Cinefex Weekly Update | Issue 42

cinefex.com | Advertising | Upcoming Effects Films | Archive/Subscribe

Article by Estelle Shay

Where would James Bond be without his Aston Marton? The same might be asked of the superheroes in Team America: World Police, a raunchy spy spoof by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Relying on an all-puppet cast to poke fun at everything from politics to Hollywood's fondness for over-the-top action films, Parker and Stone called upon miniature effects artisan Lou Zutavern to oversee design and construction of a slew of tricked-out vehicles for the marionetted superheroes, armed to the teeth with terrorist-defying weapons and missiles.

Zutavern -- a veteran of such iconic films as Titanic, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Starship Troopers, and a longtime fan of Thunderbirds, the sixties-era Gerry Anderson puppet show that inspired Parker and Stone -- jumped at the chance to work on the project. "I'd spent a lot of time studying the work that Derek Meddings and his crew did back in the sixties for Thunderbirds," said Zutavern. "I'd also worked on Super Adventure Team for MTV, which was a marionette show; so I understood the limitations of the puppets." He was equally well-equipped to handle the directing duo's 'on-the-fly' approach to filmmaking. "I originally came out of the Roger Corman school of filmmaking, where you learn how to do things very cheaply and in-camera. I loved the old Republic Picture serials, and researched how the Lydecker Brothers did all that stuff. They had no budgets back then, and, as it turned out, neither did we."

Operating out of stages in Culver City, Zutavern and a skeleton crew of ten that eventually grew to 20 began fleshing out designs for Team America's miniature vehicles and assorted aircraft. The script called for a Lamborghini limo that transforms into a flying craft, and a boxy, Hummer-like utility vehicle equipped with hidden missiles that serves as the team's main means of transport. Additional vehicles included a motorcycle ridden by Gary, the team's newest undercover recruit, military-style Osprey and Black Hawk helicopters, a sixties-style jet, and a submarine -- all of them featured prominently throughout the film. "There were jet-to-jet air battles," noted Zutavern, "terrorist jets trying to shoot down the Team America vehicles, submarines underwater, shooting ballistic missiles and torpedoes, and vehicles on land chasing each other and exploding. Pretty much, if you've seen it in a Michael Bay film, you're going to see it here."

The vehicles were built in sizes ranging from 1/3 scale to accommodate the 22-inch puppets, to 1/35th scale, making it easier to use off-the-shelf model kit parts. From the start, Zutavern found himself relying heavily on his Roger Corman roots. "Roger used to walk in and go: 'Here's $2,000. Make it last," recalled Zutavern. "And that would be my budget. I remember having to do a tabletop model one time, and we had enough lumber to build the tabletop, and that was it. But I needed trees. So I went down to Pier One Imports one night and trimmed their hedges for them. They just assumed the gardeners did it. That's kind of what we were doing here. I brought in boxes of old model parts, and asked my distributors for all the kits with parts that were missing. For the jet, I literally went down to one of the local hobby distributors and bought a bunch of kits, and started chopping them up until we got something we liked the look of."

Zutavern and his crew also created interiors for scenes shot inside the various Team America transports, all designed to reflect the personas of the protagonists. "Their whole thing is once they blow up a country, it's time for a libation," observed Zutavern. "So everything was done as if it's basically a lounge." Though modelmakers often used chopped-up model molds, discarded parts and prop bin rejects to detail the interiors, one exception was the tricked-out limo interior. "It was very slick, completely upholstered, with carpeting, neon lights, two videoscreen feeds and a bar built into the door. There was a back seat and a front seat that fit together, and the front seat and the dash came off so you could stick a camera in and get a view of two puppets sitting back there having a conversation."

(continued below)

(continued from above)

At Zutavern's urging the production hired special effects and pyro expert Joe Viskocil to handle the mechanics of motivating the vehicles and rigging explosions for the various action sequences. "With few exceptions, everything was pulled on cables," noted Zutavern. "We couldn't use radio control all that much because there was a lot of wireless communication from the marionettes and static from our lighting rigs, which would have interfered."

Shooting the miniatures proved challenging, as constant script changes came down the pike from Parker and Stone, who kept devising more and more outrageous scenarios. "We'd have five different sets, and three guys running between them," said Zutavern, "with three setups going, and two getting ready to shoot. I remember one instance where we had a bunch of taxicabs, and we realized we had no people in the cabs. So one of our modelmakers raced over to the craft services table and got a bag of cashews and raisins, and glued them together with the raisin as the head, and the cashew as the body. We stuck those in as drivers, and nobody could tell the difference."

