TrekWeb talks to Star Trek movie creature and character designer Neville Page about his work on the new movie, including the ice planet creature called “Big Red“.
1- So did you know from the start that you would be designing these two creatures on the Delta Vega Ice Planet? I understand it was originally supposed to be a desert planet, right?
JJ originally brought me on board to do the main “creature” that would chase Kirk. It was a desert planet and consequently, something more of a desert creature. For reasons unknown to me, it was switched to an ice planet. Obviously, any designs I had on this beast before were of no use. So it was a complete redesign. In fact, we were able to add an additional creature to this scene, the Polarilla. It was our red herring moment. You think that this is the one to be concerned about when, in fact…….
2- Tell us about Big Red (see image above), please. Did you get some feedback from fans on this creation?
Big Red was a real struggle because I was just not getting JJ the right feel with the first sketches. Usually, you never have the answer right away, but I was starting to get concerned when the ideas I was proposing just were not hitting the mark. Then, one evening, it just came together. I finally understood how to bring the desires of JJ, what the writers conceived, and my opinions into one frightening creature (at least I hope that happened). JJ wanted to have this striking contrast of a Red creature on the white background of Delta Vega. I loved that image. He also wanted it to have eyes all over the place. He will tell you that I struggled with that one. I tend to, when possible, adhere to the sensibilities of nature, or at least use them as an inspiration. So, for me, the notion of so many eyes defied plausibility. But this is what I like the most, a challenge that I truly struggle with. How can I reconcile this crazy idea? And, you see, it is also my job….to take the desires of your “boss”, and help them realize it in a believable way. It is hard to tell, but one way to get the eyes to be sprinkled throughout the body was to at least have them grade from sophisticated optics to simple sensory pits. It helped me give them a starting place and a stopping point as there were no true skeletal orbital cavities.
Big Red attacks Kirk
As for feedback….well…. Like anything, some people loved Big Red, some people hated it. A common complaint was the color red. It made no sense to some. Now, although JJ’s reason was, I would say, a visceral choice, the color red can be completely justified. I would agree that because it is an alien on an alien planet, that does not give you artistic license to do as you please. I firmly believe that to retain the suspension of disbelief, you still need to adhere to the laws of nature and physics. That being said, nature will surprise you at every turn with something that defies logic (our logic). So, with a little knowledge, you can do something a little different and either have the foresight that it would work “in nature” or have the research to have the cart lead the horse and backwards engineer a reason for a choice. In this case, Red can be easily justified. First off, there is much about this creature that you may not know. It is not really a land animal. It is sort of like a walrus in that, although possessing limbs that are capable of land mobility, the water is where it’s grace is showcased. Same with Penguins. Big Red is adept in water. I actually designed it as a swimming animal more than a land animal with the point being that something this large on land, if it were a land dwelling animal, would have no trouble catching Kirk. So, we discussed making it a little awkward out of water (to give Kirk half a chance). The big spikes don’t make any sense for snow either. That is because, it is not meant for snow either. If anything, Big Red is more like a crab meets a Humbolt squid. With that, we have our justification for RED. A predatory animal of the deep that wants to go undetected may actually be red (like the Humbolt squid). Red has the longest wavelength of visible light and is the color that essentially goes black at depth (simplified quite a bit in description). A perfect color for a predator actually.
3- Describe working with J.J. Abrams.
He is such a pleasure. He knows what he wants and he warrants the respect, but all the while he keeps the environment pleasant. Furthermore, he surrounds himself with like minds and the consequence is being in an environment conducive to creativity. What I also love about JJ is how he lets you contribute to the process. He would ask many of us our opinion about something well outside of our expertise. He is open to ideas outside of his own. There is confidence, but no arrogance. And lastly, the man makes me laugh!! A lot!!!
4- What else did you work on this Star Trek movie ?
Once the 2 creatures were mostly completed, I then moved on to “Aliens”. Random stuff. A few foreground, some background. Barney Burman and his company Proteus, collaborated on these. We collectively did many designs for JJ’s perusal and then finally settled on a variety that Barney and crew fabricated. Those guys worked some crazy hours trying to pull off the impossible. As with many productions, this was a collaborative effort. I also worked with Joel Harlowe and team on the Romulans. Joel and I had a great time together developing the Romulan look. I was really pushing for tattoos though. Be careful what you wish for, as I ended up doing a few hundred tattoo designs in the end. The coordination of this race was impressive to witness. And I must make mention of Mindy Hall. She was the master and commander of all things makeup on this film. We each played our part, but she and her team had the eye on the big picture, and, as you can tell, this was a BIG picture!!
5- Finally, besides Tron, what are your future projects ?
