Mad God, the epic stop-motion masterpiece that Phil Tippett spent the last 30 years making, debuted June 16 and quickly became Shudder’s most-watched movie premiere of 2022. The film’s huge premiere comes a week after Mad God’s highly successful theatrical release from IFC Midnight in New York and Los Angeles, coinciding with its expansion to an additional 24 screens across North America.
Two-time Academy Award® winning artist, animator and filmmaker Tippett, whose VFX work can be seen in legendary films such as STAR WARS, JURASSIC PARK, ROBOCOP, STARSHIP TROOPERS and many more, was inspired to create MAD GOD during a lull in his schedule following ROBOCOP 2. After sketching and designing a few creatures and sets, he and his stage and stop motion team at Tippett Studio shot the first few scenes of MAD GOD, then suspended work on the project to focus on creating the groundbreaking effects for JURASSIC PARK. Some 20 years later, several of Tippett’s key artists and supervisors stumbled across original puppets and sets from those early shots. Revisiting the original footage and models, this new generation of artists, trained primarily on computers, longed to learn from Tippett and assist as he revived his long-since abandoned film. Together with a volunteer crew, Tippett taught a new generation of artists and craftspeople as they brought his labor of love to life. In 2020, while the world sheltered through a global pandemic, Tippett completed the final scenes. Mad God world premiered to rave reviews at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival and was showcased at Edinburgh International Film Festival, Fantasia Film Festival and Sitges Film Festival, among others.
Mad God is a Tippet Studio production, produced, created and directed by Phil Tippett, co-produced by Jack Morrissey, and executive produced by Dave Berry, Jules Roman, Sanjay Das, Gary Mundell, Lisa Cooke, Colin Geddes, Katarina Gligorijevic, and Josh Sobel.
Read the review here.