Film Geek News: Stan Winston

I only just heard that Stan Winston died a couple of days ago, which is a bit sad.

You might not know the name, especially if you’re not a scifi film geek, but you’ve definitely seen the work. Even really CG-heavy films need a practical special effect every now and then, and Stan was the go-to guy when it came to your horrible monster, especially its horribly monstrous head - he built Predator, Terminator, the aliens in Aliens, the dinos in Jurassic and loads more.  Memorable, iconic stuff! He generally didn’t do the design work, but he made it work on-screen, which is just as important. Where would we be if Predator didn’t have the creepy, spidery mandibles?

“Living in some kind of wonderland where there’s no such thing as AVP:Requiem”, I hear you say. Maybe so, but you’re missing the point. Deliberately, by the sounds of it. Why do you have to be so difficult?
 

There’s a story about fellow practical effects pioneer Phil Tippett working on Jurassic Park. Apparently, when looking at CG dino footage, Spielberg turned to him and said “I think you’re out of a job.” and Tippett replied “I think you mean I’m extinct”. It’s probably apocryphal, but Tippett started out as a stop-motion animator, and whether he said it or not he certainly knew it – he moved into CG animation and directing (well, trying to direct… ).

It’s kinda cool that Stan, although he had a brief flirtation with CG, always found work doing the practical stuff. Rumour is that he was doing more of the dino heads on Jurassic Park 4. I’m sure that whoever they replace him with will do a bang-up job, but when I see Jurassic Park 4, I’ll be thinking of Stan.

“Jurassic Park 4 can go get fucked”, you say? Well, I can’t say I approve of your language, but… finally you’re making some sense. Thanks.

I’ll go and watch Predator and think of Stan instead.

UPDATE: Kudos! Charlie’s Angels director McG has declared his intention to dedicate Terminator 4 to Stan.