Emmy Award winning special character makeup FX artist Todd Masters and his special effects company MastersFX have become Hollywood’s leading “Creature and Monster” Makers for Fall 2008, with an unprecedented amount of company work which will be featured in numerous high profile motion pictures and TV shows. Specifically:
TELEVISION:
HBO’S “TRUE BLOOD”:
Following on the heels of MastersFX’s work for the entire run of the HBO original series “Six Feet Under,” the company again joins show executive producer Alan Ball on the new HBO program, “True Blood.” Specifically, MastersFX will be creating the vampire characters and special makeup effects featured in that new series.
“True Blood,” which will premiere on HBO Sept. 7, 2008, is based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries books by Charlaine Harris and has been adapted for television by Alan Ball. The series is produced by HBO in association with Ball’s own production company, Your Face Goes Here Entertainment. The show details the fictional co-existence of vampires and humans in a small Louisiana town after Japanese-made synthetic blood – "Tru Blood" – becomes available for purchase. Anna Paquin stars as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress at a diner who falls in love with one of the vampires, Bill Compton, portrayed by Stephen Moyer.
SCI FI CHANNEL’S “SANCTUARY”:
For the original SCI FI series “Sanctuary,” MastersFX is responsible for creating each episode’s “monster du jour.” SCI FI will present a 13-episode season of the new scripted drama series beginning October 3, 2008. "Sanctuary" hails from the "Stargate SG-1" trio of star Amanda Tapping, writer-producer Damian Kindler and producer-director Martin Wood, who are all executive producing the series with Sam Egan. “Sanctuary” is produced in association with SCI FI Channel and is distributed by Tricon Films and Television.
Amanda Tapping stars as a doctor whose mission it is to track down, study and protect the strange and often terrifying creatures that secretly populate our world and live among us.
“Sanctuary” began “life” as an award-winning 8-part episodic Web series and as such, is the first to receive a full-season television order. Continuing to pioneer new ways of creating television, “Sanctuary” is also one of the only series to shoot almost entirely on green screen in the style of the feature films “300” and “Sin City”. As well, it is the first TV series in North America to start production using the RED camera exclusively, a system that eliminates tape and film, and captures images at four times the resolution of a high definition camera.
SHOWTIME’S “DEXTER”:
The Emmy Award nominated series “Dexter,” will, during its third season, once again feature the body parts and gruesome makeup effects that will be designed, created and produced by MastersFX.
Set and produced in Miami, “Dexter” centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall,) a serial killer who works for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood spatter analyst.
SCI FI CHANNEL’S “EUREKA”:
For SCI FI Channel’s returning series “Eureka,” MastersFX will be contributing various makeup FX, including the creation of the character “Snakeman Bob” featured in the new season’s second episode, “What about Bob?”
“Eureka” is a science fiction television series set in a town inhabited almost entirely by geniuses. The show’s third season of 13 episodes began to air during summer 2008.
SCI FI CHANNEL’S “STARGATE ATLANTIS”:
MastersFX continues on its fifth season of also providing make-up special effects to the “Stargate Atlantis” television series airing on the SCI FI Channel, and produced by MGM Studios.
Developed by longtime “Stargate SG-1” producers Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, “Stargate Atlantis” is a spin-off from “SG-1” and is filmed and produced in Canada. “Stargate Atlantis” follows the adventures of a human expedition to the lost city of Atlantis in the Pegasus Galaxy. The Stargate has brought humanity into contact with other cultures, including new and powerful enemies: the Wraith, the Genii, and later the Asurans, all while trying to uncover the secrets the Ancients left behind.
FEATURE FILMS:
FOX’S “THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL”:
MastersFX is currently creating the creature FX and makeup FX on Twentieth Century Fox’s contemporary reinvention of its 1951 classic, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
In that film, slated to open Dec. 12, 2008, Keanu Reeves portrays “Klaatu,” an alien whose arrival on our planet triggers a global upheaval. As governments and scientists race to unravel the mystery behind the visitor’s appearance, a woman (Jennifer Connelly) and her young stepson (Jaden Smith,) get caught up in his mission—and come to understand the ramifications of his being a self-described “friend to the Earth.”
GOLD CIRCLE FILMS/LIONSGATE’S “THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT”:
For Gold Circle Films and Lionsgate, MastersFX is contributing all of the character and make-up effects—along with a variety of “ghostly images”– to the upcoming film “The Haunting in Connecticut,” which is slated for release during early 2009.
This real-life horror film depicts the true story of one family’s supernatural ordeal. When Sara (Virginia Madsen) and Peter (Martin Donovan) Campbell’s son Matt (Kyle Gallner) is diagnosed with cancer, they uproot their family to Connecticut for his treatment. As the family settles into their new home, Matt grows increasingly disturbed by paranormal activity that seems to inhabit and possess the house. At a loss to help her frightened family, his mother turns to an enigmatic priest (Elias Koteas) who appears to rid the house of its ghosts– until the boy’s condition takes a sudden and unexplained turn for the worse and their lives are put in grave danger.
ABOUT MASTERSFX:
Founded in 1987 by Emmy Award winner Todd Masters, MastersFX is a full-service Character Effects company headquartered in Arleta, CA, with an additional studio in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
The company has designed, created and produced prosthetics, animatronics, and makeup effects for hundreds of motion pictures, television programs, and commercials. Upcoming projects from MastersFX include “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” “Sanctuary,” HBO’s “True Blood,” and “The Haunting in Connecticut,” which join on-going company TV projects “Stargate Atlantis,” “Dexter,” and “Eureka.”
Among the company’s previous credits are character effects contributions to “Star Trek: First Contact,” “Tales from the Crypt,” “Nightmare on Elm Street 5,” “The Horse Whisperer,” “Slither,” “Snakes on a “Plane,” “Predator,” “Poltergeist II,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Look Who’s Talking,” “Mortal Kombat,” “Carnivale,” “Stargate,” and many more.
MastersFX designed, created and produced prosthetics and makeup effects for all five seasons of the hit HBO series “Six Feet Under.” Todd Masters won an Emmy Award in 2003 for the 2001/2002 Season of “Six Feet Under” in the category, “Best Special Effects Makeup.” MastersFX is also the winner of the 2006 “Saturn Award” for “Best MakeUp FX” for its work on the film “Slither.”
MastersFX’s Arelta, CA office can be contacted by phone at 818/834-3000. The web is www.mastersfx.com
