Explore The Ceatures of 'John Carter' In Michael Kutsche's Brilliant Concept Art

While the film John Carter Was not a commercial success, it took an amazing amount of work to bring it to life on-screen.

One of the designers that helped shape that vision was Michael Kutsche (Thor, Alice in Wonderland) and he shared some brilliant art he did for the film on his site and elsewhere.

Directed by Andrew Stanton, John Carter(2012) is about a Civil War vet mysteriously transplanted to Mars. He discovers a lush planet inhabited by 12-foot tall four-armed barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner, he escapes, only to encounter a princess who is in desperate need of a savior.

An earlier Woola concept for John Carter, directed by Andrew Stanton. Loved the animation of the final character!

 Key frame art for John Carter, directed by Andrew Stanton. Flyer designed by Ryan Church.

Tal Hajus concept for John Carter, directed by Andrew Stanton. The collaborative effort of a couple of artists led to the final design of the Tharks, but the awesome drawings of Iain McCaig were the foundation.

Female Thark

Thoat concept art for John Carter, directed by Andrew Stanton. Loved to see these creatures come to life on the big screen!

White Apes concept art for John Carter, directed by Andrew Stanton. This image served as both character design and key frame for the film, and an earlier version has been used in the marketing campaign on billboards and posters as well. I've always wanted to design something like this for a movie, and I'm glad it happened on this one! Working with Andrew was an amazing experience.

See more of Michael Kutsche's portfolio at http://michaelkutsche.blogspot.com/

What do you think of the illustrations? Did you have a favorite creature in John Carter?

The Legacy of Jean "Moebius" Giraud In Five Essential Videos

Over the weekend Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius, died from illness. Another of my top ten concept artists has died. He's not as well known as other artists because some of his best works were on films that were never made.

In Europe, he has best known as the artist of the popular comic book Blueberry. He developed concept art for classic films of cinema like The Fifth Element (1997), TRON (1982) and The Abyss (1989).

Jean Giraud was born in Nogent-sur-Marne, in the suburbs of Paris, in 1938. When he was three years old, his parents divorced and he was raised mainly by his grandparents. The rupture between mother and father, city and country, created a lasting trauma that he explained lay at the heart of his choice of separate pen names.

In 1955 at age 16, he began his only technical training at the Arts Appliqués art school, where he started producing Western comics. He became close friends with another comic artist Jean-Claude Mézières.

In 1956 he left art school to visit his mother in Mexico and he stayed there eight months, after which he returned to work full time as an artist. In 1959-1960 he served his military service in Algeria, where he collaborated on the army magazine 5/5 Forces Françaises.

Giraud died in Paris, on 10 March 2012, aged 73, after a long battle with cancer. Fellow comic artist François Boucq stated that Moebius was "master of realist drawing with a real talent for humour, which he was still demonstrating with the nurses when I saw him in his hospital bed a fortnight ago".  - Wikipedia

1. In Search of Moebius: Jean Giraud Part 1/3 
The first part of the BBC documentary Moebius Redux: A Life in Pictures.

Documentary about Frenchman Jean Giraud, one of the most influential comic strip illustrators and authors of all time and also one of the genre's best kept secrets. He achieved his greatest fame under the pseudonym/alter ego Moebius, and his artistic influence extends beyond Europe to the USA and Japan. Features interviews with Giraud himself, Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, American comic book artists Jim Lee and Mike Mignolla and many others.

You can watch part 2 here and 3 here .

2. Jean Giraud (Moebius) & Jijé - Tac au tac (1972) 
The first video shows his incredible drawing speed. Even in his later years this talent for fast focused drawing skills would be talked about. 

Jean Giraud (Moebius and Gir) and Jijé (Joseph Gillain) outline a history of cowboy and Indian huts and four alternates. GIRAUD starts and Jijé conclude this story to return to for a coffee break completely shifted to the universe of the Wild West. Tit for tat - 29/04/1972 In 1961, Giraud became the apprentice of Jijé, which at that time enjoyed a solid reputation in the world of European comics. As such, GIRAUD handles the inking of an episode of Jerry Spring, The Road to Coronado, a western series published in the magazine Spirou.

