Greg Nicotero has been in the makeup effects business since the ‘80s, even before founding KNB Efx Group in 1988. Now at the top of his profession, Nicotero produces “The Walking Dead” for which KNB does the zombie makeup, and the vampire makeup for “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.”
Nicotero worked on From Dusk Till Dawn the movie as well, and returned to handle the vampires in the elongated TV version for The El Rey Network.
When we last left the Titty Twister, Santanico Pandemonium (Eiza Gonzalez) was about to do her dance, which you may recall from the movie bodes poorly for the bar’s human patrons. We spoke with Nicotero by phone about this week’s episode of “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.”
CraveOnline: Is episode seven when all hell breaks loose?
Greg Nicotero: Yes, I would have to say that’s a very good description. The title is “Pandemonium” so I think that’s pretty much synonymous for all hell breaks loose.
And we know from the movie, once Santanico dances, that’s pretty much it.
Yes, I love that you know that because in the original script, that’s what it says. It’s like, “Oh yeah, and then all hell breaks loose.” I remember talking to Robert [Rodriguez] and we’re like, “Okay, so what do you want to see there?” And he’s like, “Uh, I want to see what it says in the script. All hell breaks loose.” It was a big difference between doing an eight day prep and an eight day shoot for a TV show and a five and a half month prep and a four month shoot for the movie. But, we had a great time.
I know that I’ve never been involved in a remake or a re-imagining of any project that I worked on the original. So it was like going into a time machine. I had a similar feeling when we did Sin City, but that was a sequel, because we did the first movie in 2004 and we did the sequel at the end of 2012, early 2013. Being on the same stage with the green screen and the same crew and Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis and everybody, just being like, “Wow, this is weird.” To be on the set of the Titty Twister again was really crazy.
Do any of your classic From Dusk Till Dawn movie vampires reappear on “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series?”
They’ve certainly been re-imagined. I think you definitely get a sense in the original movie with the end shot of the big matte painting of the Titty Twister built on top of the Aztec temple that there’s some backstory of a little bit more information about the mythology around Dusk Till Dawn. The TV show has the opportunity to explore that a little bit more and take that a little bit further, so I think the show benefits from that.
In the original movie, we had Razor Charlie, Chet Pussy and Big Emilio, we had the inhabitants of the Titty Twister with Cheech [Marin] and Danny Trejo, Fred Williamson and Savini and all those guys. We may see a few dudes like that pop up here and there in the next episode or two, but we’ve sort of re-imagined those vampires to follow more of a motif that we’ve established in the TV show which is this kind of snake-like bloodsucker that has these shapeshifting abilities. Even the idea that they could be out in the sun, so we’re changing the rules a little bit based on our own created mythology.
Well, we’ve met Chet and Razor already.
Yup. Just stay tuned.
How long is Eiza Gonzalez in the makeup chair? Because she’s already not wearing many clothes when she’s about to do her dance, did you do a full body makeup on her?
We did. She was pretty well covered, full body. I’d say her transformation was probably two and a half hours in the makeup chair. It’s interesting because when you look at the original movie and you see Salma [Hayek], she was really the only vampire in that film that had any sort of snake motif. When we did the morph, you see that kind of cobra hood morph out and then she becomes that final snake-like vampire, but we’ve sort of augmented and refined her look. I don’t know any filmmaker on the planet that doesn’t relish the opportunity to revisit the well and have a second chance and refining and redesigning things that they had done earlier in their career.
Do you have a way of keeping the ladies sexy, even after they turn?
Actually, oddly they become a lot sexier. Eiza is unbelievably sexy and her alter ego is equally as alluring. It’s cool, it’s fun. Vampires by nature have that sort of sexy quality to them. “From Dusk Till Dawn” definitely plays up the mantrap aspect of you lure them in with your beauty and then you transform into this hideous creature. Then they’re at your mercy.
In the original movie, we played that up a lot. We had a couple different looks, but the vampire makeups in the original movie were much more tailored to each individual face. Cheech’s makeup, Danny’s makeup and Savini’s makeup and Fred Williamson’s makeup were all kind of augmented based on characteristics of their face.
Robert had done a sketch of Quentin [Tarantino] for the original movie and that even was on the letterhead. The “Dusk Till Dawn” letterhead was Robert’s sketch and he has a very cartoony sketching style. So we took that lead in terms of designing his makeup so that they really had a bit of an over the top look. Any chance to re-imagine those with more of this creepy snake look with the clear fangs, we went very far away from the traditional vampire teeth and I think it’s great.
How are you balancing your two jobs on “The Walking Dead” and “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series?”
I was really lucky because “Dusk Till Dawn” shot during the hiatus of “The Walking Dead.” So I got home in the middle of November and then went right to Texas and spent time with Robert and Carlos Coto who’s the show runner. Then we did test makeups in December and we shot the majority of the vampire work at the end of January. So the timing just happened to work out. If it would have shot over the summer, I probably wouldn’t have been as fortunate at juggling as I was last season, but things could be worse going from “The Walking Dead” to “From Dusk Till Dawn.” I could’ve had a worse year, you know.
Sure, but will it work out for season two of “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series” also?
You know, I have a very intriguing way of making that kind of stuff work out. I watch Robert and Robert’s a huge, huge inspiration to me because the guy makes movies, now he does TV shows. He can cook, he can play music, the guy can do anything and he never stops. He never slows down, so he’s a great gauge for me.
He and I have our sort of parallel worlds running where he’s taking over one part of the world in his universe and I’m taking over another part of the world in my universe. So it’s really rewarding and it’s exciting to see what he’s capable of and the guy never slows down. He doesn’t stop so if he doesn’t stop, I’m not going to stop.
Was Terminus from the “Walking Dead” comic books and can we expect it to play out faithfully to how it was in the books?
Oh, you know, I don’t know actually I think with “The Walking Dead,” it was the first time we really ended on a cliffhanger where the audience was left, okay, they don’t know who they’re messing with and we’re out. The other seasons sort of had much different endings, so I think it would be safe to assume that we’re going to see more of our group and more of Terminus and how that plays out.
You’ve done zombies, vampires, even werewolves. I don’t think you’ve done a mummy yet. Are there any other monsters you’re itching to get your hands on?
I would love to do an alien movie, especially I’m a huge Ridley Scott fan. I better be because I’m executive producing a TV show with him right now, but I want to make a face hugger. I want to make an alien. I’m an old school guy so as far as I’m concerned, I love that stuff. It’s really fun for me and I would love to do a cool face hugger or a cool alien and a cool chest burster. I love that. I’m all about Rob Bottin and Savini and Rick Baker and all that late ‘70s/early ‘80s stuff. I have this tendency to love to rebuild full size props and stuff for movies because I’m a giant nerd. One day I want to rebuild everything that Rob Bottin made for The Thing.
So not just an alien, you want to do the Alien.
I kind of do, but I know that the sensibilities of Prometheus were “we’ve done that already, let’s do something different.” You had to respect not wanting to retread that territory again, but those iconic characters were so great. How could you not want to make one?
