If you’d like a glimpse of a couple of the sets I designed for the forthcoming film The Muppets Wizard of Oz, then go to: http://muppets.go.com/
Click on anything that looks Ozzy. So far I’ve seen the Haunted Forest and a piece of the Munchkin Village on the site.
The Muppets Wizard of Oz was way fun to work on as we Valley Dudes are wont to say. It’s got a great, edgy, irreverent script. The picture was helmed by a guy who totally GETS IT — Kirk Thatcher. Kirk and I grew up with all the same cultural references and are both fans of a wide range of turn-of-the-century art, so we had a real communicative shorthand. When he’d say “a little less Guimard, slightly more Horta,” (those are references to two Art Nouveau architects) I’d know exactly what he meant without having to ask for further explanation. Working with a director like that is a dream job come true.
One of the interesting challenges for me that made this project different from my design work for other live action feature films was that I had to design sets that included objects and structures for the Muppets’ puppeteers to hide behind.
Kirk and I both lobbied heavily for this to be a theatrical feature but that didn’t happen, so The Muppets Wizard of Oz should be available for viewing on your home screen this coming May.