Sideshow Is Main Event In Movie Toys
Sculptor Falls Applies Experience As FX Artist To Different Medium
Well, it's barely May, and already the customary toy lines that accompany each of what Hollywood studios hope will be its next blockbuster are showing up on store shelves. Whether in the form of plush dolls, action figures or fast-food meal premiums, the shelf lives of these toys are, sadly, largely determined by whether the film itself is a boom or a bust.
Ah, the risky business of movie marketing isn't just child's play.
But no matter how anyone else fares, there's a growing company on the fringe of Tinseltown that's literally molding itself a solid reputation with the lasting images of classic films from yesteryear. It's called Sideshow Toy, but the studio marketing powers-that-be are quickly realizing that these artisans are clearly the main event.
Not only did Sideshow already set new standards for the movie toy industry last year with the release of an incredibly authentic line of action figures based on Universal Studios' monster movies, its product is so revered that its already on the fast track to mold toy lines for upcoming movies (Robert DeNiro's "Rocky and Bullwinkle," Brendan Fraser's "Monkey Bone" and Jim Carrey's "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"). The company is also producing toys based on select cult classics ("This Is Spinal Tap" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail").
Other gems in the archive already include sculptures of famous personalities like martial artist legend Bruce Lee and caricatures (known as "Little Big Heads") of "The Munsters" and Minnesota's "Ain't Got Time To Bleed" governor, Jesse Ventura.
Founded in 1993, the Westlake Village, Calif.-based Sideshow started as a provider of makeup effects, props and animatronic puppets for the film and TV industry. The toy phase began in 1994, when the team developed more than 250 products for 12 different companies.
Having acted exclusively behind the scenes for the next four years, the company moved itself out into the forefront in 1999. With the talents of such players as 3D design director Mat Falls, his design partner Ken Morgan, sculptor Olaf Hartvigson and painter Tom Gilliland, the first solo effort was a daunting one: creating a new generation of Universal Studios monster toys.
For the first licensed line, Hartvigson sculpted three 8-inch figures: Frankenstein's Monster and the wrapped version of the Mummy, which were based on the likeness of Boris Karloff; and the Wolfman, based on the likeness of Lon Chaney Jr.
Falls sculpted the company's "Little Big Head" monster line, which were caricature renditions of Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolfman, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Invisible Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Monstrous Appeal? While the characters have maintained a high level of popularity over all these years, Falls told me in a recent interview that he wasn't quite sure at first how the toy-buying public would respond to the line of figures. After all, even with the explosion of the action figure market over the past 20 years, the Universal monsters had been scantily represented in plastic.
"We were going on faith in hopes that there would be a demand, because there wasn't much quality product available that was faithful to the actual characters themselves," Falls tells me.
No matter what sort of success anybody had with the product before, Falls was attracted to the project, which would once again bring our scary cinematic friends to life.
"I had a background (in) makeup effects and had an affinity since I was a kid to monsters in general -- not just the classics," Falls says. "Ken Morgan also had a soft spot for monsters, so it was a good license to cut our teeth on because we cared about it."
Falls has worked with makeup maestro Rick Baker and on such films as Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and Steven Spielberg's "Hook."
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Sideshow monster line is the incredible detail of not only the character faces, but the costumes and physical stature of the figures.
"The rough sculpts are made out of clay, and then it's cast in wax," Falls says of the early production process. "The wax is hard enough that you can handle it, yet it's soft enough to tool, and when you've got to refine it you can put a polish on it and bring out all the details -- the eyes, the fines, the mouth, (the) forehead. That's something you can't normally bring out in clay."
The making of a monster for Sideshow comes from several different sources. The look of the design can come from many different sources, including book references, photos and details given in Universal Studios' style guide.
After designer Morgan renders a design that meets Universal's approval, either Hartvigson or Falls will take the helm. Striving for accuracy, the actual sculpting for one 8-inch action figure can take anywhere from two to four weeks. At two days, the "Little Big Head" sculpting process is quite a bit faster -- which explains why Falls has had the opportunity to sculpt about 100 pieces.
"There's leeway on the Little Big Heads because they are caricatures, so I can deviate a little bit and know it's not going to create ripples in our process," Falls says. "There's not as much commentary on those from Universal or the estates. The action figures are a little different because the likeness issues have to be focused on."
In regard to recreating the likenesses of such greats as Karloff, the Chaneys, Elsa Lanchester and Claude Rains, Sideshow has been fortunate that those estates have been very cooperative.
"It can be a very tough process, but fortunately the estates have been pretty good with us because we think they do recognize the quality of the characters," Falls says.
Still on the wish list is one of the most famous Universal monsters, Bela Lugosi's "Dracula."
"We may still, but for whatever reason, it hasn't happened," Falls says. "I hope it will (happen) because it's the only main character that's missing. If it were up to us, it would be done by now."
That's not to say that the company isn't keeping itself busy producing other monsters. After the wild success of the first line (at $15 apiece), a second series was produced: Hartvigson sculpted the Gillman from "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" and Elsa Lanchester's likeness from "The Bride of Frankenstein." Falls tooled Lon Chaney from "The Phantom of the Opera."
Series Three of the monster line is coming out this month, and features Claude Rains as the Invisible Man (complete with interchangeable clear and wrapped heads), Lon Chaney as the Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Metaluna Mutant creature from "This Island Earth."
