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Special Thanks to Paul Taglianetti for providing invaluable pictures for this gallery! Main Article: Kothoga
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Exclusive: Interview with Paul Taglianetti!
Following our brief conversations, filmmaker Paul Taglianetti agreed to do an interview with me! Paul has worked on many famous films, but of course in this interview we focus on the creature effects he collaborated on over the years.
Exclusive – Relic Kothoga pictures from Paul Taglianetti!
Paul Taglianetti is a film producer, photographer, and writer who has worked on many iconic films as visual effects producer and coordinator. He currently teaches digital media at Mission San Jose in Fremont, CA — one of the most prestigious highsSchools in California, with previous film classes held at Quinnipiac University and Idyllwild Arts Academy.
We recently had a conversation about Relic — which he worked on as visual effects coordinator at VIFX — and he kindly provided some previously unpublished behind-the-scenes photos from the movie, which you can see below.
Special: Monster Legacy’s Monstrous Hundred – Part 3
The Monstrous Hundred continues with the 90s, a turning point in effects-making with the advent of CGI.
Tremors (1990)
Kicking off the 90s roster of creature features on a fabulous note, Tremors is one of the most brilliant, all-around engaging monster movies of all time. From the witty dialogue penned by S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, to the colourful performances of the cast, to the absolutely brilliant creature designs and effects by none other than the team at Amalgamated Dynamics in their first solo outing, Tremors never once gets boring. A real classic.
Kothoga
“As the flashlight beam hits it, MBWUN roars and looks up. Now we see it clearly for the first time. The monster is MASSIVE, putrid, rank. Slit reptilian green eyes are rimmed in red. A ridge of stiff black hair rises on the creature’s buffalo-like humped back. The withers are muscled and covered with plates. A forked TONGUE licks out as purple lips draw back exposing razor sharp teeth. The claws raise up to fend off the light.”
-Amy Holden Jones, Relic script draft, 1995
Initially, the monster in the film adaptation of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s Relic retained the original name — Mbwun, which means ‘He who walks on all fours’ — only to be successively renamed Kothoga, which in the novel is the name of the tribe that worships Mbwun. The reason for this change is currently unknown, but it is likely that ‘Kothoga’ was found to be more suggestive — or perhaps scary — as a name.
Monster Legacy 