Longtime Harry Potter production designer Stuart Craig is up for an Art Directors Guild Award for his work on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Stuart Craig is a legendary Hollywood production designer who worked on all eight of the original Harry Potter films. He’s been nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won three. (One in 1982 for Gandhi, in 1998 for Dangerous Liaisons and in 1996 for The English Patient). Naturally, Warner Bros. wanted him on board for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, although he was nervous at first.
“The strange and interesting thing about ‘Harry Potter,’ those films, those kids are contemporary,” Craig told the Los Angeles Times. “They are about modern kids in jeans and T-shirts. ‘Fantastic Beasts’ is set in 1926, but it feels like a contemporary film and the ‘Harry Potter’ films feel like a period film because of the architectural start — it all feels kind of switched. What was intriguing, fascinating was how to do it.”
As we saw in the movie, Craig ended up hitting the production design out of the park. From the underground MACUSA headquarters to the Barebones’ tenement to the contents of Newt’s suitcase, Fantastic Beasts was a feast for the eyes.
Photo: Jaap Buitendijk / Warner Bros. Pictures
The MACUSA set
Craig talked reverently about the MACUSA set in particular.
"Realizing it was this great cathedral of light made me think of Sienna Cathedral in Italy where the interior is banded in light and dark color. Horizontal bands of marble in two contrasting colors. That seemed like a very good idea for this secular, magical cathedral we had built."
Now, Craig is being recognized for his work with a nomination for an Art Directors Guild Award, in the Fantasy Film category. Here’s what the field looks like:
- Arrival — Production Designer: Patrice Vermette
- Doctor Strange — Production Designer: Charles Wood
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — Production Designer: Stuart Craig
- Passengers — Production Designer: Guy Hendrix Dyas
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — Production Designers: Doug Chiang, Neil Lamont
Fantastic Beasts faces some stiff competition here, particularly from hits like Doctor Strange and Rogue One, but Stuart’s work on Fantastic Beasts is certainly strong enough to win. Last year, Colin Gibson won this award for his work on Mad Max: Fury Road, and then went on to win the Oscar. Could Stuart be in for a similar experience?
Image: Warner Bros.
Newt’s Suitcase
Back to the Los Angeles Times, Craig also talked about designing the inside of Newt’s magical suitcase. “One of our early decisions was to give Newt a shed in this magical space. He lands down below and in that shed is his workshop. He’s more comfortable there than with his fellow human beings.”
"From there on each [beast] had a required environment. It may be an Arizona desert, it may be a snowy arctic landscape, an abandoned forest. Each one of those were taken separately and each world around it designed by concept artists. Some of the landscapes were painted backings. Some were taken further and given a three-dimensional physical reality. The shed was the key and then taking each piece and designing and treating it separately and then making them all compressed into this one big magical space."
And Craig’s favorite thing he did for the movie? The wand polisher you see for a second when first entering MACUSA headquarters. “There is a buffing wheel that does the basic cleaning and polishing, and then there is a big fluffy wheel of ostrich feathers that finishes it off. It’s a pleasing little thing and I like that rather a lot.”
Image: Warner Bros.
The 21st annual Excellence in Production Design Award, which are sponsored by the Art Directors Guild, will be held at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles on February 11. Best of luck to Craig.
Next: Check out this Harry Potter-themed bed and breakfast
h/t SnitchSeeker