Though the vehicles were built with steel chassis to better withstand abuse, Zutavern was hard-pressed to keep them in play during the no-holds-barred action scenes. "We'd have a bag of parts," recalled Zutavern, "and just glue them together; and then the painters would spend all night doing these dazzling paint jobs. They'd be just barely dry, but they would go straight to the stage in the morning." Once on stage, Viskocil and his crew would crash the cable-driven cars at speeds approaching 30 miles per hour, model pieces flying upon impact. "It got to the point where we kluged the models together so many times, the only thing keeping them together was the paint. People would look at them and go, 'That looks horrible!' And we were like, 'Well it didn't used to.'"

Despite such challenges, there was no shortage of modelmakers willing to work on Team America. "When they saw what we were doing and how much fun it was, even though it was really hard work," Zutavern remarked, "everyone wanted to work on this show. Any big effects film from the last 30 years -- somebody in my crew was on it. But this was more fun for them because they could get back to their roots. Modelmakers don't usually get a chance to design things. Usually, they're given a set of drawings and told to make it just like that. Here, they could jump in and really be creative. Of course, sometimes I'd say: 'Yes, you can design this whole interior. But you've got to deliver it right after lunch!'"

BOXX workstations run all your favorite digital content creation software -- built, tuned and optimized for the needs of creative professionals. BOXX’s superior innovations make your applications perform like never before. For a limited time BOXX is offering customers the Ultimate Upgrade, a $795 value. Call today at 877-877-BOXX and cash in on the big savings.

