In the summer of 2016 I travelled to London to visit the set of Zack Snyder's Justice League and one of the most exciting and impressive aspects of the journey was spending time with production designer Patrick Tatopoulos. Tatopoulos is a legendary and immensely talented creator, special effects guru, and artist, having developed much of the conceptual art of the film. You'll know his work from Beauty and the Beast's creature designs, Total Recall's production design, and the film Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
He walked us through the designs of Atlantis and Themyscira, the alien designs and hero costumes, the weapons and props and much more. While at the time we could only speak to what we saw, you can now finally get a glimpse into some of the work yourself with Justice League The Art of the Film by Titan Books releasing December 15, 2017.
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We have an exclusive look at several spreads from this Justice League art collection. Below is the cover and four pages featuring gorgeous art of the Atlantean Mother Box Stronghold, Parademon art, early Parademon designs, the Parademon rifle design, Aquaman fighting Parademons, Pozharnov Russian City being terraformed into Apokolips, and the Flying Fox (Justice League's team vehicle) flying by Pozharnov.
Ciarán Hinds, Steppenwolf:
"Steppenwolf has backup, called Parademons. He can summon them. They’re his army, basically shock troops. There are a lot of them; their power is in numbers. They’re winged and can fly in very quickly and do damage with their custom weapons."
Jason Momoa, Arthur Curry/Aquaman:
“Fighting the Parademons was fun. I love doing fight scenes. I get the Trident, use it like a pitchfork, jump up and stab a Parademon, then jump on the Parademon and ride it to the ground like a surfboard. That’s fun to me!”
Patrick Tatopoulos, Production Designer:
“When you work on a film like Justice League you know that a lot of the designs you’re going to create will be created with CGI, so we design locations as 3D renders for the visual effects where they’re also used to develop the action scenes. Pozharnov’s completely alien landscape, that’s a spread like a cancer, was designed and created that way.”
The image above features the Flying Fox, the new vehicle Batman builds for the team and to transport the Batmobile around. It doesn't get much play in the film but when we visited the set there were clearly many more scenes and bigger plans for the ship, including Alfred getting in on the action by manning one of its gun turrets.
Inspired by Superman's selfless act, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans – Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash – to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions. Packed with stunning concept art, sketches, costume detail, stills, and behind-the-scenes shots from the set, this book is an invaluable insight into the world of Justice League.
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Director: Zack Snyder . Screenplay: Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon. Producers: Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Jon Berg and Geoff Johns . Executive Producers: Jim Rowe, Ben Affleck, Wesley Coller, Curtis Kanemoto, Daniel S. Kaminsky and Chris Terrio. Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa and Ray Fisher.
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Source: Titan Books
