Tony Gardner

Birthday: 1965, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Known best for the films "127 Hours," "Zombieland," and"Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa," as well as his work with Daft Punk, Tony Gardner began his film career working on "Michael Jackson's Thriller" under the auspices of Rick Baker.His very first independent FX job was an animatronic Half-Corpse for Dan O'Bannon's "The Return of the Living Dead," followed by Chuck Russell's feature film remake of "The Blob." Tony quickly established a reputation for delivering innovative effects work, and was quickly considered one of the most creative and reliable artists in Hollywood and abroad.In 1992, Tony created the disfigured title character for director Sam Raimi's classic film,"Darkman." From there, Tony's career took off.Always once to believe that the on-screen presentation of the effects is equally as important as the design and creation, he has always been directly involved in the filming process on each film or television project, at times storyboarding scenes as well as directing second unit or the effects sequences for the films he's involved with. His collaboration with Daft Punk has led to writing, directing, and co-producing music videos, several of which have been lauded at worldwide festivals.And his attention to detail and realism has led to investigations launched by the FBI, the LAPD, the Arizona State Police, and Missing Person's Division - all testaments to the quality of his work, albeit in a VERY roundabout way. His realistic attention to detail on Danny Boyle's film "127 Hours" led to screenings being halted and audience members passing out.His company Alterian, Inc. is located in Los Angeles, California. Show less «

When someone says something isn't possible, I'm the first one in line for a project like that.

[in regards to Billy Butcherson in 'Hocus Pocus' as played by actor Doug Jones] Kenny (Ortega) calls...Show more »

[in regards to Billy Butcherson in 'Hocus Pocus' as played by actor Doug Jones] Kenny (Ortega) calls him the soul of the movie. He's a guy in Revolutionary-era clothing who's been dead for 300 years, gets dragged out of the ground against his will by the witches and forced to do their bidding. He has a stitched shut mouth, which means he has to be real expressive with his eyes and do a lot of stuff with his body. And Doug is right on the money. Show less «

[Discussing "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa," and the old age makeup on Johnny Knoxville]: "It's one ...Show more »

[Discussing "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa," and the old age makeup on Johnny Knoxville]: "It's one thing to create a makeup effects character for a film that can take advantage of specific lighting or angles or editing, but to put a prosthetic character out into the real world, in regular light, nose to nose with the 'audience,' with no opportunity for re-takes..AND then have it be accepted as a real old man ...that's definitely an adrenaline rush for all of us involved!" Show less «

What others might cite as 'problems' or 'limitations,' I look at as 'challenges.' And those challeng...Show more »

What others might cite as 'problems' or 'limitations,' I look at as 'challenges.' And those challenges quite often inspire you to approach things from a different and new perspective, which often leads to solutions you would never even have anticipated otherwise. Show less «

The weirdest meeting I can recall was for "Hocus Pocus," and went essentially like this: "Can you de...Show more »

The weirdest meeting I can recall was for "Hocus Pocus," and went essentially like this: "Can you design a 300 year old zombie who has his mouth stitched shut with leather cord, gets his fingers sliced off on camera, and his head knocked off and reattached a couple times? And while you're at it, we also want to run over a cat with a bus and then have it re-inflate on camera. ...and please make this all "kid friendly" of course...this is a Disney film." Show less «

I thought some of the stories were hyped about people fainting during "127 Hours". Then a producer w...Show more »

I thought some of the stories were hyped about people fainting during "127 Hours". Then a producer we were working with on another project called me and said "I went to the movies last night and had quite an experience". It turns out that somebody had passed out. I felt proud at first, and then really guilty. Show less «

When I was a kid I did magic, and it was all about fooling people and making something that obviousl...Show more »

When I was a kid I did magic, and it was all about fooling people and making something that obviously isn't real appear believable. I figured out a way to make people pay me to do the same thing as an adult. It's really great. Show less «

[Discussing the creation of Daft Punk's helmets] We never expect the longevity that some things that...Show more »

[Discussing the creation of Daft Punk's helmets] We never expect the longevity that some things that we create are going to have.It's always a nice surprise to see (the robots) continue to survive, and people actually enjoying them. Show less «

[Discussing the 'bullet through the body' sequence from the film 'Three Kings']: For whatever reason...Show more »

[Discussing the 'bullet through the body' sequence from the film 'Three Kings']: For whatever reason, they were convinced that we had taken a homeless person off the street in Arizona, shot him up with bullets and filmed it with a high speed camera. It's a backhanded compliment, really, to have the FBI investigate you on what you did with a fake body. It validates that what you did was very realistic and that people believed it. Show less «

Until "Bad Grandpa," Johnny's Irving character had worked on the earlier Jackass films for only a fe...Show more »

Until "Bad Grandpa," Johnny's Irving character had worked on the earlier Jackass films for only a few days out of the entire shoot, at most. The challenge with the latest film (Bad Grandpa) ...was the fact that Irving had to exist as a real person in the real world, under close scrutiny in all sorts of situations, and also carry a narrative story. The words of Producer Derek Freda were always echoing in the back of my mind, 'If the makeup doesn't work, the movie doesn't work.' Show less «

Half of the success of make-up is the person wearing it. With James Franco, the arm [for the film '1...Show more »

Half of the success of make-up is the person wearing it. With James Franco, the arm [for the film '127 Hours'] was great, but if he hadn't made it real, you wouldn't have bought it. We can make Johnny Knoxville look 80-something, but if he doesn't own it and sell you on it, you're not going to buy it. It's a collaboration. Show less «

Tony Gardner

Tony Gardner's FILMOGRAPHY

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