Richard Taylor (movies)

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Richard Taylor, 2003

Richard Taylor is the creator and head of New Zealand film prop and special effects company Weta Workshop.

A close friend of Peter Jackson, he and his company created all of the props, costumes, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry for Jackson's epic The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. For his work on the three films, he shared in winning four Academy Awards. This included two for The Fellowship of the Ring in Make Up and Visual Effects, and two for The Return of the King in Costume Design and Make Up.

Taylor can be seen and heard on all of The Lord of the Rings DVDs, in behind-the-scenes documentaries and on the audio commentaries on the extended edition DVDs. He even seems to have directed some of the trilogy's fight scenes.

He had a cameo appearance with Peter Jackson and other crew members in the special extended edition of The Return of the King as a Corsair pirate.

Weta Workshop has also worked on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Richard Taylor and his crew designed and built all the armor, weapons and special props for the film. The company were also heavily involved in the making of Peter Jackson's interpretation of King Kong for which he won his fifth Academy Award, in Visual Effects.