Is there healthy competition between KNB and the other effects companies in Hollywood – like, say, Stan Winston Studios?
Yeah, there’s basically three other top shops – there’s Spectral Motion, who works with Guillermo Del Toro on such movies as Hellboy; there’s ADI, who has worked on Alien Vs Predator, and a whole slew of other films; and the other one is what used to be Stan Winston Studios and they’re now called Legacy, and it’s run by a couple of guys who use to work with [the late] Stan [Winston]. Those three companies are our main competition – but its friendly competition. We all catch up once a month for dinner to talk about what’s going on the industry and the best way to approach things. It’s great. So with a film like Surrogates, do you go in and pitch the studio or the director – in this case, Jonathan Mostow? Absolutely. A few of the different companies submit their ideas to the producer and the director. And in this case, they decided to hire us. These days, more often than not, studios and filmmakers are coming to us – it’s much easier than having to pursue things. And what were you respon
