Patrick Tatopoulos
Patrick Tatopoulos (born September 25, 1957) is a Greek-French production designer and director who lives and works in the United States. His designs have appeared in numerous motion pictures, including Pitch Black, Underworld, I, Robot, The Chronicles of Riddick, Independence Day, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Stargate, Spawn, Godzilla, Stuart Little, 300, I Am Legend, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League, 10,000 BC and Live Free or Die Hard.
Early life
Tatopoulos was born and raised in Paris, France, to a French mother and an immigrant father from Greece.[1] His parents had a clothing store in Paris. Tatopoulos raced motorcycles, worked in 2-D advertising and drew comic book covers. He lived in Greece for ten years before coming to the United States in 1989. He is a fluent speaker of English, Greek and French.
On October 11, 2015, Tatopoulos married Face Off host McKenzie Westmore. The couple met while working on the first season of the show. The wedding ceremony was held at Chateau Le Dome at Saddlerock Ranch Winery in Malibu, California.[2] Tatopoulos is currently based in Los Angeles.
Movie career
In Greece, while working as a designer artist in the production of commercials, he was continually fascinated by creatures and special effects.[3] He studied at the École d'Art Décoratif de Paris, the École des Arts Appliqués de Paris, and the École des Beaux-Arts.[1] From Paris he moved to Rome and Greece where he began selling his illustrations. Eventually, his passion for the entertainment business drew him to the United States and within a short time became a designer for commercials, music video and motion pictures. Tatopoulos is a frequent collaborator of directors Roland Emmerich, Alex Proyas, and Len Wiseman.
The main character in Godzilla, Nick Tatopoulos, is named after Patrick, who worked on that movie and several others made by the same creative team.[4]
In May 2000, Tatopoulos was honored by The Hellenic Times at its ninth annual Scholarship Gala in New York. The goal of the organization is to identify young American scholars who best exemplify the values of their Greek heritage and provide them with educational support. A Patrick Tatopoulos Creative Arts Award Scholarship was created in 2001 and Tatopoulos has personally presented the scholarship, in his name, to a deserving student in 2001 and 2002.[5] He owns Tatopoulos Studios, Inc. and Patrick Tatopoulos Designs, Inc.
The character of Niko Tatopoulos in Godzilla was named after his youngest daughter. He made his directorial debut with the 2009 film Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. He worked on the live action film adaptation of the Darkstorm Studios graphic novel I, Frankenstein,[6] which was produced by Lakeshore Entertainment.[7] The story follows the original monster of Victor Frankenstein who is the only force that stands between the human race and an uprising of supernatural creatures determined to overthrow the world. Filming kicked off in July 2010. The film was released in 2014. Tatopoulos created the creature figures of the upcoming Stan Winston produced Speed Demon.[8] He will direct the action horror film Suspension, which based on a screenbook by Scott Millam.[9]
Tatopoulos served as a judge for the first 2 seasons, appearing only several times on the third, on the Syfy original series Face Off which features makeup artists competing for $100,000.[10]
Collaborators
Tatopoulos has worked with the following directors on more than one film:
- Paul W. S. Anderson (Alien vs. Predator, Resident Evil: Extinction)
- Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, 10,000 BC, 2012)
- Alex Proyas (Dark City, I, Robot, Knowing)
- David Twohy (Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, Riddick)
- Len Wiseman (Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, Live Free or Die Hard, Total Recall)
- Zack Snyder (300, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League, Zack Snyder's Justice League)
Filmography
- The Doors (1991)
- Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
- Super Mario Bros. (1993)
- Stargate (1994)
- Space: Above and Beyond (1995)
- Se7en (1995)
- Jade (1995)
- Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996)
- Independence Day (1996)
- Spawn (1997)
- Dark City (1998)
- Godzilla (1998)
- Stigmata (1999)
- Stuart Little (1999)
- Supernova (2000)
- Pitch Black (2000)
- Battlefield Earth (2000)
- Special Unit 2 (2001)
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
- Saint Sinner (2002)
- They (2002)
- Underworld (2003)
- Van Helsing (2004)
- The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
- I, Robot (2004)
- Alien vs. Predator (2004)
- The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (2004)
- The Cave (2005)
- Venom (2005)
- Underworld: Evolution (2006)
- Silent Hill (2006)
- Crank (2006)
- Eragon (2006)
- The Dead Girl (2006)
- Aquaman (2007)
- The Messengers (2007)
- 300 (2007)
- Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
- Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
- I Am Legend (2007)
- 10,000 BC (2008)
- The Ruins (2008)
- Outlander (2008)
- Pathology (2008)
- Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008)
- Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) (Director)
- Blood Creek (2009)
- Solomon Kane (2009)
- Knowing (2009)
- 2012 (2009)
- Gallowwalker (2011)
- Underworld: Awakening (2012)
- Total Recall (2012)
- Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2012)
- Man of Steel (2013)
- Riddick (2013)
- 300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
- Justice League (2017)
- Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)
- Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
- Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)
References
- ^ a b "Visual Hollywood". Archived from the original on March 12, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
- ^ Byrne, Suzy (October 12, 2015). "McKenzie Westmore and Patrick Tatopoulos Say 'I Do,' Get Photobombed by a Giraffe in Their Wedding Photos". Yahoo!. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
- ^ Visual Effects HQ biography
- ^ "Patrick Tatopoulos".
