FOREWORD
FOREWORD
60 years ago a series I worked on, Four Feather Falls, started on television. It featured a brand new style of puppets, made in fibreglass, which we called Supermarionation. It was such a happy time making this puppet western, but little did we know then that these films would be the beginning of something so loved around the world. Decades later, audiences are still watching Thunderbirds, Stingray and all those other shows we made.
50 years after I finished, I was invited back to the director's chair to make a new episode of Thunderbirds for the anniversary. As the last surviving original member of A.P. Films, and having worked with Stephen La Rivière and the new Century 21 Films team and knowing of their knowledge and devotion to the Supermarionation puppet films, I can't in all honesty see anyone better to carry on the legacy into the future. I can't wait to get started on a new set of Supermarionation films for a new audience.
David Elliott
Editor/Director, AP Films & Century 21 Films Ltd.
Century 21 Films is run by a group of filmmakers who united over their collective love of the Supermarionation shows of the 1960s. In 2013, with our theatrically-released documentary Filmed in Supermarionation, we resurrected the art-form once again. Since then, we have been the official producers of all new Supermarionation programming for copyright holders ITV - including brand new episodes of Thunderbirds.
Over the years, the team collectively and individually has accumulated vast swathes of material relating to Supermarionation. Whilst a lot of that material has found homes in the merchandise we've produced - including the book and film versions of Filmed in Supermarionation - a lot of it has yet to find a home. That home will now be here. This website is intended to be an authoritative resource for those wanting to know about the Supermarionation shows, by those now engaged in preserving and continuing the legacy.
So if you want to know all about Supermarionation past and future - and you want to read facts rather than opinions - you've come to the right place!
Stephen, Andrew, Justin and Elliot
Century 21 Films