How the creature designer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters built an entire ecosystem of beasts, rewriting human history along the way.
SCOTT CHAMBLISS HAS BUILT ENVIRONMENTS across the universe as production designer for movies such as Star Trek and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. But Godzilla: King of the Monsters presented a new challenge: create an entire ecosystem robust enough to shape a fictional human past and populate its monster-filled future.
“What is their story, what are their qualities, and how do we most accurately or meticulously convey this about them?” Chambliss says, describing his design approach. As the ringleader on more than a dozen creature designs for King of the Monsters—“17 and counting,” Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) says in the latest trailer—Chambliss and director Michael Dougherty had to build a world on a scale appropriate for the movie’s rampaging iconic monsters, or Titans, competing for dominance.
“We had this biodynamic relationship with nature that we visualized with these creatures, including Godzilla,” Chambliss says, using a term often applied to organic farming and wine labels. “Everything about them is a part of nature.”
This could mean Godzilla’s body lighting up with bioluminescence as he roars radioactivity, or Rodan’s fiery nature going far beyond his volcanic lair. “There’s some visual manifestation that happens within their very beings before they let anything rip,” Chambliss explains.
This story is from the May 24-31,2019 edition of Newsweek.
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This story is from the May 24-31,2019 edition of Newsweek.
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