Career in Creatures: A Stan Winston Art Retrospective

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:00:00 PDT

With the sad news earlier this week that special effects master Stan Winston had died, Hollywood lost one of its master creature-makers. Though Winston's studio did do some digital effects, Winston may have been one of the last great artists of the animatronic. With the help of a huge group of artists, sculptors, mechanical engineers, and even (at one point) the Sociable Robotics Lab at MIT, Winston built everything from a life-sized dinosaur for Jurassic Park to the uncannily realistic teddy bear bot for the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence. He also had a hand in some productions you might not have guessed, like 1970s Wizard of Oz remake The Wiz with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson (holy crap I loved that movie when I was a kid). At the time of his death, he was working on James Cameron's upcoming Avatar, and Martin Scorcese's Shutter Island — but despite his association with primo directors, his amazing creations have appeared in more than one cheesy-but-awesome movie, too. Below, we take you on a photographic tour of Winson's career in creatures.

Follow the links to awesome galleries.

Stan Winston Studio

Must See: Heartbeeps

Annalee Newitz — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:24:08 PDT

Must-see movies are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale.

Title: Heartbeeps
Date: 1981

Vitals: While in the robot repair shop, a damaged robot accountant (Andy Kaufman, brilliantly and freakishly deadpan) meets a robot maid (Peters) and the two run away from their masters and fall in love. Along for the ride is a "comedy robot" who can only tell bad one-liners. Fleeing a bumbling police robot, Kaufman and Peters eventually make baby robots and seek domestic happiness where humans can't control them.

Famous names: Andy Kaufman, Bernadette Peters, Alan Arkush

Crunchy goodness: 2

Stunt casting: This film features Andy Kaufman, the infamously mental TV star/comedian/wrestler whose life became a performance art trainwreck, in his only film role. It was a strange choice, and this odd little flick about robot family values will probably be remembered mostly because of Kaufman's role in it.

The shit: While the writing is uneven in this movie, its approach to the traditional "robots fleeing their masters" or "robot uprising" theme is actually quite unconventional. Kudos to the creators for re-imagining robot uprisings in the context of a sweet family comedy that is also subversive in its own small way.

Oddest product tie-in: Director Alan Arkush went on to have a long career in television, including directing many episodes of the hit show Heroes.

X=Entertainment: Heartbeeps Movie Review.

io9: heartbeeps

Career in Creatures: A Stan Winston Art Retrospective

Must See: Heartbeeps