30 llllll MONDAY 14 MARCH 2011 THE INDEPENDENT THE INDEPENDENT MONDAY 14 MARCH 2011 llllll 31 Wo rl d United States United States Wo rl d ‘Seed of Chucky’ ‘Jackass: The Movie’ Gardner designed and built He’s foul mouthed. He Chucky, the murderous shoplifts. He fights. He soils infant’s doll which stars in himself. He drives his dis- the long-running ‘Child’s ability scooter as if it were a Play’ series of schlock- Ferrari. Johnny Knoxville horror movies. For the fifth, (aged 31 when the first film and final, film in the fran- was released in 2002) was chise (2004), he took a transformed into a liver- cameo role as a puppeteer spotted old age pensioner who is fatally strangled for some of the funniest with piano wire. To film the sketches in the Jackass tril- scene in acceptably gory ogy. And Gardner did that fashion, Gardner built a life- transforming. size replica of himself. ‘The Hangover’ ‘Shallow Hal’ Ed Helms’s character wakes Gwyneth Paltrow was up. He’s in a Las Vegas hotel transformed into a 20-stone suite, the morning after the fast-food addict for this night before. A tiger is in the 2001 rom-com, in which her bathroom. A chicken is in character’s inner beauty the living room. Empty bot- helps her woo an eligible tles are everywhere. And, to bachelor. Gardner made the the dismay of his character, transformation happen, Stu Price (a mild-mannered using a 25lb fat-suit. Asked dentist), he is missing a what she’d learned from the front tooth. Gardner’s make- experience, Paltrow later up for this 2009 film helped said: “The clothes they Helms and his colleagues make for women who are look as if they really had overweight are horrible. I been dragged through a felt humiliated.” hedge backwards. the models ended-up looking a lit- his arm off after it became trapped THE CINEMA SPECIAL tle bit too realistic. under a rock during a climbing “We did a lot of fake babies for accident – would have failed. that show. In fact, there was one He developed the fake arm over episode when a lady gives birth in a several months, trying to work out EFFECTS THAT ARE bathroom. And the lab where the how to make realistic layers of skin, footage was developed must have fat, muscle and tendon that would thought that my fake baby was work even with extreme close-ups pretty lifelike, because they called Eventually, 10 were built, at a cost SAVING REAL LIVES the police, saying they thought we’d of $10,000 (£6,200) each. made some sort of snuff film. The The medical training kits Gard- FBI showed up at the director of ner has since developed are cheap- ER’s home the next day.” er, ranging in price up to $800. His A similar incident jollified the firm sells a grey-coloured model filming of the 1999 war movie Three baby that simulates a stillborn Kings, for which Director David child. Its range also includes acces- Russell asked Gardner to help him sories that can be attached to dolls shoot images that purported to to simulate a range of problems show bullets travelling through the which can affect living newborns, Tony Gardner won fame making realistic bodies for Hollywood. inside of a human body. So realistic from spina bifida, to cleft palates, were the internal organs he mod- to infants born with intestines out- Now he makes them to train medics. Guy Adams reports elled that he was later accused of side their bodies, or inside their sourcing them from a real person. umbilical cords. hen some of blood. Spotting an opportunity to made for John Travolta to wear when “A rumour went around that we Simureal is currently working to the more revolutionise her profession, she he played an overweight woman in had shot a bullet through a home- create mechanical model babies, squeamish decided to track down the arm’s cre- the 2007 film Hairspray. less man on the streets of Phoenix, which will move their limbs silently filmgoers ator, Tony Gardner, one of the top For the past 25 years, Gardner has where we were filming,” he recalls. and recreate the actions of a real watching special effects men in Hollywood. been one of Hollywood’s “go-to” guys “The Arizona Missing Persons patient. It also sells a range of rub- WDanny Months later, Gardner and Klein- for film-makers needing state-of-the Bureau, the FBI, and the Arizona ber masks that slot over the heads Boyle’s 127 man have launched a business called art costumes or props. His office is an police came to Warner Brothers of existing dummies to help stu- Hours saw the scene in which