Harry here with this report from some dang Canary Farmer about what sounds like one helluva presentation by KNB. I saw a very very early test of the one electrocution he mentions below, but it was an even earlier stage mock-up. Boy, this stuff sounds intense. I tell ya... it's gonna be great!
Hi there Harry.
I thought I would fill you in as to some of the work being done with The Green Mile. There was a presentation tonight at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville by The Kurtzman Nicotero and Berger EFX Group (KNB), and the speaker (whose name I"ve sadly forgotten) showed film footage of tests for Delacroix's execution and models of the Mr. Jingles, the mouse.
Even though the electrocution shots shown were definitely the test stage, you could tell that the final product for Delacroix's "unpleasantness" will be very very cool. The animatronic dummy was controlled through slave circuitry, allowing the mock-up to mimic the movement of a real person. There was a shot of the dummy twitching his fingers and legs nervously as there are only a few seconds to go before the switch is thrown. It was a beautifully realistic shot, and as the fouled-up execution continued, the fire burst from the torso and face mask, blowing out the front, allowing the burning face to be seen. This should be an amazing sequence on-screen with final touches added.
They also showed an aged Tom Hanks head that was originally going to be used for the current time parts of the movie, but the speaker said that they chose instead to go with a real older person just looks like Hanks.
The mechanical Mr. Jingles was also incredibly realistic, and as the guy said "They never ask us to make real animal models unless something reeeeally bad is going to happen to it." There was also a bunch of behind the scene shots from other movies the KNB group did, like Casino (the whole eye-popping deal), a naked Gillian Anderson model used for the movie, and From Dusk Till Dawn models and masks. It was a highly entertaining evening, and I'm looking forward to The Green Mile more than ever. Keep up the good work, Harry, and you can call me The Canary Farmer.