Wrapping up little details on Tron. Also wrapping up details on Piranha 3 in 3D. Currently doing some work on 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Captain Nemo. Could not be happier than to be associated with this subject matter. And then there are the other secret projects.
I am also hopeful that JJ and team will call on me again for another round of TREK!!!
Universal’s remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon that we’ve been following for a while now has hit a snag. According to Bloody Disgusting, director Breck Eisner has dropped out of the project. Eisner is currently finishing up The Crazies remake for Overture Films and also is attached to the Flash Gordon reboot. It was first rumored that he might be off of the project last December, however, BD only received official confirmation very recently. Oddly, back in April, Eisner spoke with Arrow in the Head about his plans for the remake without any indication that might be leaving, so we’re not sure why he left.
The project is still being developed by Gary Ross, whose father wrote the original. Creature is about a group of scientists who discover and capture the prehistoric GillMan while searching for fossils along the Amazon River. The creature breaks free and kidnaps one of the scientists’ fiancee with whom it has fallen in love. Universal and Strike Entertainment are now looking for a new director to replace Eisner. Last month, he had said that it was going to be a “bigger movie” and that they were “going for a dark adventure tone, but I want it to be scary.”
Deep Sea Monster Reigo started out as what amounted to a homemade project by Shinpei Hayashiya, an amateur filmmaker who got some notice in Japan and over here for a Gamera fan film he made. I’d been hearing about Reigo (the crew of a WW2 Yamato battleship battles a giant Zilla-esque sea monster) for years, but it never seemed like the film was coming out. Now, today, here’s a sequel. Ummm… Okay. I’m clearly out of the loop.
Hayashiya’s follow-up, Deep Sea Monster Raiga, is set 60 years after the original, in modern-day Tokyo. Global warming causes the southern polar ice cap to gradually melt, disrupting the ecosystem and luring ancient sea monsters to Japan. Eventually an enormous sea beast called Raiga enters Asakusa via the Sumida River and begins wreaking havoc on the buildings there.
According to Nippon Cinema, “The film is set to screen as part of an all-night event called ‘Tokusatsu Kaiju Tengoku’ (literally ‘SFX Monster Heaven’) on June 27, 2009, at Ikebukuro’s Shin-Bungeiza theater. The other films being screened include Hayashiya’s Deep Sea Monster Reigo, Masaaki Tezuka’s Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., and Keita Amemiya’s Zeiram. There will also be a 40-minute talk with the three directors.”
Nippon also scored the first trailer for Raigo and as far as ultra low budget Godzilla-style moviemaking goes, the rubber suit/cardboard building/CGI monster stew I see brings a smile to my face. On the other hand, what I hear… I suppose the music also brings a smile to my face for entirely different reasons. Only the Japanese could sound so cheerful and upbeat amid cataclysmic catastrophe. I suppose when your country is constantly being attacked by giant monsters, you learn to just roll with it.
This is not your typical giant monster movie trailer. This is not your typical anything.
Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell” feels like the director blowing off twenty years of steam. The slapstick/horror duality that he mastered with his brilliant “Evil Dead” movies, repeatedly and explicitly referenced in the new feature, marks a crowd-pleasing return to form. At once absurdly cheesy and amazingly self-aware, it’s a reminder of the lunacy that brought acclaim to Raimi in the first place.
The script, by Raimi and his brother Ivan, offers paper-thin characterizations and mostly transparent special effects, but they emerge with such calculated glee that it would appear the director wants his audience to see the mechanics of the ride even as it thrills them. The story sets up a typical horror movie framework and delivers on its requirements. Hoping to impress her boss (David Paymer) and land a promotion, loan officer Christine (Alison Lohman, in a role originally meant for Ellen Page) chooses to evict a helpless woman of curious ethnic origin and promptly winds up getting cursed (perhaps a hat tip to Stephen King’s “Thinner,” but not the bad movie adapted from it). In the aftermath, she learns from a no-bullshit psychic (Dileep Rao) that she must protect herself from an evil being intent on dragging her to—well, you know. Dealing with her skeptical boyfriend (Justin Long), Christine gradually falls into one viscerally unsettling situation after another: She vomits blood, swallows insects, and vainly attempts to save her soul by sacrificing her beloved kitty. Like Bruce Campbell in the brilliant early scenes of “Evil Dead II,” the best moments of “Drag Me to Hell” occur when the protagonist’s only co-stars are strange and dangerous forces. Needless to say, audience reactions at the Paramount screening last night thought it was a riot.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the movie really scare anyone, at least for any lengthy duration. Raimi’s elaborate sequences generally caused laughter—not the nervous kind, but still the sound of contentment. As Christine deals with a series of increasingly ridiculous supernatural conundrums, the room fell for the gags as if they were visual punchlines. Those annoying moments when the soundtrack goes “boo!” rarely occur here. Raimi wants to entertain, so he covers all his bases with frightening images doing comical things. If “Evil Dead 2” relied on the Three Stooges as its primary referent, “Drag Me to Hell” aims more for the Looney Tunes approach, but it’s the same basic playbook. At a time when studios relentlessly borrow from J-horror conventions, Raimi’s new work finds distinction because he borrows from himself.
