With so much grim news around the world these days, I thought today it was time for a little fun. I spied this Martian foot soldier from Tim Burton's 1996 sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! on display on the Warner Bros. Studios Backlot Tour on June 9, 2016. I'm not sure if or how it was used in the alien invasion movie, but it's still a lot of fun to see a life-size version of the big-brained Martians.
Martian foot soldier from Mars Attacks!
Mars Attacks! movie poster
I am late in seeing this and I guess by now you have heard from others. These were used in the film. I worked on them in Manchester in England. They were used in the scenes when the Martians were lying around dead. My wife and I got shown around the WB set in Hollywood during the lunch break in filming. It was set inside the White House. Our immaculate aliens were now battle damaged, distressed etc. We knew this was to happen but...We originally made loads of stop frame puppets because it was intended as an homage to Ray Harryhausen but when a new producer was brought in he changed it all to CGI but were still contracted to make puppets so we retooled and made 18 I thing life sized puppets. It meant they didn't have to add CGI dead aliens. I have seen that Martian at the tour. My daughter is a big Friends fan so we went. I am an Angeleno but live in Britain and for a few years did a lot of Stop motion work.
ReplyDeleteThis is brilliant context, thanks for the info!
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