Saturday, April 14, 2012

Exclusive: 'Munsters’ Reboot ‘Mockingbird Lane’ Will Be 'Delicate Balance' Says Concept Artist

Saturday, April 14, 2012 - by Maurice Mitchell 16

M is for Munsters
An exclusive interview with concept artist John Gallagher about the Munsters (1964) reboot Mockingbird Lane.

You know that scary house on the corner you were scared of as a kid? Imagining all the horrible monsters inside? Well, it turns out you were right about this house.

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly has concept art of the new reboot of the 60s comedy The Munsters. Bryan Fuller is developing a dramatic re-telling of the show called Mockingbird Lane for NBC.

“We want this show to be an American Harry Potter,” Bryan Fuller says. “To have that sense of a magical world that you get to go to with your family and find stories told in a fantastical way that are instantly relatable. It’s an American Horror Story that the whole family can watch.”

Here are some comments from the creator Bryan Fuller and some exclusive comments from the concept artist, John Gallagher, on the designs. Gallagher breaks down some of the elements of color and design and even gets into some of the things we'll see in the house. It's all pretty exciting.
We wanted [the mansion] to have feeling of the original. We wanted a house in the neighborhood that children would walk past faster than other houses. - Fuller

The image below shows the concept designs for Grandpa and Lily. Charity Wakefield has been cast as the "freakishly" normal Marilyn and Eddie Izzard as Grandpa.

We’re not doing bolts in the neck and Bela Lugosi. It’s almost the Real Housewives of Transylvania. These are a blinged-out representation of what monsters would be doing if they lived in our society today. How they would look, how they would interact. Our wardrobe is heavily influenced by Alexander McQueen and his use of animal textures. For instance, with [the vampire] Lily, all of her wardrobe comes from nature. The first time we see her this nest of spiders weaves her dress on her body as she’s standing there. We’ll see ravens come in and assemble her blouse out of their feathers. We won’t see animal skins because the animals are donating as opposed to dying for it. She has domain over nature and nature has a fantastic aesthetic. - Fuller
And now here are the words of the illustrator
Pilot season is always a busy time in Vancouver and this year was no exception. I got a call from Don MacAulay, the art director, checking on availability. For the Munsters? I was all in. In fairness, as a kid I was more Addams Family than The Munsters but you couldn't beat some of the core elements of the original series and its off-center satirical skewering of mainstream sensibilities. But I jumped at the chance and was especially looking forward to reading the script given Bryan Fuller's pedigree and they didn't disappoint. The script crackled with smart, sharply-drawn characters and a delightfully wicked worldview. In other words, not simply a branded rehash but a bold and clever cache rethink. So after broad strokes conversation and a meeting of design minds off we went.


The marching orders from Don and Michael Wylie, the production designer, on palette and aesthetic is the dark fantasy convention of desaturated and muted cool tones punctuated by bold punched through with warm textural flourish...golds, reds, yellows. The world they inhabit isn't exactly overflowing with technicolor mirth so the visual metaphor needs to reinforce that prevailing mindset. In terms of the house, this is a virtual extension, a green screen second story incorporated over an existing location. The main floor was to be recladded and fitted with scalloped siding, window caps, wrought iron railings, tiled diapers and moulding to dovetail with the neo-Victorian look and the second floor festooned onto the roofline of the original building. We co-opted details everywhere from Queen Anne finishes to the Carson House. The home is meant to engage as a regal slightly tarnished mansion. Not so outright haunted but with a slightly menacing grandeur. The interior grand foyer borrows from Everton Station to the Titanic grand staircase. Again, an old world opulence with some significant new world finishes. And of course Spot's home beneath the stairs is there, along with the twin perched vultures at the railing foot. They've moved in and some of the previous owners tastes linger in places. And given that the Munsters don't stand on ceremony they don't seem to be in any hurry to unpack. Grandpa's Cellar will be a delight to behold for fans of design: Barrel vaulted polished tile meticulously applied with a moody chiaroscuro mad coroner's decorative choices. I can't reveal details but the previous owner was inclined to strange and specific practices.