Anyone who saw “Terminator Salvation” this weekend might have noticed a curious credit at the opening of the film: “Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson present …”
Who do these guys think they are, David O. Selznick?
Not quite. But at a time when the big studios control almost all the major sequels, save for “Star Wars,” Anderson and Kubicek are two upstarts who, with only a single unreleased low-budget comedy to their name, snagged the rights to one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises.
A few key details on their brief career as co-CEOs of the Halcyon Co.:
-The year Anderson and Kubicek decided to get involved in film producing: 2005
-Number of movies they have made: Two, “Cook Off” and “Terminator Salvation”
-Amount they paid for the rights to “Terminator” in 2007: $25 million, provided by Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor LLC.
-Budget for “Terminator Salvation”: About $200 million, funded primarily with a $60 million advance from Warner Bros. for domestic distribution rights and $100 million from Sony Pictures for international.
-Number of lawsuits Anderson and Kubicek have been involved in during their four-year producing career: Four, with legal opponents including MGM, a former investor, and “Salvation” producer Moritz Borman. In addition, “Salvation” executive producer Peter Graves recently filed a breach of contract claim for arbitration against the duo.
Yesterday Bloody-Disgusting broke the news that either a remake or a prequel to Ridley Scott’s original Alien movie was in the works. Now that story’s been confirmed by the good folks over at Collider and we know for certain: It’s a prequel.
Even though the idea of creating a prequel to explain away the origins of the Aliens is a pretty horrible idea, maybe there’s a silver lining here. At least Ridley Scott is somewhat involved. It’s his production company that’s behind it and his brother Tony Scott confirmed that one of the company’s directors, a guy named Carl Rinsch will be helming the prequel.
They plan to start shooting by the end of this year and yes, like it or not, Fox is still the company funding it. With their recent track record that’s bound to make fanboys nervous, as if the idea of a prequel wasn’t bad enough, but again at least the Scott’s are behind it. That’s good… isn’t it? Now somebody give us some information on this Carl Rinsch character. His IMDB page is almost as barren as my own would be, if I had one.
CALL FOR ENTRY – 4th CINEFANTASY
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” – Edgard Allan Poe
Cinema is known as the dream factory, a machine which produces all extraordinary things in the mind of humans and carries them to an almost touchable reality on screen. Very much like a gate between imagination and reality can only find its fullness through the Fantastic genre, where magic creatures and faraway worlds make themselves materialized in front of the eyes of the audience.
In order to praise this type of cinema, the city of São Paulo, Brazil, will attend next November the Cinefantasy Festival, the bigger film festival in the world dedicated to fantastic short films, that is, horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. In 2008, Cinefantasy took place in six different venues, screening more than 160 films comprising Brazilian and foreign productions. It was attended by filmmakers such as Rodrigo Aragão, director of the new national cult “Mud Zombies” (Mangue Negro); André Vianco, author of novels on the vampire universe; and the acclaimed English animator Robert Morgan, director of the astonishing “Cat with Hands”.
The Cinefantasy Festival is an international event that reaches its 4th edition with a Short Film competive session, special shorts and features screenings, premières, Conferences with filmmakers, national and international guests, lectures, workshops, and more.
Call for submissions to the competitive session of the 4th Cinefantasy will occur from May 18th through September 11th. Films must be up to 20 minutes long and must contain elements of fantasy. What is fantasy? Supernatural unreal stories. They may be horror, sci-fi or fantasy films. Professionals and beginners are invited to enroll.
The Competitive Session will award 12 categories:
Best Horror Short Film
Best Sci-Fi Short Film
Best Fantasy Short Film
Choice of the audience award
Student Incentive Award
Beginners Incentive Award
Best Director
Best Creature
Best Make-up
Best Special Effects
Best Music Score
Best Screenplay
During this same period we also accept submissions for something gloomier. The MASTER OF THE SCREAM contest has its first edition during the 4th Cinefantasy. It will be only one session where the winner is the film that scares the audience more. Films submitted to the MASTER OF THE SCREAM contest must be up to 5 minutes long and, of course, really scary.