3. Moebius Redux: Jodorowsky's Dune
Back in 1975 surrealist director Alejandro Jodorowsky started work on an adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. He hired an amazing collection of artists including Moebius. The film was never made, but it is treasured among fans of Moebius and concept artists.(

In this section from the wonderful "Moebius Redux" Documentary, director Jodorowsky, and artists Moebius, H.R. Giger, Dan O'Bannon and Philippe Druillet discuss their work together on Dune.

4. Making of Tron Moebius by The Computer Graphics Museum 
Tron is his most famous work and this video shows some of his work on the film Tron. Some really nice screen to storyboard comparisons.If anyone can translate I'd appreciate it, since I can't understand a word.


5. Moebius & Sylvain
In his later years he developed his first animated film Thru the Mobeius Strip (2005). In this clip he talks about his incredible focus while drawing and his development of the film. He does an interview with fellow artist Sylvain Despretz who also worked on the film.

We've lost a great artist. You can see more of his work of Jean Henri Gaston "Moebius" Giraud at http://www.moebius.fr .

What thoughts did you have about Moebius? Did you learn anything from the videos you didn't know?

UPDATED: The Artists of John Carter (2012)

Here are some of the artists that worked on the science-fiction film John Carter (2011). As always, there are many talented artists involved in the production of a film. These are only some of them according to IMDb.

Synopsis: From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton comes "John Carter"--a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars).

"John Carter" is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins).

In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands

Directed by Andrew Stanton
Production Design by Nathan Crowley

Concept Design Supervisor Iain McCaig http://iainmccaig.blogspot.com/
Scott Patton - character designer http://www.scottpattondesign.com/store.html
Simon Webber - character designer

Wayne D. Barlowe - concept artist http://waynebarlowe.wordpress.com/
Tim Browning - concept artist
Seth Engstrom - concept artist
David Krentz - concept artist http://www.davidkrentz.com
Mishi McCaig - concept artist
Ryan Meinerding - concept artist http://boyrobot.com
Maury Ruiz - concept artist
Phil Saunders - concept artist
Mark Wagner - concept artist
Dan Walker - concept artist http://www.danwalkerconcept.co.uk/
Ross Dearsley - concept artist: Cinesite
Christian Huband - concept illustrator http://www.christianhuband.com/index.php
Vance Kovacs - concept illustrator http://www.vancekovacs.com/
Justin Sweet - concept illustrator http://www.justinsweet.com/
Ryan Church - concept illustrator http://www.ryanchurch.com/
Michael Kutsche - concept illustrator http://michaelkutsche.blogspot.com/
David Krentz - storyboard artist http://www.davidkrentz.com

I'll update this list as I find out more. If you know of any artists that worked on this that are not listed please let me know.

Bite Into Charles Chiodo's Gila! Remake Concept Art

Living in Arizona, I've seen a lot of native animals. I've seen roadrunners chase down lizards. I've watched javelinas leading their kids down the street. I've even lived in a place infested by scorpions.

Thankfully, I've never come face to face with a Gila monster.

The low budget remake of the 50s giant monster movie The Giant Gila Monster (1959) wants to change that.

Directed by Jim Wynorski (Curse of the Komodo, Komodo vs. Cobra, Dinocroc vs. Supergator) and starring Ex-Playboy Playmate Julie McCullough (2012: Ice Age), Terence Knox (Children of the Corn 2: The Final Sacrifice), and Matt Austin (“Power Rangers S.P.D.”).

Concept art from the film has shown up thanks to Undead Backbrain. The illustrations are from Charles Chiodo the man co-created the classic horror film Killer Clowns from Outer Space (1988) and the art director for Team America: World Police.

I like the idea and the illustrations are suitably creepy. The color is great and I love the textures on the monster. Too bad there's no scale so we can see how big the lizard is going to be.

In an interview with Famous Monsters of Filmland (one of my favorite magazines as a kid) Wynorski said what we can expect from the monster.

As for the titular beastie, Wynorski was careful not to revisit the approach taken in the original, where an actual gila monster was shot over miniatures and inserted via overlay. “There are no practicals. I don’t want to hurt any animals. In the original they were forcing that poor little gila monster through the balsa wood wall he goes through at the dance and stuff, and I think with today’s CG we can do better and not hurt any animals.” The creature is reportedly sleeker, more agile, and will be more of a mutant than the cute lizard in the original.

You can read more about Charles Chiodo at http://www.chiodobros.com.

What do you think of the art? Would you want to run onto him In a dark alley?

