Once you saw Men in Black 3 beyond the stage smoke and secret curtain, the truly great and powerful Oz seemed like a pretty lonely guy whose citadel had a lot of hallways and not enough heartbeats. It’s hard not to wonder if your same refers to Hollywood wizard Rick Baker, but maybe that’s simply because of the giant hourglass along with the flying monkeys that decorate his shadowy office.
This summer Baker is celebrating his 40th anniversary available of makeup, visual effects and monster construction - he was an apprentice to makeup master Dick Smith on “The Exorcist.” The 61-year-old’s latest work reaches theaters on Friday using the release of Watch Men in Black 3 online the somewhat unexpected return of your franchise containing consumed (and frustrated) Baker greater than any other Hollywood venture.
Download Men in Black 3 sees Will Smith reprise his role as Agent J, who, and also other secret operatives, is tasked to monitor and police all extraterrestrial activity in the world, which (unknown to the public) can be a bustling Grand Central Station for off-planet visitors who arrive with either tourism or tyranny planned. Tommy Lee Jones has returned too, although his character, the caustic Agent K, is portrayed in most of the film by franchise newcomer Josh Brolin. That’s because Smith’s character starts back in time to 1960s to use a younger version of his persnickety partner.
The stakes are high too. The 3-D release, like other summer 2012 entries “The Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” be more pricey than $200 million to create. For Baker, all of those factors, in addition to the anniversary and the strong possibility how the film is his last “MIB” expedition, made this think that a milestone moment.
With a recent afternoon, Baker gave visitors a tour of his 33,000-square-foot Glendale headquarters, which features an indoor cemetery, castle-rampart facades along with a gallery of props and creatures. You’ll obtain the furry or freakish characters from “Planet from the Apes” (2001), “The Nutty Professor” (1996), “Wolf” (1994), “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (2000) and “The Ring” (2002).
Baker’s gifts go well after dark beyond the obvious illusions of rubber, dye and wig, according to director Ron Howard, who watched the make-up maestro win an Oscar for his Seussian transformation of Jim Carrey for “Grinch.”
“Rick Baker has experienced a huge effect on pop movie culture, defining often, the way we have a look at fantasy characters.” Howard said. “Rick is an element painter/sculptor and part actor/storyteller. When designing make-ups and creatures, Rick really begins from a place of pure character and finds the intersection point between that will what will really get audiences excited through the coolness products they are seeing on the watch's screen.”
One whole wall is specialized in a gallery of intergalactic souls through the “Men in Black” franchise, which real estate was well-earned. Baker says a few films together are often the most intense, persistent, frustrating and defining brand in his body of labor, a career which includes more than 50 movies, years of television and projects including Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video and “Captain EO” mini-movie.
The challenge of creating lots of varied alien species for each film attracted Baker towards the first “MIB,” and the efforts about it led to an Oscar. However it wasn’t easy.
“We did more design develop that film than we did for every other movie that I’ve done all build,” Baker said.