The 4th Cinefantasy takes place at São Paulo, Brazil, from 6th to 15th of November.
The Tagline for this Adventure, Fantasy, Horror movie: A 1000 year old secret is about to be uncovered
The Story: Set in the Grand Canyon, a team of Smithsonian researchers have stumbled across a lost walled Aztec city guarded by some evil spirits, including a “great flying serpent of death.” As days turn to weeks, Susan Jordan, the daughter of the professor leading the expedition, assembles a team to rescue her father and his colleagues from the clutches of the ancient Aztec warriors and their horrible serpent god.
Michael Shanks stars as Jacob Thain
Shannen Doherty stars as Susan Jordan
The FX Crew:
Brant McIlroy (Catwoman, Scary Movie, Valentine) is the special effects coordinator
John L. Healy (X-Men: The Last Stand, Snakehead Terror, The House Next Door) is the special makeup effects artist
Sarah Bergeest (Impulse, Shred, Latchkey’s Lament) is the key makeup artist
The Creature Fabricators:
Alistair Bell, Howard Lau, Keith Lau, J.P. Mass, Vince Yoshida.
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The Tagline for this Adventure, Fantasy, Horror movie: A 1000 year old secret is about to be uncovered
The Story: Set in the Grand Canyon, a team of Smithsonian researchers have stumbled across a lost walled Aztec city guarded by some evil spirits, including a “great flying serpent of death.” As days turn to weeks, Susan Jordan, the daughter of the professor leading the expedition, assembles a team to rescue her father and his colleagues from the clutches of the ancient Aztec warriors and their horrible serpent god.
Michael Shanks stars as Jacob Thain
Shannen Doherty stars as Susan Jordan
The FX Crew:
Brant McIlroy (Catwoman, Scary Movie, Valentine) is the special effects coordinator
John L. Healy (X-Men: The Last Stand, Snakehead Terror, The House Next Door) is the special makeup effects artist
Sarah Bergeest (Impulse, Shred, Latchkey’s Lament) is the key makeup artist
The Creature Fabricators:
Alistair Bell, Howard Lau, Keith Lau, J.P. Mass, Vince Yoshida.
UPI) — Owen Wilson says he spent little time with his co-stars in the “Night at the Museum” sequel because his scenes involved so many special effects.
In “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” Wilson again plays Jedediah, a miniature cowboy figure that magically comes to life at night, along with various other museum exhibits.
This time around, Jedediah spends a good deal of time trapped in an hourglass, waiting for former security guard Larry, played by Ben Stiller, to rescue him from the evil clutches of Pharaoh Kahmunrah, a new character played by Hank Azaria.
When Wilson does share the screen with a co-star in the sequel, it is usually with British comedian Steve Coogan, who reprises his role of tiny Roman soldier Octavius from the original film.
“I was just saying how it seemed like we were never together. I never saw Ben either,” Wilson told reporters in Washington recently. “Coogan was there.”
Asked how he manages to play such a big personality in such a diminutive body, Wilson replied: “Jedediah doesn’t see himself as a miniature little cowboy. He sees himself as kind of bigger than life.
And it was just kind of easy to play a character that you never had to worry about (director Shawn Levy) saying, ‘Do less.’ You couldn’t be too over the top.”
Co-starring Amy Adams, Robin Williams and Ricky Gervais, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” is in conventional and IMAX theaters now.
Tagline: An evil entombed for 2000 years… until now
The Story: A team of mercenaries under the command of hard-charging war veteran Mack (Cuba Gooding Jr.), are contracted by a mysterious CIA operative named Elissa (Valerie Cruz) to rescue a scientist (Ron Perlman) working on an archeological discovery deep under the Middle Eastern desert. With the help of a mysterious priest (Henry Rollins), Mack and his team soon discover the true secret of what lies beneath the sands. A secret that has been protected for thousands of years. A secret that is not of this Earth
The Crew:
Jason Connery (Shanghai Noon, Urban Ghost Story, Night Skies ) is the director
Jerry Macaluso (Gods and Monsters, Modern Vampires, Little Nicky) is the special effects supervisor
Ron Trost (Crash, American Pie, Rushmore) is the special effects coordinator
Janeen York (Dead Man’s Hand, Evil Bong, Doll Graveyard) is the key makeup artist
They plan to start shooting by the end of this year and yes, like it or not, Fox is still the company funding it. With their recent track record that’s bound to make fanboys nervous, as if the idea of a prequel wasn’t bad enough, but again at least the Scott’s are behind it. That’s good… isn’t it? Now somebody give us some information on this Carl Rinsch character. His IMDB page is almost as barren as my own would be, if I had one.