- ^ Hellenic Times Scholarship Fund Archived March 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "I, Frankenstein Franchise Coming at You From Lakeshore". DreadCentral. July 21, 2012.
- ^ "Lakeshore Eyes New Franchise With 'I, Frankenstein'". BloodyDisgusting. February 2, 2010.
- ^ "Stan Winston's Speed Demon Hits the Fast Track". DreadCentral. August 16, 2012.
- ^ "Trapped on a 'Suspension' Bridge With a New Kind of Creature". BloodyDisgusting. April 14, 2010.
- ^ Rice, Lynette. "Syfy special effects show 'Face Off' gears up for January premiere". Entertainment Weekly.
External links
- Patrick Tatopoulos at IMDb
- Tatopoulos Studios Official Site
- v
- t
- e
- Marcel Vercoutere (1972)
- Joe Dante and Mark Goldblatt (1973)
- Douglas Knapp, Bill Taylor, John Carpenter, and Dan O'Bannon (1974/75)
- L. B. Abbott (1976)
- John Dykstra and John Stears (1977)
- Colin Chilvers (1978)
- Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, and Richard Yuricich (1979)
- Brian Johnson and Richard Edlund (1980)
- Richard Edlund (1981)
- Carlo Rambaldi and Dennis Muren (1982)
- Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, and Ken Ralston (1983)
- Chris Walas (1984)
- Kevin Pike (1985)
- Stan Winston, Robert Skotak and Dennis Skotak (1986)
- Peter Kuran, Phil Tippett, Rob Bottin, and Rocco Gioffre (1987)
- George Gibbs, Ken Ralston, and Richard Williams (1988)
- Ken Ralston (1989/90)
- Stan Winston (1991)
- Ken Ralston, Tom Woodruff Jr., and Alec Gillis (1992)
- Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Phil Tippett, and Michael Lantieri (1993)
- John Bruno (1994)
- Stan Parks (1995)
- Volker Engel, Clay Pinney, Douglas Smith, and Joe Viskocil (1996)
- Phil Tippett, Scott E. Anderson, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., John Richardson (1997)
- Volker Engel, Patrick Tatopoulos, Karen E. Goulekas, and Clay Pinney (1998)
- Rob Coleman, John Knoll, Dennis Muren, and Scott Squires (1999)
- Scott E. Anderson, Craig Hayes, Scott Stokdyk, and Stan Parks (2000)
- Dennis Muren, Scott Farrar, Stan Winston, Michael Lantieri (2001)
- Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll, and Ben Snow (2002)
- Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, and Alex Funke (2003)
- John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara, and John Frazier (2004)
- Joe Letteri, Richard Taylor, Christian Rivers, and Brian Van't Hul (2005)
- John Knoll, Hal T. Hickel, Charles Gibson, and Allen Hall (2006)
- Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl, and John Frazier (2007)
- Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, and Paul J. Franklin (2008)
- Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andrew R. Jones (2009)
- Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, Paul J. Franklin, and Peter Bebb (2010)
- Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri, R. Christopher White, and Daniel Barrett (2011)
- Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams, and Dan Sudick (2012)
- Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, and Neil Corbould (2013)
- Paul J. Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, and Scott R. Fisher (2014)
- Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan, and Chris Corbould (2015)
- John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel, and Neil Corbould (2016)
- Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner, and Dan Sudick (2017)
- Dan DeLeeuw, Matt Aitken, Russell Earl, and Dan Sudick (2018/19)
- Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, and Dominic Tuohy (2019/20)
- John “D.J.” Des Jardin, Bryan Hirota, Kevin Andrew Smith, and Mike Meinardus (2021/22)
- Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett (2022/23)