Rick Baker: Monster Maker A brief history of The Wolfman make-up supremo's best beasties
The gorilla-loving special effects king, Rick Baker, has done it again, creating another triumph in the form of Benicio Del Toro's Wolfman this week, all teeth, growling and worrying personal hygiene problems. To celebrate the great man's work, we look back into the archives and see what other monsters Mr Baker has brought to life... WORDS ALASTAIR PLUMB
Rick's cinematic love affair with gorillas and their other hairy friends was first seen on the big screen in 1976's King Kong. Although the effects were considered impressive for the time, Rick was never entirely happy with them, refusing to take credit for its realistic quality and instead praising the film's cinematographer, Richard H. Kline, for any lifelikeness that might have slipped through.
Rick Baker Fact:
Working with fellow special-effects genius Carlo Rambaldi (of E.T. and Aliens fame), the robotic Kong was 40 ft tall and over 6 tonnes in weight, and cost £1.7million. But that's mechanical monsters for you, eh?
Posted on Wednesday March 3, 2010, 14:28 by mrsmcg
Despite all the jiggery and pokery CG that seems to dominate movies today, watching
American Werewolf is like a breath of fresh air, well kind of! the effects even now are hard to beat. Read More
2
An American Who's Glad the Werewolf was in London
Posted on Monday February 15, 2010, 23:23 by Ripleysdad
To this day, amid the clutter of CG screen images, the transformation from human to werewolf is still mind bottling (if I can quote Chaz.) Granted, if you take out the bone crunching and tearing sounds, it could lose some appeal, but the process is painful to watch. A master craftsman who always recognized that he stood on the shoulders of giants to produce some of the most amazing effects in cinema history. And he did the old fashioned way, he tricked our eyes. Read More
3
Men in Black - eyes
Posted on Monday February 15, 2010, 01:14 by Draven Cage
"That's great, but how do we know where he's looking?"
I don't know, Rick, why don't you ask Ridley Scott seeing as how there was no problem with the Xenomorph having no eyes and the fans being able to know where he/she/it was looking.
If that was Baker's genuine response to a situation where an alien is going to have no eyes, I'm seriously disappointed in his lack of imagination. Read More
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