Special effects king Richard Taylor will fly the Kiwi flag in Monaco this week amid the world’s leading entrepreneurs, a prospect he finds daunting. Attending the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year awards, after winning the New Zealand title last October, Mr Taylor will compete against 46 others from around the world in the luxury Mediterranean port. But it was the prestigious company, rather than the swanky location, that was the biggest treat. “We have always thought of ourselves as creative people, not business people. It’s a bit daunting actually,” he said. [More]
Category: Crew News
All news about the LOTR Crew.
Thanks to TORnado Grammaboodawg for sending this great article about Richard Taylor. Seems our favorite Weta chief will be in Monaco this week meeting with the 46 candidates for the world title. The winner will be announced Sunday but the full story can be read right here.
Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop is in talks to create visual effects for an action adventure film telling the story behind the devil’s fall from grace, an industry website has reported. The film – to be produced by Christine Iso’s Los Angeles-based Pacifica International company – may also be shot in New Zealand to take advantage of local tax credits, screendaily.com said. The writer of Sleepless In Seattle, David Ward, is producing a script from a story by first-time director Ray Griggs, who has personally financed development of the project. The film, Lucifer, describes how the devil was once an angel whose pride caused him to be cast out of heaven and bring sin and death to mankind. [More]
Weta Workshop ‘s new animated series Jane and the Dragon brings out the playful side of director Richard Taylor. He talks to Grant Smithies. Richard Taylor grins a goofy grin. His eyes shine brightly behind his wire-framed specs. This being New Zealand Music Month, the special-effects whiz and director of Weta Workshop in Wellington is remembering the Kiwi bands that blew his mind as a teenager. The Gordons. Mangaweka Viaduct. The Screaming Meemees. “My favourite Meemees’ song had a line that went something like, ‘My girl’s got pointy ears, oh yeah, shake shake!’,” he says, beaming. [More]
Nick writes: “The Weekender” is BBC Radio 2’s Friday night arts programme. This week there was a review of the LOTR musical and also a long interview with Alan Lee, talking about his involvement with the films and illustrating the books, including recently “The Children of Hurin”. You can listen to the programme (the Tolkien bits are in the second hour) by going to the Radio 2 page, to the Listen page and scrolling down the page to fine “The Weekender”. [Radio 2]
Committing at least $65 million, DreamWorks in association with Film 4 has won the bidding for Jackson’s bigscreen adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-selling 2002 tome “The Lovely Bones.” Announcement came early Friday evening, capping a weeklong auction that had three other majors vying for Jackson’s project as well-Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal and Sony. Jackson is set to begin lensing in October in Pennsylvania and New Zealand from a script he co-wrote with “Lord of the Rings” collaborators Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh. Paramount, which owns DreamWorks, will distribute “Bones” worldwide, with Jackson promising to deliver the film by the fourth quarter 2008. [More]