In 2019 I was brought on to serve for 18 months as Production Designer on Henry Selick’s stop-motion feature, Wendell And Wild which premiered on Netflix on October 28, 2022. The film was produced by Henry Selick, Jordan Peele and Julie Ragland. Our design team included Art Directors, Tom Proost, Matthew Brooks and Jason Lajka, with concept illustration by Kenneth Leoncito and Character Designer, Pablo Lobato. Peter Sorg served as Cinematographer and the Animation Directors were Jeff Riley and Malcolm Lamont. It was a stellar opportunity to once again join the company of a lot of old friends I’ve not had the chance to work with in years, like lighting cameramen, Russell Eaton (who was DP on my 2004 short live action film, Stain) and Chris Peterson (the latter of whom I worked with back in 1991 on a pilot for a stop motion series created by Damon Wayans that was never picked up). Along with Jeff Riley and Russel Eaton, there are a number of folks I worked with back in the days of Will Vinton Studios including character sculptor, Ben Adams; animators, Suzanne Twining, Amy Adamy, Wendy Fuller; gaffers, Brent Lawson and James Wilderhancock and Master Mold Maker, Matt McKenna.
My admiration for Henry goes back to my years at California Institute of the Arts when I first encountered his student film, Seepage (1982). In my capacity as head of the Student Council Film Series at CalArts, I would often screen the film in The Bijou Theater ahead of the feature film presentation. I’d missed a few opportunities to work with him since, so it was an honor when he invited me to be a part of his latest venture.
The brilliant comedy duo of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele provided the voices of the two demon brothers, Wendell and Wild, with Jordan as co-producer and script co-writer with Henry. I’d long been a fan of their Comedy Central series Key and Peele, and working on this project was something of a dream come true, as I’d discussed the idea of developing animated segments for their Comedy Central series with a producer friend back in 2014.
Among the other luminaries providing voice talent for the film were Angela Bassett as Sister Helley , Ving Rhames as Buffalo Belzer, James “I just do eyes” Hong as Father Bests, and Lyric Ross as Kat