Team behind Rampage movie took inspiration from real-life earthquake devastation.
The demolition of Wellington’s Reading Cinema car park in New Zealand inspired Kiwi visual effects giant Weta Digital to create Rampage’s scenes of destruction.
Directed by Brad Peyton, the sci-fi fantasy tells the story of a rogue genetic experiment that went awry, as three animals mutate into raging creatures and tear across Chicago destroying everything in their path.
A Weta Digital crew travelled to Chicago to understand the effects of what those mutated animals might do if they were let loose in the city, VFX Supervisor Erik Winquist said.
“Some of the buildings that we tear apart were among the very first skyscrapers that were built in Chicago way back in the late-1800s, early-1900s, so there was a broad range of architectural styles that we had to replicate in that work as well.”
Weta Digital needed to understand the bones of the building – a point pushed strongly in all Weta Digital produced work by Weta’s senior visual effects artist Joe Letteri .
“In order to tear it down in a believable way when the monsters tear into it, we need to see the internals of that building,” Winquist said.
Winquist had seen those internals first hand during the demolition that had to take place after the recent earthquakes in Wellington. “It gave us an opportunity to go out with cameras and get lots of really good photo references, like when the Reading carpark was being taken down, along with some of the old buildings in the CBD – they gave us a really great look into learning what is inside these buildings because some of them are of similar era to some of the buildings that we had to do in Chicago.”
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