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RichardTaylor

Richard Taylor before 2004

"Weta 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 Weta Workshop, and was chief creative supervisor in the making of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. He currently is head of Weta 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.

Taylor was intorduced 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 Jackson

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 Weta 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[]

External links[]

References[]

  1. Interview with Nerd of the Rings, September 6, 2021
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