Compiled by Joe Fordham

Snow and the Seven: The Hollywood Reporter states Walt Disney Pictures has commissioned novelist and screenwriter Michael Chabon to write the screenplay for the English language debut of Hong Kong director Yuen Wo Ping, martial arts fight choreographer for the Matrix pictures and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Wo Ping is a prolific filmmaker in his own right, who has directed more than 20 feature films in his native China, including many of Jackie Chan's early Kung Fu classics. Snow and the Seven will interweave fantasy and martial arts in a story of seven Shaolin monks in an East-meets-West retelling of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's fairy tale, set in 1880s British colonial China. Andrew Gunn is producing for Gunnfilms.
Superman: The Hollywood Reporter states that Sony Pictures Imageworks will provide visual effects for Warner Brothers Pictures' and director Bryan Singer's upcoming DC Comics adaptation. Shooting is reportedly scheduled to begin in Australia early next year, with Gil Adler, Jon Peters and Singer producing. The shot count is placed at 'about 800 shots.'
The Blob: Per The Hollywood Reporter, Scott Rudin and producer Jack Harris -- who produced the original -- are mounting this second remake of Paramount Pictures' cheesy 1958 drive-in movie, which originally starred a young Steve McQueen and a giant blob of jelly from outer space, with special effects by Bart Sloane. In 1988, director Chuck Russell and screenwriter Frank Darabont squeezed another movie out of the premise, with visual effects led by Dream Quest Images. No word yet on who will wade into the goo this time around.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox: Variety reports Revolution Studios and filmmaker Wes Anderson are planning to adapt Roald Dahl's children's book, about a crafty fox and his family who are hunted by three low-I.Q. chicken farmers, as a stop-motion animated feature. Anderson will direct, and is also writing the script with Noah Baumbach, with whom he wrote his upcoming oceanography comedy The Life Aquatic.
The Fog: Variety announced Revolution Studios has acquired the rights to remake filmmaker John Carpenter's 1980 horror film about a sleepy Northern California coastal town besieged by a supernatural fog containing murderous seafaring specters. Zombie pirates in the original were created and portrayed by makeup artist Rob Bottin, with special photographic effects by James Liles. Screenwriter Cooper Layne is adapting Carpenter's story, with Debra Hill and Carpenter producing the remake with David Foster. Production is scheduled to begin in February.
Ghost Rider: Per Dark Horizons, director Mark Steven Johnson and producers Bennett Walsh and Gary Foster have announced that Sony Pictures Imageworks will handle the visual effects for their upcoming adaptation of this DC Comics property, with Nicolas Cage set to star as Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle-riding crusader whose head ignites. Production is scheduled to begin in Melbourne at the end of January, with an 80-day shoot planned.
The Incredibles: Click here for an IGN Filmforce feature offering an 'anatomy of a shot,' taking readers from storyboard to final render in Pixar Animation Studios' CG-animated superhero comedy, opening November 5. And click here for a ComingSoon.net interview with writer/director Brad Bird.
Indiana Jones 4: Variety reports George Lucas has commissioned screenwriter Jeff Nathanson to pick up the bullwhip last wielded by screenwriter Frank Darabont, in the long procession of screenwriters who have attempted to outrun the giant rolling boulder that is the fourth Indiana Jones installment. Steven Spielberg, who directed the previous three Indy films, and star Harrison Ford are expected to return. Nathanson previously provided the screenplay for Spielberg's con-man romp Catch Me If You Can and co-wrote the director's airport drama The Terminal.
Argonauts: Variety reports screenwriter Michael Cooney will write this adventure film, described as "a tentpole in the vein of Raiders of the Lost Ark" -- about a group of 1930s treasure hunters who believe they have stumbled across the sunken wreck of the Argo, the ship that Jason piloted to retrieve the Golden Fleece. John Baldecchi and Jason Hoffs are producing with Stephen Sommers and Bob Ducsay for DreamWorks Pictures, aiming at a 2006 release.
Casshern: The Hollywood Reporter states DreamWorks Pictures has acquired U.S. distribution rights for this spectacular-looking Japanese science fiction drama. The live-action film, directed by Kazuaki Kiriya and based on a 1973 Japanese animated series about a superhuman freedom fighter who ends a 50-year-long conflict between humans and machines, was reportedly made on a shoestring budget of $6 million. Asian film distributor Shochiku released the film in Japan in April. No word yet exactly when it will appear in the U.S., but JoBlo.com indicates DreamWorks' distribution deal may include an option to remake the film.
Digital Video Expo West 2004: The 8th annual Digital Video Expo will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center, December 6 through 10, displaying the latest knick-knacks and doodads in digital video production, postproduction and delivery -- including exhibits from Apple, Avid, Canon, Canopus, JVC, Matrox and Panasonic, and training sessions held at the Los Angeles Center Studios December 7 through 9. Click here for more details.
Dibbuk Box: Variety reports Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert -- the filmmaking duo who have been collaborating since Raimi's feature debut, The Evil Dead, in 1981 -- will be following up their recent box office hit, The Grudge, with this new feature, produced through their production company Senator International and Ghost House Pictures. Screenwriter Stephen Susco will write Dibbuk Box, reportedly a fictional retelling of L.A. Times writer Leslie Gornstein's article Jinx in a Box, about a haunted wooden box brought to America by a World War II holocaust survivor, and then sold on eBay. Click here to peek inside the box and learn more about the legend.
The Grudge 2: CreatureCorner.com reports producer Roy Lee is planning to fast-track a sequel to Columbia Pictures' ghost story remake, based on director Takashi Shimizu's Japanese horror hit Ju-On. The Grudge -- starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as a nurse in modern-day Tokyo who encounters a murderous supernatural entity -- was reportedly made for less than $10 million, and brought in an estimated $39.1 million in its opening weekend.
Memoirs of a Geisha: DarkHorizons.com reports director Rob Marshall has begun shooting this adaptation of Arthur Golden's novel about the life of a Japanese girl separated from her family in the 1930s and inducted into a life of servitude at a geisha house. Ziyi Zhang and Ken Wantanabe star with Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh and Koji Yakusho. Lucy Fisher, Douglas Wick and Steven Spielberg are producing for Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment. IMDb.com credits Scott Fisher as special effects director. A fall 2005 release is planned.
Harry Potter 4: The BBC has posted the first pictures here of the Quidditch World Cup set depicting aerial views of grandstands, tents, buildings and dragon's lair from Warner Brothers Pictures' adaptation of J.K. Rowling's fourth teen wizard book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The article states that the film -- currently being directed by Mike Newell for a November 2005 release -- will be the most expensive yet, budgeted at $215 million.
The Polar Express: The Hollywood Reporter states Robert Zemeckis' upcoming CG-animated, performance-captured Christmas fantasy, based on Chris Van Allsburg's picture book, was the closing film at the Chicago International Film Festival -- Zemeckis' home town -- and was "a resounding hit with a Middle American family audience... A technical landmark for Zemeckis and hundreds of visual effects specialists at Sony Imageworks..." For more information on the film's groundbreaking visual effects, look for Cinefex's special 25th anniversary issue, due out in December.
The Life Aquatic: Cinefex Weekly Update 41 erroneously credited the stop-motion animation of colorful deep sea critters in filmmaker Wes Anderson's upcoming oceanography comedy to stop-motion maestro Will Vinton. Anderson's creatures were, in fact, animated by stop-motion maestro Henry Selick, who joined Vinton Studios soon after completing The Life Aquatic.