You have told some very revealing stories about people you have worked with in Volume One. Is there anyone in this edition that could be a little damning or a bombshell to some?
Steve Johnson: Without hesitation, John Carpenter on Big Trouble In Little China.
Really?
Steve Johnson: Oh, yeah. You know, I’m not mean to him, I put him in a humorous light. He had initially worked with Rob Bottin and had this set deadline to release before Eddie Murphy’s movie The Golden Child. He could not be bothered with the FX aspects, and it’s detailed.
It’s not like anything that will piss him off? (Laughs)
Steve Johnson: Oh, it could. It was like when John Landis read what I said about him in Volume One. He asked me how many chapters were about him and he looked at all of them. He felt that I put him in a light that he didn’t want to be portrayed, until I explained to him what he was like when I was eighteen. I told him about the John Carpenter stories in the new book, and he asked if he had seen them and I told him no. But, if John still has a sense of humor left he should find it funny. The thing is it’s my truth, and I was working with a really powerful man that I respected and was being dismissed at the time.
After all of the things you have done, what is the one project that you had wished was a bigger hit, and what was the work you had done for that film that stands out?
Steve Johnson: There’s so many. I could say Phantoms. Did you see Phantoms?
Of course. Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms, yo.
Steve Johnson: (Laughs) Yeah. Well, there was this eight foot creature that I had bought a water tank for to the price tag of $125,000. I created this thing that could be my greatest work ever. It was this huge, tentacled puppet that worked underwater. We shot it wet for dry, but the tail was underwater. They replaced it with this awful thing. Here’s another one, Species II. I was approached for the sequel, and I was given all of the money to do practical FX, and they put me in charge of the visual FX. Was it a good movie? Probably not. But the things we created practically for that film I am very proud of.
You are extremely passionate about practical, of course. But with the desire to do everything digitally in modern filmmaking, do you feel it’s a nice blend or is the art of practical dying out?
Steve Johnson: I’ve been exposed to tons of digital, and I’m absorbing it very quickly. The digital design aspect will always be there. There’s a need for costume work, especially in superhero movies. There will always be work available, but it is dwindling a little bit. Technology will continue to advance, but I don’t think prosthetics and makeup will die out completely.