- "Wētā Workshop... made everything you see in the films. Richard Taylor, the man in charge - I think he's a genius."
- —Christopher Lee in the Extended Edition documentary "Weta Workshop"
Richard Taylor (born February 1965) is the creator of New Zealand movie prop and special effects company Wētā Workshop, and was chief creative supervisor in the making of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. He currently is head of Wētā Workshop with co-founder Tania Rodger.
He appears and gives commentary in most documentaries in the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings films.
Biography[]
Richard Taylor grew up in Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, but was born in Cheadle, Cheshire, England. He emigrated to New Zealand as a child and naturalised as a New Zealand citizen in 1974
Taylor was introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien's writings through The Hobbit.[1] A close friend of Peter Jackson in cinema since 1989 (the year of Jackson's show Meet the Feebles), Taylor created, with a team of young graphic designers, all props, prosthetics, miniatures, "bigatures", and weaponry for Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films in 1998 and on. He did the same for the first of the Chronicles of Narnia films. For his work on Jackson's trilogy, he shared in winning four Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup (twice). He has a cameo appearance with Jackson and other crew members in the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, as a Corsair pirate.
Taylor with Peter Jackson
In the introduction to Gary Russell's The Art of The Fellowship of the Ring, Richard Taylor tells of the forming of Wētā Workshop and the initial efforts of conceptualizing Middle-earth for live-action adaptation. For Chris Smith's 2003 film-guide The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, Taylor wrote an introduction with Daniel Falconer.
He worked with Peter Jackson again in King Kong (2005), and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 2011, for which he worked on creature design.
Taylor was knighted in 2010 into a high appointment of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his "services to film", giving him the acronymous title "KNZM".
Documentary appearances[]
- The Lord of the Rings film trilogy appendices of the The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition
- Part One: From Book to Vision > Designing and Building Middle-earth
- Part Two: From Vision to Reality > Visual Effects > Weta Digital, Scale, and Miniatures
- Part Two: From Vision to Reality > "The Road Goes Ever On..."
- Part Four: The Battle for Middle-earth Begins > Visual Effects > Wētā Workshop
- Part Four: The Battle for Middle-earth Begins > "The Battle for Helm's Deep is Over..."
- Part Five: The War of the Ring > Designing and Building Middle-earth > Big-atures and Wētā Workshop
References[]
- ↑ YouTube - Sir Richard Taylor, Co-founder & Creative Director - WETA Workshop interview on Nerd of the Rings, September 6, 2021
External links[]
- Richard Taylor (filmmaker) at Wikipedia
Richard Taylor at the Internet Movie Database
- Related
- Wētā Workshop official website
- Interviews
- TheOneRing.net - [Collecting The Precious – Exclusive Interview with Sir Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop] by elessar July 18th, 2024
- YouTube - Sir Richard Taylor, Co-founder & Creative Director - WETA Workshop interview on Nerd of the Rings, September 6, 2021