We did look at the original house but what is often lost on viewers is how small the original actually was. It's marginally larger than a two story bungalow size footprint. By loosely defining the immensity of the house's form on our version, the writers are freer to explore the space given that it hasn't been strictly locked and we have room to enlarge or compress for creating scale for interiors. In the case of a re-imagining like this one, capturing the spirit of the original is critical. Alienating fans by disregarding the show's visual cues is disaster in my opinion. So they're everywhere and I think fans will get a big kick out of spotting them. Michael and Don are very smart guys. They know the score. And this one will be that delicate balance between respecting all the trappings of the original and introducing this new property rethought from the ground up by a very sharp team.
Thanks John! You can see more work from John Gallagher at http://uncannyknack.com/.

I was a huge fan of the show, so I'm looking forward to it.
@ 2012 Universal Television, John Gallagher

Via Entertainment Weekly

Image source: Entertainment Weekly and http://www.comingsoon.net






This post is part of the month long "A-Z Challenge." For 27 days, I'll be choosing a letter from the alphabet and crafting a post around it. To read more of the posts in the series click here. To find out more about the challenge go here.

Hosts: Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report, Matthew McNish at The QQQE, Tina Downey atLife is Good, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Elizabeth Mueller, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain, and Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small. Check the Facebook page and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge.

About the Author

Write admin description here..

16 comments:

  1. They're doing a Munsters reboot? I had no idea about that. Hmm....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Caught me by surprise when I first heard it too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just discovered this amazing blog and I wish to thank you for putting an effort into it; such a great place for inspiration!
    Kind regards,
    Kan

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for stopping by Ken! There are some very inspiring artists out there.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't know...on the one hand, I can totally see the "monsters living among normal people" concept, especially with things like "Twilight" popular these days. But the idea of a dramatic version of the Munsters makes as much sense as a dramatic version of a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

    ReplyDelete
  6. LOL Bugs Bunny. It's a wierd concept Nigel. I thought it was a dumb idea when I first heard it. This art and interview make me think it's at least possible.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've always adored concept art, and these ones are gorgeous! Although Frankenstein's monster with his nuts and bolts was my favourite Munster, and I can't imagine the series without him...
    J.C. Martin

    A
    to Z Blogger

    ReplyDelete
  8. Maurice,
    Cool house. "Walk past faster"? Um, no. I would avoid the street altogether!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog. To answer your question...I think I used ESV translation.

    The Write Soil
    1st Writes

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am actually thankful to the owner of this web site
    who has shared this impressive piece of writing at
    at this time.
    Also visit my web-site : learn to play piano

    ReplyDelete
  10. I read this piece of writing fully concerning the comparison of most up-to-date and previous technologies, it's remarkable article.
    Here is my blog post ; http://elitecigarettestore.com/

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow! This blog looks just like my old one!
    It's on a completely different topic but it has pretty much the same page layout and design. Wonderful choice of colors!
    Feel free to visit my web-site - amphora tobacco

    ReplyDelete
  12. Excellent site you have here but I was curious about if you knew
    of any community forums that cover the same topics talked about in this article?
    I'd really like to be a part of group where I can get advice from other knowledgeable people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Cheers!
    Feel free to visit my blog post ; samson review

    ReplyDelete
  13. First off I would like to say wonderful blog! I had a quick question in which I'd like to ask if you don't mind.
    I was curious to find out how you center yourself and clear your thoughts before writing.
    I have had trouble clearing my thoughts in getting my ideas out.
    I do enjoy writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are
    lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin.

    Any suggestions or tips? Many thanks!
    Look at my web blog : mac baren

    ReplyDelete
  14. Its such as you learn my thoughts! You seem to grasp a lot approximately this, such as you wrote
    the e-book in it or something. I think that you could do with some p.
    c. to pressure the message home a bit, however instead
    of that, that is excellent blog. An excellent read.
    I'll certainly be back.
    Here is my web blog : erinmore

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi there everyone, it's my first pay a quick visit at this web page, and piece of writing is in fact fruitful in favor of me, keep up posting these content.
    Also see my page > www.gonulvadisi.net

    ReplyDelete
  16. I have been browsing online more than 2 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.