Series Four will be out later this year, and features three more classic characters: the Mole Man from "The Mole People," Boris Karloff's likeness from "Son of Frankenstein" and Henry Hull's likeness from "Werewolf of London."
In Glorious Black And White
In a stroke of brilliance, Sideshow has reintroduced the first two series of the monster line in the way that moviegoers originally saw them -- in glorious black and white.
"We all got a light bulb over our head," Falls says of the idea. "When you're painting these things, (you) think to yourself, 'How odd is this to see this in color?' It almost doesn't seem right.
"I think out of the gate we flirted with the idea of putting them out in black and white before we put them out in color. But in order to get it in some of the major markets, we felt they needed to see it in color, so we decided to play it a little safer and follow it up with black and white. I think that's how they're really meant to be seen."
For now, Series One (Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy and the Wolfman) is available as a special boxed set, and Series Two (the Creature, the Bride and the Phantom) are Toys R Us exclusives. Pay particularly close attention to the Phantom, Falls says, because he has a new look: Strapped by deadlines with the color version, Falls took the opportunity to make the character look even closer to his original state of horror.
"The color version of the figure was a little too whimsical, so I gave him the sardonic attitude he was famous for," Falls tells me. "I wanted it to be a little more frightening than the first version." Look for the "scarier" Phantom to be produced in color, too.
Perhaps the best part of the work for Falls is that it keeps him in close touch with an aspect of the movies with which he so dearly connects. He's been watching monster movies for as long as he can remember, and will never forget the feelings of excitement that they created for him growing up.
"When you're innocent and you're allowed to be scared by these things, it's a wonderfully terrifying thing when you watch them in the safety of your home behind a chair, like I used to watch them," Falls says. "It was a fun fascination with the unknown. When I go to a movie nowadays and try to capture that, it doesn't happen as much."
And while that thrill may be lacking onscreen, that's not to say that Falls' and his colleagues' artistry won't have an impact. Maybe now that imagination can be captured in a different way.
Filmmaker 'Committed' To New Direction
While it seems that her infamous turns as Rollergirl and Felicity Shagwell would make Heather Graham an unlikely candidate for the role of a dedicated wife in any other film, it was the exact quality that writer-director Lisa Krueger was seeking for the new romantic comedy-drama "Committed." Step aside, Meg Ryan.
"One of the fun things about casting Heather was getting somebody that you would not instantly associate with the idea of unconditional loyalty and devotion," Krueger told me in a recent interview. "I wanted somebody who had gone out on a limb and played some parts that were interesting, layered and maybe even of dubious morality -- certainly Rollergirl in 'Boogie Nights' fit that bill."
In the film, Graham plays Joline, a New York woman deserted by her husband just shy of their second anniversary. When she tracks him down in El Paso, Texas, she'll go to any lengths to show that she's committed to him, even if it means that she may be committed in the psychiatric sense of the word.
"I think that I had periods of my life when I was writing this where I was in the throes of debate about commitment, what it meant and how far one should go," Krueger says of her script. "There's no real rule books out there to live by, so I came up with a character who invents her own version of what commitment means."
The film debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival. This is Krueger's second stint as writer and director, and is the follow-up to her critically acclaimed "Manny & Lo."
DVD Spotlight: 'Galaxy Quest'
So just how many DVDs in the history of the technology's existence have offered an alternative language track in Thermian? The answer is none, until "Galaxy Quest," that is, a laugh-out-loud funny feature that makes this "Star Trek" lover's dream a must-see. Thermian, by the way, is an alien language in the movie.
Of course, the film is not about "Trek," although the scenario seems all too familiar: A group of actors who once found fame in a '70s sci-fi series, "Galaxy Quest," are stuck in the doldrums of the convention circuit 20 years later. But when a group of aliens intercepts and misinterprets their television transmissions, the crew is whisked away for a real-life space adventure. The fish-out-of-water story line is particularly clever here, considering that the crew is totally lost operating a ship that they mimicked operating on the TV show.
Although "Galaxy Quest" is the name of the fictional show (or is it?), Trekdom screams throughout the film. Tim Allen is a hoot as the Shatner-ized captain of the starship, while half-humanoid Alan Rickman brilliantly handles the role of the first mate. In a stunning turn, a blond Sigourney Weaver plays downright giddy Lt. Tawny Madison, known more for her body than her mind. The film not only has the look of the '70s sci-fi classic (the filmmakers took advantage of a great location -- Utah's Goblin Valley), it has the feel of the show that made it so endearing.
What's great about this DVD version of "Galaxy Quest" is that its features maintain the light sense of humor that is carried throughout the film. A brisk 10-minute location shoot and deleted scenes give even more insight into the film and its sophisticated special effects, which include the wizardry of Industrial Light and Magic and makeup effects giant Stan Winston. And yes, there's more to it than just a shaky camera operator on the bridge during the space turbulence scenes, and the doc shows us how it was done.
Even the customary standard bio section of the DVD has a nice twist. Sure, we get all the career vitals and even some interview clips, but on the menu of actors and filmmakers, there's a rotating 3-D display of some of the creatures in the film. Included in the display is the awesomely constructed rock monster Garignak, and one of the pint-sized Beryllium Miners -- which somehow bears a creepy resemblance to a Teletubby from hell.
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