James Simureal, which is already supplying Aladdin’s Cave of movie memorabilia: asking questions. The day after, a dents pretend they are treating Franco amputates his arm with a silicone training aids to university walls lined with posters of films he mob of reporters descended on the specific types of patient. blunt penknife, they fainted and suf- hospitals across America. Their worked on, from The Addams Family production office.” “We make an old man mask, and fered what breathless news reports dummies are cheaper, and more real- (he built their Gardner says that such contro- an old lady, and a described as “panic attacks” and istic, than any that have come before. house) to Jackass versies make him feel “guilty, but scary guy with “seizures” in their cinema seats. Unlikely though it sounds, technolo- In the corner (he made Johnny validated as an artist.” And what Kleinman gangland tat- When Jane Kleinman, who trains gy developed to wow the popcorn- was a fat suit Knoxville look like he does is art. His craftsmen was stopped toos. They all future doctors and nurses at Loma munching masses is now helping to made for John an elderly man). painstakingly model intricate by airport have open eyes. Linda hospital in East Los Angeles treat sick babies. Travolta to Here, visitors devices, some of them highly security and Nurses want to wear when he accused of the saw the exact same arm being sev- “It’s incredible for a guy like me, will spot a picture Tony Gardner, right, mechanised. And the important bit be more engaged played an crime of ered, she reacted in a very different whose worked in film for years, to of him with works on a model of – making them look really lifelike – in role play, and overweight transporting way: by deciding that the technology realise that the stuff we do can also woman in Gwyneth Paltrow himself for the 2004 involves hour after hour of old- human body it helps to be used to create the gruesome footage affect people in the real world, in a ‘Hairspray’ (he built her fat- film ‘Seed of Chucky’ fashioned hand painting. parts realistic. You could one day end up saving lives. life-or-death situation,” said Gard- suit for the 2001 His profession has been revolu- need a scary guy Kleinman works at a facility where ner at his workshop in the LA sub- flick Shallow Hal). tionised in recent years by the to actually look white-coated students use rubber urb of Irwindale last week. “Forget There, they’ll see plaster casts of development of silicone rubber, intimidating, so they can work out dummies to simulate scenarios that whether it ever makes us money, the faces of such film stars as Hugh which is more lifelike than the what to do when someone like that might occur in a hospital emergency. just doing that makes this whole Jackman, Halle Berry, and Russell to hold a crippled terrier in Some- video. “I started as the guy that the monsters that erupt from vic- stiff, dense foam latex materials is on their ward.” But there’s always been a problem project worthwhile.” Brand, who, I’m told, has one of the thing About Mary. For that movie, swept the floor, but a within a couple tims’ torsos in Aliens, and the that preceded it. But trade has Early signs are that the with her re-enactments: the dum- Gardner was standing at a wooden largest heads in show-business. Gardner also crafted a silicone model of weeks I was building the bladders mechanical toy called Chucky also been hurt by the rise of CGI products are nothing if not realis- mies, made by medical suppliers and bench, next to a small pile of Simu- On a table is the wig that the (bald- of a teenager’s testicles caught in the that made it look like Jackson’s face which turns serial killer in the film-making, where men behind tic. A few weeks ago, Kleinman sold to universities around the real’s fake, rubber babies, used dur- ing) Nicolas Cage wore in Con Air. zipper of a pair of trousers. It was swell up,” he recalls. “Then I started Child’s Play movies. computers create Avatar-style tried to fly home from a sales con- world, look more like tailor’s man- ing training simulations set in labour Nearby are the space-age helmets built at double life size, to provide suf- building zombie masks for the back- His most successful work, how- special effects. vention in New Orleans with a nequins than living, breathing wards. In the middle of the room was that Daft Punk wear to conceal their ficient detail for a famous, eye-water- ground dancers.