland made it themselves, to show off what their company could do?

Yeah, I wondered if maybe it was a demo. It seemed strange that other film titles were given in the video but not that one.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

There's actually quite a lot of potentially useful info (in the four minutes after the 17-min mark). For one thing, it shows the ship crashing into a colony base, which would rule out a lot of the guesses so far. It plays a bit of the film's music, which someone might recognise. It also says (just before the 17.03 mark) that the model was made by Midland Production Corp in Richmond, California. Someone with better Google-fu than I might be able to get a list of sci-fi films they were involved with before 1984.

@Mon0Zer0 , where did the pics come from, and how did you link them with the video?

It was posted on the starship modeller group on facebook. One of the guys there has been tasked with repairing it and the owner doesn't seem to know anything about it, other than it was in the documentary attached.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Stylistically, I'd say it was from the 70s or early 80s. It looks slightly like the ship that transports the assassins to kill Sean Connery in Outland, but there wasn't a shot of that ship flying like that. I wonder if the same model was used in two films?

By the way, I googled "Android 1982 spaceship" and got this:

View attachment 82223

EDIT: Ah, I was wrong about this. The Outland shuttle looks like this:

View attachment 82224

However, they do seem very similar in style. Ron Cobb did a lot of design for Alien's Nostromo, and Philip Harrison and Martin Bower were on the production design of Outland. Would it help to search them?

ANOTHER EDIT: I tried Google image search and was told that the original spaceship was visually similar to a cardboard box. Now that's just cold. On the other hand, I discovered that Ron Cobb was a good political cartoonist of radical persuasion, and that Martin Bower made this:

View attachment 82225

I think Martin Brower was mentioned in the original thread.

(Thanks to this thread, I now want to see The Ice Pirates, which is probably not a great idea.)

Red Letter Media did a rewatch of that recently - it was Rich Evans' favourite movie as a kid, apparently!

 

[Dave]

The company is "Midland Production Corporation" rather than "Company" and has been around since 1961, though I couldn't find a Californian office for it. In 1994, it was in arbitration together with "Robots of Mars, Inc." v "Ridefilm Corporation" and "IMAX Corporation" over two film projects commonly known as "Fun House Express" and "Crashendo".

Fun House Express is a short (4 minutes) released in 1995 by Imax and Midland. Director: Yas Takata Writer: John Groves

Crashendo is another short (4 minutes) released in 1996 by Imax and Midland. Director: Yas Takata Writer: David Crane
It starred Matthew Troncone as Alfred.

From the imdb page for Midland: With Midland Productions (Sorted by Popularity Ascending) - IMDb

The film that they made in 1983 is "Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain" (John Carpenter said it was an influence for Big Trouble in Little China.)

I thought I had found it, but that doesn't appear to involve any spacecraft. (I now need to get back to what I really wanted to do today!)

 

[Vince W]

I had a try to find Midland Production Company, but failed to get any decent info. I don't recognise the film, but maybe one of the lower-tier post-Star Wars films has something like that. I wonder if Midland made it themselves, to show off what their company could do? That would seem a bit elaborate, though.

(Thanks to this thread, I now want to see The Ice Pirates, which is probably not a great idea.)

It is not.

 

[paranoid marvin]

There's actually quite a lot of potentially useful info (in the four minutes after the 17-min mark). For one thing, it shows the ship crashing into a colony base, which would rule out a lot of the guesses so far. It plays a bit of the film's music, which someone might recognise. It also says (just before the 17.03 mark) that the model was made by Midland Production Corp in Richmond, California. Someone with better Google-fu than I might be able to get a list of sci-fi films they were involved with before 1984.

@Mon0Zer0 , where did the pics come from, and how did you link them with the video?

Yes, it mentions the ship crashing into a space colony base in a crater on the planet. That's a pretty specific scenario and should narrow the search down quite dramatically.

I'm now thinking that it's a demo model and a demo film showing what can be achieved. It's a highly detailed model, but if you're going to sell yourself you want to showcase your talents.

 

[HareBrain]

Any news? I NEED CLOSURE DAMMIT.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I can't see the original images.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Hope you can see that @JunkMonkey , and best of luck finding where it landed from or went to -tis a mystery worthy of Columbo himself.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I see now thanks.

 

[AE35Unit]

Enemy Mine?

 

[paranoid marvin]

The thing to remember here is that the look of the ship is unimportant, as in a movie (with all the special effects) it could look different.

The video tells us that it's a spaceship that crashes into a colony base that's in a crater on a planet. There can't be too many movies where that happens?

If it wasn't for the fact that the company is based in America, I would have been thinking of a low budget tv scifi show along the lines of Doctor Who or Blakes 7, but (as I mentioned above) I would be surprised if this wasn't just a demo for prospective clients.