    It's pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will be a lot more useful than ever before.
    my webpage > bfd2.info

    ReplyDelete

Tag Cloud

2001-Space-Odyssey (1) 3D (1) A.I. (3) Aaron Sims (5) Aaron-Beck (2) Adam-Kuczek (1) Adi Granov (3) Adrien-Van-Viersen (1) AfterEarth (3) Akira (6) Alan_Lee (1) Alec-Gillis (1) Alex Bradley (1) Alex Jaeger (2) Alex Mandra (2) Alex_Tornberg (1) Alex-Toader (1) Alien (10) Aliens (1) Alies_v_Predator (1) Allen-Williams (2) Alt Altiner (1) Andrea-Dopaso (2) Andree-Wallin (1) Andrew_Probert (6) Andrew-H-Leung (1) Andy Park (3) Andy-Chung (2) Andy-Gaskill (1) announcement (5) Anthony-Francisco (1) Anton Furst (1) Avatar (3) Avengers (19) Axel Eichhorst (1) BacktotheFuture (4) Batman (20) Batman-Begins (1) Batman-Forever (1) Batman-Returns (1) Battleship (4) BattlestarGalactica (5) Ben-Mauro (1) Ben-Procter (2) Benton Jew (4) Bill-Kroyer (1) BladeRunner (4) Bo_Welch (1) Bob McCall (1) Bobby Chui (1) Book_Review (4) Brian Froud (1) Brian_Cunningham (1) Brian_Matyas (1) Brick Mason (1) BuckRogers (1) Captain-America-the-Winter-Soldier (2) CaptainAmerica (9) Carlo-Rambaldi (1) Carlos-Huante (1) Cesar_Lemus (4) Charles Chiodo (1) Charles Wen (8) Charles-Ratterray (1) Chris Baker (1) Chris Foss (2) Chris-Buchinsky (1) Chris-Foss (1) Chris-Weston (1) Christian_Lorenz_Scheurer (4) Christian-Pearce (1) Christopher_Hosey (1) Christopher-S-Ross (5) Claude_Pare (3) Cloud Atlas (1) Cloverfield (1) Cobra (1) Cocoon (1) Colie-Wertz (1) Collin Grant (2) Conan (1) conceptart (293) Constantine Sekeris (6) CowboysandAliens (3) Craig Shoji (3) Craig_Shoji (4) Dan Fraga (2) Dan Walker (3) Dan-Schaefer (1) Daniel-J-Cox (1) Daphne_Yap (3) Daredevil (2) Darek_Gogol (1) Dave_Lowery (2) Dave-Max (1) David Hale (1) David Krentz (3) David Russell (3) David Vyle Levy (1) David_Allcock (1) David_J_Negron (3) David-Yee (1) Dawn_Brown (7) Dean Sheriff (2) Defiance (1) Denis-Rich (1) Dermot Power (3) Dinosaurs_v_Aliens (1) District-9 (1) DoctorWho (9) Dominic-Lavery (1) Don-Peters (1) Doug Chiang (3) Doug-Williams (2) Dune (2) DVD (2) Dylan-Cole (1) Ed_Natividad (12) Eddie Yang (2) Edward-Thomas (1) EJ_Krisor (1) Elysium (2) Emmanuel-Shiu (1) Eric Rosenberg (1) Eric-Hilleary (1) Erich Kettelhut (1) ET_the_Extra-Terrestrial (1) Fabian Lacey (3) Falling-Skies (2) FantasticFour (4) FantasticFour2 (1) Federico D’Alessandro (1) Federico-D'Alessadro (2) Felipe-Sanchez (1) Feng Zhu (3) Firefly (3) Flashback-Friday (3) Frank-Hong (1) Frederick Mpuuga (1) G.I.Joe (3) Gabriel_Hardman (4) Gage-Robot (1) GalaxyQuest (1) Gary Meyer (1) Gavin Rothery (1) Geofrey_Darrow (1) George Hull (7) George_Jensen (1) GI-Joe (3) GI-Joe-Retaliation (3) Godzilla (3) Grant_Major (1) GreenLantern (8) Grimm (3) Guardians-of-the-Galaxy (3) Guy Hendrix Dyas (1) Guy-Davis (1) H.R.Giger (7) Hanna (1) Hao Wu (1) Harald-Belker (2) Harrison_Ellenshaw (1) Harry-Lange (2) Havard S. Johansen (1) HeMan (1) Henrik Tamm (2) Henrik_Tamm (2) Henry-Fong (1) Heroes (2) Home_Video_Review (6) House (1) Howard Swindell (2) Howard-Lau (1) HowTo (1) Hugo (1) Hugo-Martin (2) Hulk (4) I-Am-Legend (1) Iain McCaig (6) Ian Joyner (1) Ian-Joyner (1) Ian-Mcaig (1) Igor-Knezevic (1) Inception (4) Indiana-Jones (1) Interview (30) Iron-Man-2 (3) IronMan (7) IronMan1 (2) IronMan3 (13) Ivor-Beddoes (1) Jack-Kirby (1) JacktheGiantKiller (6) Jaimie_Rama (3) James Carson (6) James Iles (3) James Oxford (2) James_Cameron (1) James_Carson (5) James_Clyne (2) James_Hambidge (1) James_Lima (2) Jamie Rama (7) Jamie-Jones (1) Jason-Dunn (1) Jean Moebius Giraud (7) Jean-Francois Mignault (1) Jeffrey-Errico (1) Jerad_S_Marantz (12) Jeremy_Bennett (1) Jerry-Rees (1) Jill-Thompson (1) Jock (3) Joe Johnston (4) Joel Chang (1) John Gallagher (3) John_Eaves (5) John-Greaves (1) John-Mann (1) JohnCarterofMars (7) Jonathan-Bach (3) Jonay_Bacallado (1) Jordu Schell (1) Josh Nizzi (7) JudgeDredd (4) Julian-Caldow (2) Jurassic-Park (2) Justin_Fields (1) Justin_Sweet (4) Kasra Farahani (1) Keith-Christensen (2) Keith-Thompson (1) kerry gammill (1) Kevin-Eastman (1) Kevin-Kavanaugh (1) KingKong (2) Kurtis_Richmond (1) Laurent-Ben-Mimoun (1) Leonard_Morganti (1) Lewis-Peake (1) Links (1) Literature (1) Looper (1) LXG (1) Maciek-Piotrowski (1) Man-of-Steel (11) Manuel-Plank-Jorge (1) Mark Goerner (2) Mark Jock Simpson (3) Mark Lambert Bristol (1) Mark Taylor (1) Mark-Crash-McCreery (2) Martin A Kline (1) Martin Mercer (4) Matrix (4) Matt Jeffries (3) Matt_Leach (1) Matt-Busch (1) Matt-Codd (1) Matthew Savage (107) Maury_Ruiz (1) Mayes C. Rubeo (1) Meinhart-Hansen (1) Mentor Huebner (2) MIB (4) Michael G. Ploog (1) Michael Kutsche (12) Michael-Meyers (1) Michael-Pickwoad (1) Michele_Moen (2) Mike Worrall (1) Milena_Zdravkovic (1) Miles_Teves (5) Mockingbird_Lane (1) Moon (1) Morgan Yon (1) Morton-Haack (1) Movie (273) Naaman_Marshall (1) Nathan Crowley (6) Nathan Schroeder (7) Nathaniel West (1) Neuromancer (2) Neville_Page (4) News (5) Nicholas-Pelham (1) Nick-Ainsworth (1) Nikita Knatz (1) Oblivion (2) Opinion (2) Oscar-Chichoni (1) Oz-Great-Powerful (3) Pacific-Rim (12) Patrick Campbell (1) PatrickTatoupolus (4) Paul Gerrard (1) Paul Powers (2) Paul Rubin (2) Paul_Christopher (2) Paul_Ozzimo (2) Pete Von Sholly (2) Peter Popken (1) Peter_McKinstry (2) Peter_Rubin (3) Phil Saunders (5) Philip-Norwood (1) Phillip-Boutte (3) Planet_of_the_Apes (13) Predator (4) Predators (1) Production_Designer (2) Profile (14) Prometheus (1) Rafael Kayanan (1) Raj Rihal (1) Raj_Rihal (2) Ralph McQuarrie (5) Ralph_McQuarrie (25) Ray-Cusick (1) Ray-Harryhausen (1) Raymond-Prado (1) RealSteel (4) Reid Southen (2) Retro (2) Review (8) Ricardo_Delgado (1) Richard_Bennett (4) Richard_S_Lee (3) Rise-of-the-planet-of-apes (1) Rob-Bliss (2) Robert McCallum (5) Robert Simons (1) Robert_McKinnon (5) Robert_Shaun_Williams (1) Robert-Consing (1) Rod-Knipping (1) Rodney-Fuentabella (1) Rodolfo Damaggio (3) Rodolfo_Damaggio (7) Roger-Dear (1) Ron Cobb (5) Ron Miller (1) Ron-Mendell (6) Ryan Church (2) Ryan_Church (8) Ryan_Meinerding (10) Scott_Patton (3) Scott-Chambliss (1) series_AZchallenge2012 (19) series_AZchallenge2013 (15) Set_Designer (3) Seth_Engstrom (1) Shane-Mahan (1) Shawna_Trpcic (2) Silver-Surfer (1) Simeon_Wilkins (1) Simon_Duric (1) Simon-Murton (2) Simon-Webber (1) Snowpiercer (1) SpeedRacer (1) SpiderMan (17) SpiderMan-2 (1) Stan-Fleming (1) Stan-Winston (2) Star-Trek (4) Star-Trek-II (1) Star-Trek-Into-Darkness (4) Star-Wars (2) Star-Wars-Episode-I-Phantom-Menace (2) Star-Wars-Episode-II-Empire-Strikes-Back (1) Star-Wars-Episode-II-Phantom-Menace (1) Star-Wars-Episode-III-Revenge-of-the-Sith (4) Star-Wars-Episode-IV- A-New-Hope (2) Star-Wars-Episode-V-Empire-Strikes-Back (3) Star-Wars-Episode-VI-Return-of-the-Jedi (3) Star-Wars-II-Attack-Clones (1) Stargate (1) StarTrek (15) starwars (28) Steffen-Reichstadt (1) Stephan-Martiniere (1) Stephen Ellis (1) Stephen-Schirle (1) Steve Johnson (2) Steve Jung (4) Steve Skroce (1) Steve-Burg (2) Steven_Spielberg (1) StoryboardArtist (4) StoryBoards (65) SuckerPunch (2) Super8 (3) Superman (15) Superman-1978 (1) Superman-Returns (2) SuperMarioBro (2) Syd_Mead (5) Sylvain Despretz (1) Tangled (1) Ted_Boonthanakit (1) Television (28) Terminator (6) Terminator-2 (1) TerraNova (3) Terryl-Whitlatch (1) The-Wolverine (4) TheAmazingSpiderman (8) TheAvengers (5) TheDarkCrystal (1) TheDarkestHour (1) TheDarkKnight (3) TheDarkKnightRises (9) TheFifthElement (3) TheHungerGames (5) TheLastStarfighter (1) TheOne (1) TheThing (5) TheTrollHunters (1) Thor (11) Thor-the-Dark-World (1) Thundercats (1) Tim Burton (4) Tim_Burgard (5) Tim_Flattery (9) Timothy M. Earls (1) TMNT (2) Todd Masters (1) Tom-Woodruff-Jr (1) Tommy-Lee-Edwards (1) TotalRecall (2) Transformers (9) Transformers_2 (1) trick_Tatopoulos (1) Tron (8) Tron-Legacy (1) Tully Summers (1) Tully_Summers (3) Turo_Iwatani (1) Ultraviolet (1) UnionDues (1) Upside-Down (1) V (1) Vance Kovacs (2) Vance_Kovacs (4) VforVendetta (1) Victor Martinez (2) vid (1) Video (20) Walter-Schulze-Mittendorff (1) WaroftheWorlds (1) Warren Drummond (5) Warren_Flanagan (1) Warren_Manser (8) Warren-Flanagan (1) Wayne Barlowe (1) Wayne-Haag (1) Wesley Burt (1) WhoFearsDeath (1) Willow (1) WonderWoman (1) xmen (16) XMen-First-Class (7) XMen-Last-Stand (2) XMEN-Origins-Wolverine (2) Yvonne Muinde (1)

Text Widget

© 2013 FilmSketchr Lab. WP Theme-junkie converted by BloggerTheme9