John Richardson - Making Movie Magic: A Lifetime Creating Special Effects for James Bond, Harry Potter, Superman & More

MAKING
MOVIE
MAGIC

First published 2019

The History Press

97 St Georges Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

John Richardson, 2019

The right of John Richardson to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7509 9439 2

Typesetting and origination by The History Press.

Printed and bound in Turkey by Imak.

It was a dark and stormy night no, no wrong book.

It started with a desperate, relatively young director with an opportunity to direct a film, which would, could, and did change his life. Thats me, Richard Donner.

Flashback to 1975. London. Shepperton Studios. A book by David Seltzer called The Antichrist, which became The Omen. I was extraordinarily privileged to have in the cast Gregory Peck. Yes, Gregory Peck, the one and only a phenomenal actor. And I was going to have the chance to direct him in a film. Also, Lee Remick, a wonderful, special, beautiful lady, and even greater actress. David Warner, an English actor, and star of one of my favourite films, Morgan. Plus, a supporting cast made up of the best that English theatre had to offer.

As great as all these wonderful people were, the true star of the film was a young Englishman named John Richardson. If you havent seen the film then you wont understand this. And if you have seen The Omen, then you have the same respect for John as I did, do and will always have.

The Omen had to have some spectacular special effects. But we also had to keep the audience in a sense of reality, in which all these dastardly deaths and deeds were, if you could believe it, coincidental. We had to sell that in this period, in the life of the film, all hell breaks loose for Gregory and Lee and their family. And those hellish effects were mastered and executed by John.

Johns father was also a master of effects, and hence John does what he does. Often, I remember kidding him when something got tough, Hey, why dont you call your dad to figure it out? He took on the toughest projects and made them so very believable. In my heart of hearts, I feel that John was one of the main reasons for the success of the film.

My relationship with John continued after The Omen to almost every film I did that he was available for. He took on all the effects in North America for Superman. Effects, the likes of which had never been seen before. By the time we got to the US from our English shoot, John had everything arranged. And all I had to do was say, Action.

On top of all this, John became a very special friend. And we continue our friendship to this day. Hopefully this book will not only give the reader an insight into an unseen part of motion pictures, but also one of its many great hearts.

Richard Donner, Los Angeles

I have been very lucky in my life and career.

I have lived and worked through what I would call the golden age of the film industry okay, we didnt have the luxury of modern technology back in the 1960s and 1970s: walkie-talkies were large, heavy and unreliable; there werent any mobile phones or photocopiers and CGI hadnt been heard of but we were inventive, and despite budgets being a lot tighter, schedules shorter and reshoots very rare indeed, we also had to look after our own health and safety too, and I like to think we were quite good at it all.

I was privileged to work with some of the greatest directors, actors, producers, cameramen, designers and film crews, and I was very fortunate to have the very best special effects technicians on my team. Its impossible to list them all, but they know who they are, both here in the UK, and in the USA and around the world. I am also proud to say that many of my effects crew have progressed to be very successful special effects supervisors in their own right and Id like to think I helped them along the way a little.

Through my father, Cliff Richardson, I learned about film-making, explosives, models, engineering and all of the other myriad of jobs that come under the brief heading of physical effects. He was my mentor and hero.

With my first wife Jill, I had two children: Marcus who has followed me into the effects world and still works with me today, and my beautiful daughter Dominique, who wisely decided to avoid the movie industry and find success in the outside world I am very proud of her.

Along the way I was very fortunate to live and work with the incredibly talented Liz Moore, and although our time together was cut tragically short, I will forever remember her.

I have also been incredibly lucky to have my wonderful second wife Rosie working with me for the last thirty years, on over twenty films including some of the best Bond movies and most of the Harry Potter series; she ran the office, looked after the crews, kept the continuity on set and kept me in check and sane at the same time!

Ive made some wonderful friends too, especially Mike Turk, the best boatman in the business, and Phil Hobbs, a wonderful caterer who took over the business from his father Phil Snr and went on to produce Full Metal Jacket for Stanley Kubrick. Mike holds the dubious distinction of being my best man at my first marriage and again, along with Phil, at my marriage to Rosie.

I am somewhat saddened when I look at the business today as it seems to lack the fun, the passion and the job satisfaction that we all took for granted for so long. I realise Im so lucky and privileged to have spent a lifetime in special effects and I hope the following pages convey that.

John Richardson

I can honestly say that if it wasnt for my father, I would never have thought about embarking on a career in the film business let alone be sitting here now with an Oscar, having enjoyed over five decades working with the likes of 007, Harry Potter and Superman, and a whole roster of wonderful directors including Richard Donner, James Cameron, Chris Columbus, Richard Attenborough, Billy Wilder, Ken Russell, Fred Zinnemann, Lewis Gilbert, Ron Howard, John Glen; and producers Cubby and Barbara Broccoli, Carl Foreman, John Dark, Joseph E. Levine and David Heyman plus so very many wonderful crews in all four corners of the world.

Dad, better known as Cliff Richardson, was born in 1905 and started out in the film business in 1921 when his older brother Fred got him a job at Gaumont Studios in the Shepherds Bush suburb of west London. The studio had opened six years earlier as the first specifically-built film facility which underlines just how much in its infancy the movie industry in the UK was. My father was at the very centre of things at, arguably, the most exciting time in this burgeoning business.

He actually started out as a prop man when the job description was a much more general one, entailing pretty much every task you can think of, from painting a set to putting up scenery and cleaning the glass in the roof they were making silent movies back then and the stages were basically huge glass greenhouses to ensure as much natural light as possible flooded into them; soundproofing wasnt needed. I know he also had to help run the make-up department at one point and on another occasion described how he was asked to help add some processes to the photography that fateful day marked his entry into what we now call special effects.