Source: Undead Backbrain

Ralph McQuarrie, The Greatest Concept Artist Ever, Has Died At 82

Ralph McQuarrie, the Academy Award winning concept artist on the original Star Wars trilogy and dozens of films died Saturday in his home at 82.

Since I started this blog, I've been compiling a list of the top 100 concept artists in the industry. The hardest part was not coming up with number one, but number two. McQuarrie was the most well-known and influential concept artist ever. There are hundreds of amazing artists, but it's hard to think of anyone that came close to him.

Despite creating designs that inspired millions, he was still humble. He always described his design of Darth Vader as a fluke instead of a stroke of genius. He turned down creator George Lucas' offer to design for the prequels saying he didn't have any more "gas in the tank." He always took his greatness in stride.

I never had the honor of meeting him, but my greatest achievement on this blog is when one of his people contacted me saying they would pass my interview questions onto him. Just knowing he knew my blog existed is a huge honor.

Ralph Angus McQuarrie was born in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area of Gary, Indiana on June 13, 1929. From a young age he was a lover of art thanks to his parents who were artists and helped him learn painting with watercolor and sketching. Fantasy and art were a life-long dream for him. While as a youth he worked in a logging camp and designed a fantasy logging truck. A bright student, while in high school, he learned technical drawing and that helped him get his first major job with Kaiser Graphics. From there he went to work at the Boeing Company. Here he illustrated the latest concepts in air and spacecraft and his graphic illustration was used for the televised coverage of NASA's Apollo lunar missions on CBS. His illustrations marked the first stages of man's exploration of space.

In 1965, he made a huge career move relocating to California. He set up a business in Venice Beach, California free-lancing in the film industry painting backgrounds for animation and artwork for movie posters.

It was ten years later, in 1975, that McQuarrie was introduced to a young director named George Lucas struggling to pursuade the executives at Fox to finance his science fiction fantasy called "The Star Wars." McQuarrie was working with Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins on an unproduced science-fiction film. The two had worked on Lucas' first feature film, "THX-1138," and they heard he was looking for a concept artist. McQuarrie collaborated with Lucas and came up with the look of the Star Wars film, bringing to life such creations as Chewbacca, lightsabers and Darth Vader.

"I just did my best to depict what I thought the film should look like, I really liked the idea," he said. "I didn't think the film would ever get made. My impression was it was too expensive. There wouldn't be enough of an audience. It's just too complicated. But George knew a lot of things that I didn't know."

From there he went on to design alien ships for Steven Spielberg's films Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and the alien for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). He won a Academy Award for the film Cocoon (1985). He also worked on the 1978 TV series Battlestar Galactica, and was consultant or concept artist for the films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, *batteries not included and Jurassic Park. His official website had the following statement:

It is with the deepest sadness that we announce the passing of Ralph McQuarrie.

People say you should never meet your heroes. Ralph was the exception to that rule. We were all fans of his amazing art long before we were blessed with his friendship. But once you got to know Ralph it was impossible not to become a fan of Ralph the man.

Ralph was a very special person for many more reasons than his undeniable brilliance with a brush. He was an especially kind, sensitive, deep, modest, funny and fascinating gentleman. And as fine a role model as any one could have wished for.

His influence on design will be felt forever. There's no doubt in our hearts that centuries from now amazing spaceships will soar, future cities will rise and someone, somewhere will say..."that looks like something Ralph McQuarrie painted."

June 13, 1929 - March 3, 2012

You created so many wonders that will always live in our hearts.

We'll miss you Ralph. You will forever be the brightest star in our galaxy.

If you would like to pay your respects in writing please visit Ralph's Facebook page or alternatively you can write to tribute@ralphmcquarrie.com

Here are some tributes to McQuarrie that have been posted.

"I am deeply saddened by the passing of such a visionary artist and such a humble man. Ralph McQuarrie was the first person I hired to help me envision Star Wars. His genial contribution, in the form of unequaled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph's fabulous illustrations and say, 'Do it like this.'

