Phil Tippet is the legendary special effects genius who is behind the wolves of New Moon. He gave recent interviews to both the San Fransisco Chronicle and the LA Times.
“When that wolf checks out Bella, it’s not a wolf’s eyes, it’s Jacob’s. “We brought Taylor [Lautner] in and had him haul his eyelids back as far as possible and shot close-ups.” They then added those eyes to the giant animated timber wolf used in the scene.”
Read more in the LA Times.
“Q: Which movie had tighter security on the set, “Return of the Jedi” or “New Moon”?
A: For “Return of the Jedi,” I was totally oblivious to all the fandom. I didn’t notice anything, and most of the work was done on pretty secured sets. For “New Moon,” it was unbelievable.
It was like a CIA operation. Some of the locations we would go to, the production would be so concerned about fooling the paparazzi, they would take the arrows pointing to the location and turn them the other way. We were actually getting lost.
Q: Did you do much wolf-related research for the movie?
A: We nailed it down early that these were not going to be traditional beast-y horror movie things. … We watched a lot of documentaries and looked at every single picture book out there on wolves.
My co-supervisor, Matt Jacobs, took a bunch of the art department and animators to a wolf preserve outside of Los Angeles. They got into a pen about the size of this room with about 10 wolves and just spent the afternoon with them.”
Read more in the San Fransisco Chronicle.
WhooHoo! I’m the first comment! (unless someone posted something while I was typing this)
They really nailed the look for the wolves. I was impressed with all the special effects and it’s nice to know how they used Taylor’s eyes for the wolf. Team Jacob!!!
That is so cool how they did that with Jacob/Taylor’s eyes. I guess I’ll have to go see the movie again to get a closer look!
You know what really annoys me??
I went with my husband, and he was munching constantly on popcorn nonstop!!! But when the wolves were on the screen and the fight at the Volturi, his hand froze in the bag. He was totally focused, and then ate his way through all the romantic parts!
Grrrrrrrrrr….men….
LOL
I’d love to read more interviews with the post-production peeps. They are the unsung heroes of films.
I love Phil Tippet for the amazing special effects! I’m really glad they used Taylor’s actual eyes on his wolf. It makes the CG animal more realistic.
I’m glad they did their research on the wolves. They were very realistic. I didn’t notice that the wolf’s eye was Taylor’s…another reason to go see NM again! However, they did take that from the book, and that was just a fantastic touch!!
i like that pic like alot