Movies
FX Legend Rick Baker Is Retiring!
I feel so great right now. Usually when a horror icon exits the film world, it’s because they’ve passed on. Here, we get to tell you that a healthy Rick Baker is retiring from the effects world, and will leave behind a whirlwind of work that will be celebrated until the end of time.
The news comes via 89.3, who reports that part of his retirement is auctioning off much of his warehouse of props, which is jam-packed with astounding goodies.
The disappointing news is that Baker’s decision comes out of the rise of CGI.
“First of all, the CG stuff definitely took away the animatronics part of what I do,” he told 89.3. “It’s also starting to take away the makeup part. The time is right, I am 64 years old, and the business is crazy right now. I like to do things right, and they wanted cheap and fast. That is not what I want to do, so I just decided it is basically time to get out. I would consider designing and consulting on something, but I don’t think I will have a huge working studio anymore.”
Instead of being saddened by the news, we can now celebrate everything Baker has given us over the years, from “Thriller” to An American Werewolf in London, The Wolfman, Videodrome, Harry and the Hendersons, Gorillas in the Mist and even Planet of the Apes.
What’s your favorite Rick Baker memory? Check out all of these awards!
The Broadway stage production of Paranormal Activity can’t wait to scare audiences and is acting accordingly; Deadline reports that the opening date has been bumped up several weeks.
Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage is coming to Broadway for a limited 20-week engagement. The first preview performance scheduled for Friday, August 14, at the August Wilson Theatre, remains in place. Now the play will officially open on Tuesday, August 25, moving up from its initial September 15 launch date.
The official synopsis: “James and Lou move from Chicago to London to escape their past, but they soon discover that places aren’t haunted, people are.”
Directed by Felix Barrett and written by playwright Levi Holloway, the stage show weaves “an original story inspired by the film franchise, Paranormal Activity reimagines the modern ghost story with an intimacy that only live theatre can provide.”
The Broadway production will follow a strictly limited pre-Broadway engagement in Boston at the Emerson Colonial Theatre from July 11 through July 30.
Both the Broadway and Boston casts will feature Cher Álvarez, Travis A. Knight, Shannon Cochran, and Andrea Syglowski. Understudies will be Caron Buinis, Caroline Hendricks, and Michael Holding.
Álvarez will play Lou, and Knight plays James.
Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage premiered at the Leeds Playhouse in the UK before transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End, where it received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination this year for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play.
Original Paranormal Activity stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat attended the Paranormal Activity play last year, and they both shared their thoughts over on Instagram.
Katie Featherston raved, “What a truly fun night seeing the new Paranormal Activity at the Ahmanson Theatre! We had a blast- so scary and so fun. The design and production was amazing and the cast did a fantastic job. Congrats to all involved!”
There’s also a brand new movie on the way.
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