"Beyond the movies, his artwork has inspired at least two generations of younger artists—all of whom learned through Ralph that movies are designed. Like me, they were thrilled by his keen eye and creative imagination, which always brought concepts to their most ideal plateau. In many ways, he was a generous father to a conceptual art revolution that was born of his artwork, and which seized the imaginations of thousands and propelled them into the film industry. In that way, we will all be benefiting from his oeuvre for generations to come. Beyond that, I will always remember him as a kind and patient, and wonderfully talented, friend and collaborator." - George Lucas, Creator of the Star Wars films

"Ralph McQuarrie is dead. Without his inspirational art I would not be C-3PO. I once said to him, 'This is all YOUR fault!' Then I thanked him."  - Anthony Daniels who played C-3PO (twitter)

 "RIP Ralph McQuarrie, an extraordinary artist whose work fueled my dreams, fantasies and imagination. His paintings will live forever," - Simon Pegg (twitter)

"RIP Ralph McQuarrie, the visionary behind Star Wars," - Will Smith (twitter)

"a disturbance in the force, Ralph McQuarrie has passed. may the force be with him."  - Elijah Wood (twitter)

Ralph McQuarrie suffered from Parkinson's Syndrome in his later years and retired. He passed away at his home, leaving his wife Joan and a legacy of illustration that will never be matched.

How Important Is A Website To A Concept Artist?

I spend a lot of time checking out websites of artists in the film and television industry. In fact, the majority of my posts are based on them. There are so many, I started a blog roll to help me keep track of them.

Every now and then I run into an artist that doesn't have a web presence. It surprises me.

How could an incredibly prolific artist like Ed Natividad not have a website? Why would an artist have a blog and not update it for two years? How could a legend like Ralph McQuarrie have an up-to-date and comprehensive website and others don't?

Obviously, it depends on how important the site is to the artist. So, I reached out to some artists and got answers from both ends of the spectrum.

Warren Manser has worked on major films like Transformers and says that his site is extremely helpful to him. This is mainly because "the film industry changes very fast." Besides helping clients up-to-date on his work it constantly introduces his work to new people. "I've also been getting emails from non-film related projects." In his words, "Diversity is good." Keep an eye on his site because he's planning on expanding it to include more information to compliment the imagery. So, some artists feel it's essential to their work.

Of course, networking plays a big part in any successful job and some don't see websites as being equal to that.

Martin L. Mercer worked on such films as Predators. He said, while a web presence can be useful to show prospective clients, he values something more. He said, "overall in my experience its who you know not how good your web page is."

So, if you're an artist in the entertainment industry or just a fan I'd love to hear your thoughts on your favorite art website.let me know in the comments.

Speaking of websites, make sure you visit the websites of Martin L. Mercer  http://www.martinmercer.com and Warren Manser  http://www.WarrenManser.com.

See Green With Hensleigh's Lost 'Hulk' Concept Art

Hulk was in development for years before Ang Lee's version, and some concept art for the unproduced film for Jonathan Hensleigh's film are online thanks to concept artist Kerry Gammill (Virus, Species 2, Phantoms)


In April 1997, Joe Johnston was directing with the film's title as The Incredible Hulk. Hensleigh was asked to write the script since he worked with Johnston on Jumanji. In 1997, Johnston dropped out of directing and Hensleigh stepped in for his directing debut. Hensleigh wrote a script featuring Bruce Banner experimenting with gamma-irradiated insect DNA on three convicts before becoming the Hulk. This transforms the convicts into murderous mutant "insect men." Lynn "Red" Williams, a former American Gladiator was cast as one of the three "insect men." He transforms into a combination of human, ant and beetle.
Kerry Gammill describes the art this way.

These designs were for an unproduced movie version of "Hulk" which was cancelled in pre-production a few years before the Ang Lee version went into production with a new script.

Check out more illustrations from Kerry Gammill at http://gammillustrations.bizland.com/monsterart/hulk.htm

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Visit 'Star Trek's (2009)' Shipyard And Blog Schedule Change

Just wanted to let my readers know I'm switching from a weekday schedule to a Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule. I run two blogs and am thinking about adding another one. If I keep the schedule I have now I'd have to start cutting back on the research for the posts. To me, that's the most fun part of the blog. Finding interesting stories and trivia attached to the illustrations.

So, this will be my last Tuesday post for a while. Enjoy John Eaves awesome Riverside starship fleet yard from J.J. Abrams Star Trek (2009).

One of the first assignments I had on my desk was the Riverside fleet yards in the outback of rural Iowa. Based on an old train engine turntable idea came the first layout of what the ship yards could be. And incredibly large construction facility that housed various material and electronic manufacturing facilities that were easily accessed from every dock.  

