Cinefex 165 just hit the streets! Weighing in at a whopping 136 pages, our bumper June issue contains my in-depth articles on Godzilla: King of the Monsters and the Amazon Studios adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens. Peel back the cover and you’ll also discover Jody Duncan’s coverage of Avengers: Endgame, plus Joe Fordham’s stories on Dark Phoenix and Detective Pikachu.
My 9,000-word Godzilla: King of the Monsters article was a titanic assignment in all respects. MPC led the visual effects charge, solidly backed up by DNEG, Method Studios and Rodeo FX. I interviewed supervisors and animators at all the companies, plus Tom Woodruff, Jr. at Amalgamated Dynamics and Shane Mahan at Legacy Effects, each responsible for various aspects of creature design. Special effects supervisor Eric Frazier shared secrets about how he delivered snowstorms and hurricanes on set, while director Mike Dougherty opened up about his lifelong passion for the monster first spawned in the 1954 Toho feature Godzilla.
Good Omens was a delight. Not only did I get to chat with the charming and erudite Douglas Mackinnon, who directed all six episodes of the series, but I also spent a fabulous afternoon at the offices of Milk VFX, where visual effects supervisor J.C. Deguara and his team regaled me with stories about the making of the show, and revealed how they crafted a veritable smörgåsbord of quirky screen illusions. Rounding out my interviewee list was visual effects producer Alan Church.
Cinefex 165 is on newsstands now, and available to order from the online store.
Graham Edwards 