Rexy

From InGen Database: The Jurassic Park Wiki

'Rexy is a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]

Animatronics[edit | edit source]

Origins[edit | edit source]

Jurassic Park director Steven Speilberg wanted to have full-sized animatronic dinosaurs for the film due to having been impressed by the Universal Studios King Kong Encounter theme park attraction.[1] Most notably, Speilberg wanted a full-sized walking Tyrannosaurus. The King Kong attraction and the company Dinamation International Corporation, who created museum exhibits, were observed. Talks were also made with the Jim Henson Company, but the most serious discussions were with Bob Gurr, who had designed the King Kong Encounter. Gurr had a planned design for the animatronic. Micheal Lanteri recalls that Gurr's plan for the mechanical T. rex would have been high-tech, being completely balanced and operated by motion sensors. Every time it would start to take a step the motion sensors would detect the center of gravity going over and would adjust its balance with its tail. However, the special effects team became discouraged over the possibility of a full sized walking T. rex after consulting researchers from NASA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the California Institute of Technology, discovering how much work went into getting these robots to move. Soon, Speilberg realized the difficulties of a full-sized walking animatronic, to his disappointment.[2]

But Speilberg still wanted full-sized dinosaurs in the film, albeit being possible by more conventional means. Stan Winston Studio was key among the potential candidates to bring Speilberg's vision to life. Before Jurassic Park was even greenlit, Stan Winston pulled artist Mark "Crash" McCreery from all of his other assignments to create drawing of the T. rex to get Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment interested in the film.[3] The resulting drawings gained the reception Winston wanted,[4] and after months of informal development Universal entered into a contractual agreement with Stan Winston Studio to create the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park.[5]

Full-sized mold[edit | edit source]

As a reference, Stan Winston Studio created a full-sized clay mold of the Tyrannosaurus. The armature was designed by Richard Landon as a triangular truss that ran through the length of the sculpture's body and up into the head and into the tail.[6] To create parts of its body, a 1/5 scale maquette was cut into cross sections with each individual part numbered, then projected up five times onto a piece of plywood using an opaque projector before the plywood pieces were cut out-albeit by two inches to allow the Stan Winston crew to place the molding clay-and hooked onto the armature.[7] When all the parts were attached to the armature, hardware cloth, fiberglass, and Roma clay were added in this order. Shane Mahan explained that the choice of Roma clay on all of the big sculptures made for the film was because it was oil-based.[8]

The sculpture took sixteen weeks to complete with a team of eleven sculptures sculpted the life-sized Tyrannosaurus.[9] These sculptures were: Mike Trcic, Joey Orosco, Mark Jurinko, Bill Basso, Robert Henderstein, Greg Fiegel, Len Burge, Christopher Swift,[10] David Beneke, Richard Davison, and Shane Mahan.[9] Tricic and Swift in particualr worked on the head and neck of the sclupture.[8]

Full-sized animatronic[edit | edit source]

Preparations for Rexy's attack on the Main Road was problematic for the filmmakers due to how the T. rex was to interact with the characters and physical props. Initially, as a budgetary decision, Stan Winston Studio was to create separate full-sized parts of her body to portray her. A fifth-scale puppet was also considered for her portrayal.[11]

Notes and references[edit | edit source]

  1. Duncan, Jody, Shay, Don. (1993) The Making of Jurassic Park, p. 18
  2. Duncan, Jody. (August 1993) Beauty in the Beasts. Cinefex, 55, p. 48.
  3. Duncan, Jody, Shay, Don. (1993) The Making of Jurassic Park, pp. 19-20
  4. Duncan, Jody, Shay, Don. (1993) The Making of Jurassic Park, p. 22
  5. Duncan, Jody, Shay, Don. (1993) The Making of Jurassic Park, p. 23
  6. Duncan, Jody. (August 1993) Beauty in the Beasts. Cinefex, 55, p. 50
  7. Duncan, Jody, Shay, Don. (1993) The Making of Jurassic Park, pp. 24-25
  8. 8.0 8.1 Duncan, Jody. (August 1993) Beauty in the Beasts. Cinefex, 55, p. 51
  9. 9.0 9.1 Duncan, Jody. (December 15, 2012) Jurassic Park T-Rex - Sculpting a Full-Size Dinosaur. Stan Winston School of Character Arts, excerpted from The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio.
  10. Duncan, Jody, Shay, Don. (1993) The Making of Jurassic Park, p. 27
  11. Duncan, Jody. (August 1993) Beauty in the Beasts. Cinefex, 55, p. 72.