My friend Mike Hamby works in the US navy sub yards back East and he helped me with a lot of research with those construction yards, and so the Hamby complex was named in his honor shown here in the turntable illustration. Obviously to [sic] grand of an idea the focus funneled down to seeing a single dock scenario for the construction of the new “E” .  

The first couple of passes have the ship somewhat below ground level and for the film the ship was pulled out of the semi subterranian [sic] dock and set elevated off the ground. By doing so the effect would be a much grander view of this massive Starship against an Earth bound setting which really has not been seen before.

 See more of John Eaves portfolio at http://johneaves.wordpress.com

Via http://trekmovie.com

Scale Clock Tower Walls In Stunning 'Hugo' (2011) Storyboards

Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2011) swept the box office this last weekend and one of the artists that brought it to life is Peter Popken (V for Vendetta, The Bourne Supremacy, Æon Flux)

Synopsis: Hugo tells the story of an orphan boy living a secret life in the walls of a Paris train station. With the help of an eccentric girl, he searches for the answer to a mystery linking the father he recently lost, the ill-tempered toy shop owner living below him and a heart shaped lock, seemingly without a key. Based on Brian Selznick’s award winning and imaginative New York Times bestseller, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, this magical tale is Academy Award-winner Martin Scorsese’s first film shot in 3D.

Thanks to Popken sharing his work on his blog we get a peek behind the curtain. This storyboard is from part of the opening sequence where Hugo rushes through the walls of the train station. Roger Ebert describes it this way, "The opening shot swoops above the vast cityscape of Paris and ends with Hugo (Asa Butterfield) peering out of an opening in a clock face far above the station floor."

See more of Peter Popken's portfolio at http://www.peterpopken.com and http://peterpopken.blogspot.com.

1979 Starlog Shows H.R. Giger's Work and Ridley Scott's Storyboards

Starlog was an awesome magazine and I read it regularly growing up. It's gone now, but thanks to the Internet we can still read articles from a by-gone era.

It has a great set of interviews with director Ridley Scott and artist H.R. Giger on the film.

A concept painting from the original concept artist Ron Cobb of the derelict ship is in it.

There are also a couple of storyboards that Scott did for the film which I hadn't seen before.

You can read the whole article on http://www.littlegiger.com/articles/files/Starlog_26.pdf

See more of the work of Hans Ruedi "H.R." Giger at http://giger.com and my site here.

'Doctor Who The Impossible Astronaut' Storyboard Comparisons

BBC produced this storyboard to film comparison of the first episode of Doctor Who from season six.

Synopsis: Four envelopes, numbered two, three and four - each containing a date, time and map reference, unsigned, but TARDIS blue - begin the latest series of the time-travelling adventures. Who sent them? And who received the missing number one? This strange summons reunites The Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song in the middle of the Utah desert and unveils a terrible secret that The Doctor's friends must never reveal to him. Placing his life entirely in their hands, The Doctor agrees to search for the recipient of the fourth envelope. Just who is Canton Everett Delaware the Third? And what is the relevance of their only other clue: "Space 1969"? Their quest lands them in the Oval Office, where they are enlisted by President Nixon himself to assist enigmatic former FBI agent Canton in saving a terrified little girl from a mysterious spaceman.


In this scene the Doctor, played by Matt Smith is approached by an astronaut who comes up from the ocean.

Richard Shaun Williams

....

concept artist

1970s 'Buck Rogers' Concept Art for the Show That Never Was

Before Glen Larson produced Buck Rogers in the 25th Century in 1979 a very different television show was developed in the 1970s. Far from being the campy comic book style show starring Gil Gerard, it almost had a serious tone in the style of Star Trek. A serious outer-space science fiction adventure based on character-driven stories written by giants of science-fiction.

The late artist Robert McCall was best known for producing space paintings and he was brought in to design the spaceships. He's best known for his space paintings. McCall painted a huge mural for The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. depicting man's conquest of the Moon covers an entire wall on the Museum's main floor.

"They gave me a call," Bob says, "and asked me to do some designs for the show. I tried to stick pretty much to the original Buck Rogers flavor. I finished the drawings in about two weeks and then sent them off. I didn't hear any word from the coast for quite some time."

None of his designs were ever used for the show when it changed to producer Glen Larsen. All artwork and descriptions are from Starlog, #16 September 1978.

