As for the CGI transformation, I really don't know what to think. Can't they blend practical and CGI?

Now after reading this new interview I feel a sense of icky dread. They fucked him on the 70s Kong, which was a labour of love. Even Landis didn't shoot the American Werewolf transformation the way he wanted, and now this... fingers crossed man, fingers crossed...

As far as I'm concerned, there are only two people on that entire production that can't be replaced, and that's Del Toro and Baker. Wake up, Universal.

P.S. I second that vote for JP4.

I'll try to find the info and get back on this one.

As for Cursed, the only reason I watched that thing was to see Rick Baker Werewolf stuff. I'd read that even though most stuff was KNB or someone (I'm getting foggy, it's 2 in the morning here), there was still some of Monstermaker's stuff there. Nope. But they still kept dropping his name in the extras!! Maybe this was just the Oz release. Does anyone know (besides, he wouldn't know) whether there's any RB work left in the U.S. version?

The light-up finger and marooned alien survived into E.T. A bit rough that SS pissed off for months and Baker spent the best part of a million bucks on the aliens (I think there was a mohawk named Spike, too!) and while I guess they compensated him financially, what about the wasted time? God I'd love to see those things. It was based on those Kentucky alien encounter stories. Oh and BTW I love Rambaldi's designs. To be fair, maybe SS even offered him E.T. but Baker might have been to upset to take it. Carlo R gave us CE3K spiderguy, E.T. and the Guild Navigator which are all great designs, even if the performance was shit at times. But he DID fuck up HUGE on Kong. Calling Baker out as an arsehole is moronic.

On the same theme, there's a common denominator in that you post idiotic TBs most every time you're on a thread. You should sit down yourself. And shut up. You're this close to trolling.

Excellence.

Best case scenario with Rick Baker is he's aproached by a director who want's another creative genius on board and someone who'll collaborate to make a scene better! sounds like these days there's too many little cooks all poking their noses in and pasting over the cracks with shitty CG! has to be frustrating but Baker is also not adverse to using CG where it's necissary to blend FX work or make a scene possible where practical FX just won't do

Beniccio Del Torro plus Rick Baker are enough to get my arse in a theatre seat, shame all the other ingredients aren't there or this might have been an amazing Wolfman movie rather than possibly a good one!

That is all.

Can you blame me for getting a bit excited/worried?! It's 3.30 in the morning and I should go to bed though, that much is true. Cheers.

Filmfunk, don't forget the script is by Andrew Kevin Walker, who gave us Seven and Sleepy Hollow, both of which I love. I can't wait.

Oh and cockblocking Rick Baker sucks. Since THRILLER I've been dying to see a Zombie flick with Baker in charge of the make-up.

You're right though. I was loopy last night and already admitted I was doing the ol' AICN post at 3 in the morning shtick, but if you can't see the pertinence of the American Werewolf situation you're a bigger idiot than I thought.

If you knew anything about what you profess to love so much, you'd know that often the makeup is designed around and for the lighting, angles and editing. So it's fair enough for it to be a big issue between Baker and Landis at the time and more than fair for me to get a little "comic book guy" about it, not to mention making a point in this particular thread. Did you know Smith painted his highlights almost in fluoro yellows on Sallieri in Amadeus because he knew the scene would be shot in yellow tones (otherwise the detail would be lost)? I'm not 'schooling' you, just giving another example of why that sorta stuff is crucial.

No, I'm not the comic book guy. Like you, I love this stuff and of course that scene is an all-time fave, but unlike you and the comic book guy, I put my money and pedantry where my mouth is. If you can agree you dish it out but can't take it, we're cool.

Hey check this out. If you love Baker, you probably love Dick Smith. If you love Dick Smith, you'll be blown away at this. Kazuhiro Tsuji is an awesome sculptor/makeup effects guy who was discovered by Smith and has worked for Rick Baker for years. He's just freakishly great and he did an oversized 'portrait' sculpt of Dick Smith for his 80th birthday. My mouth dropped open when I saw it.

This is the only link I could find with Smith standing next to the sculpt. It's a myspace thingie so hopefully it works. Here goes:

http://tinyurl.com/59cdmd

And like I said before, if makeup guys used your rationale of "it was crap before, big mistake, don't even try" then there would NEVER be any breakthroughs and we wouldn't even have the awesome animatronic stuff we love today. The crappy cg stuff and fanboy naysayers should be exactly the springboard that serves to spur the digital guys to try that much harder! The fact that mostly the cg werewolves haven't been scary should be a call to arms, not "just give up and be stuck with the old limitations on purpose". So you NEVER want a dynamic, fast wolf that can actually move and isn't hidden in choppy edits? Luddite.

But if the suits and the director ARE listening, Rick Baker MUST supervise the stuff. You've got a certified (HOW many Oscars was that again?!) genius in your midst. Use your brains ,don't cut of your noses to spite your face, and don't fucking block the guy's view of a God-damned monitor.

And you're unfair with the old stuff too Jimmy - the majority of practical stuff is still cheap, "fake-looking" and badly designed. Be fair.

P.S. I think it was you asn't it that was the kid's software designer who said all the stupid shit about the "Helvetica" doco? If so, the doco was actually really great. If not, apologies.

This industry (like every industry) has been totally fucking high-jacked.

industry of fucking cool...