One of McCall's designs for Buck Rogers' own "believer" probe ship, a mid-sized craft capable of visiting other worlds.

One of McCall's depictions of the titanic Constitution, a deep space star ship. In the front of the craft is the main engine area which includes a hyperspace booster: an attachment which swings outward for faster than light travel. In the rear is a hangar deck and launching platform designed for both tiny "freedom fighters" and mid-sized "believer ships." The rear of the craft also contains a high energy weapon capable of neutralizing massive targets such as enemy ships, asteroids and small moons.

Various designs for spaceships originally conceived for Rogers. On the bottom half of the sketch are some unused fighter plans. Above those are several "believer" space probe craft.

Two different views of McCall's proposed "believer" space probe craft. The spaceships were envisioned as being able to leave the mother-ship and journey to alien planets. On the top of each ship is a turret very much like the ones found on standard WW II fighter planes. In this case, the "bubble" contains a fire control center for laser weaponry. Although designed mainly for interplanetary excursions, the ships have a goodly amount of defensive weaponry including laser weapons on each side of the ship's forward nose section. On the belly of the craft is an ascent/descent engine used for landing and taking off from alien terrain.

The tiny ships darting by the mothership are fighter craft: short-range spaceships designed to protect the Constrtutton from hostile forces. Right:

One of Bob McCall's abandoned designs for a medium-sized space probe vehicle. This version boasts laser cannon. 

Various designs for spaceships originally conceived for Rogers. On the bottom half of the sketch are some unused fighter plans. Above those are several "believer" space probe craft.

Another version of McCall s powerful mothership, the Constitution In this design, the rear of the craft is a docking area for the "believer" space probes only. The fighter planes land and take-off from a runway on top.

You can find out more about artist Robert McCall at http://www.mccallstudios.com

What do you think of the lost Buck Rogers concept art? Would it have made a better show?
Via space1970

Patrick Tatopoulos Lost 'Super Mario Bros (1983)' Concept Art Has Bite

A while back I posted a search for concept drawings from Patrick Tatopoulos (Underworld, Stargate, Face-Off) for the film Super Mario Bros (1983). Turns out I had some all along! I was going through photos on my hard drive and found this awesome one featuring King Koopa's de-evolution into a dinosaur at the end of the film.

There's a great article of Rob Burman, the man behind the production of the Koopa Creature, at SMBmovie.com that details how much work went into designing and building the creature for this sequence.

It could be fan art, but it matches his style perfectly. Plus, its signed and dated by Tatopoulos himself.

What do you think of his work on the film? If you saw the film, what did you think of it?

'The Dark Knight Rises' Is A 'War Film' Says Concept Artist

Recently, there was an interview with concept artist Tully Summers where he described the Christopher Nolan film The Dark Knight Rises as a "war zone."

The French site CineWebRadio has a fascinating interview with concept artist Tully Summers (Men in Black 3, Thor, Avatar, Green Lantern) where he talks about many things, but gives a few nods to the upcoming Batman sequel.

You work mainly on the science fiction, fantastic, or fantasy film. But this year you work on The Dark Knight Rises. How does this change to work on the next Batman (with a realistic style) than your previous films?
The difference for me was Christopher Nolan’s visual style. One of the things that makes his Batman movies so compelling is their tone of plausibility. He will often prefer a raw, grittier design over one that is very sleek and product design pretty. It’s sort of a practical military aesthetic. This stuff is made to work, not impress shoppers. The Dark Knight Rises is a war film. 

He also talks about the criticism of the costumes from the set pictures.

 Films like Batman are meticulously planned. Every shot is storyboarded, framed, lighted and choreographed to camera. Any photos taken that are not from the intended camera are out of context. In a sense it’s like judging Sesame Street or the Muppets from a set photo: “That’s ridiculous! There’s a whole guy hanging out that character!” Christopher Nolan is a consummate filmmaker. Consider his body of work and his first 2 Batman movies. I don’t think fans will be disappointed.

I remember Gary Oldman said the concept art for Catwoman is amazing, so I can't wait for it to be released.

Read the rest of the interview here here. See more of Tully Summers protfolio at http://www.tullysummers.com/ and http://redenginestudios.deviantart.com/.

What do you think? Will The Dark Knight Rises be a 'war film?"
Via Comic Book Movie