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Tuesday July 4, 2017 16 ENtertainment

On July 2, 1997, the sci-fi comedy “Men in Black” opened in theaters, introduc-ing audiences to the extrater-restrials who secretly live on Earth and the straight-faced special agents (played by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones) charged with keeping them in line. Smith, at the height of his fi lm stardom, was the biggest audience draw, what really made the fi lm click was the aliens: a delightful rogue’s gallery of weird creatures living amongst and inside ordinary humans.

Twenty years later, Hol-lywood is experiencing a nos-talgia for “practical effects,” the art of creating effects in-camera with puppets and

makeup — which is how effects artist Rick Baker designed the alien population of “Men in Black.” But the fi lm also used computer graphics to supple-ment, and sometimes replace, Baker’s tactile creations. To watch “Men in Black” now is to see Hollywood’s transition from practical effects to CG and to understand why fi lmmakers are circling back.

Baker, who won one of his seven Oscars for “Men in Black,” has described the fi lm in mul-tiple interviews as “design hell.” By that, he doesn’t mean that working on it was a total night-mare — after all, he returned for two sequels — but that his creative process was continu-ally stalled while he waited for

director Barry Sonnenfeld and executive producer Steven Spielberg to hash out exactly what they wanted. “There were so many people involved in the designs and nothing was get-ting approved and time was a wasting,” Baker said in a 2015 video interview. Sometimes, this meant that designs he spent months building were suddenly scrapped, like the insectoid alien from the fi lm’s climactic battle, which was replaced with a CG creature. But other puppets make it onto the screen with memorable results, like Rosenberg, the dying alien hidden behind a human face.

That alien, nicknamed “Chucky” by Baker, was per-

formed by two different-sized puppets, the larger of which had articulated lips and blink-ing eyes.

A minimum of computer animation was used on that alien, while only slightly more was used for the “worm” aliens, ultimately one of the franchise’s most popular creatures, who began their lives as simple rod puppets in Baker’s studio.

Other characters were a more equal blend of practical and digital effects. Take Mikey,the fi rst alien to be unmasked in the fi lm. As shown in the clip below, Baker spent 10 months creating an 8-foot-tall alien suit to be worn by a real actor, with a head and body parts controlled by 10 remote operators.

Even so, the design team couldn’t fi gure out a way for the creature to run quickly, as required by the script. So the practical Mikey is replaced by a CG Mikey partway through his brief scene.

For most of Hollywood his-tory, special effects didn’t work like this. If a director needed a cast of aliens, those aliens had to be designed, created, and made camera-ready in the months leading up to the shoot. By the time fi lming wrapped, the creature designer’s job was done, and the aliens on camera were the ones who made the fi nal cut.

If the director wasn’t happy with how it looked, his only option was to reshoot it — much like George Lucas shot extra footage for the “Star Wars” cantina scene, including new aliens designed by Baker.

(SD-Agencies)

ADELE has wrapped up her 2017 tour. In an emotional note to fans Friday, the 29-year-old singer announced that she had canceled her remainder tour dates, set for July 1 and 2 at London’s Wembley Stadium.

“I don’t even know how to start this. The last two nights at Wembley have been the biggest and best shows of my life. To come home to such a response after so long away doing some-thing I never thought I could pull off but did has blown me away,” Adele began her mes-sage. “However, I’ve struggled vocally both nights.”

The “Hello” singer goes on to explain that she has dam-aged her vocal chords, and on medical advice, she is unable to perform her fi nal shows as scheduled.

“To say I’m heart broken would be a complete understat-ment,” she wrote. “I’m sorry for your disappointment. I’m sorry for the nights you would have had with your loved ones and the memories you would have made together. I’m sorry for the time and money you’ve spent organizing your trips. You know I would not make this decision lightly.”

“To not complete this mile-stone in my career is some-thing I’m struggling to get my head around and I wish that I wasn’t having to write this,” she continued, adding that refunds will be available if the shows can’t be rescheduled. “I have changed my life drastically in every way to make sure I got through this tour that started at the beginning of last year. To not be able to fi nish it, is something I’m really struggling to come to terms with.”

Adele’s canceled tour dates comes just one day after her touching handwritten letter to fans explaining that she may never tour again, explaining that touring “doesn’t suit me particularly well.”

(SD-Agencies)

‘Men in Black’ turns 20: How it rewrote the playbook

for movie special effects

Adele cancels remainder of tour

Will Smith delivers an alien baby in “Men in Black.’” SD-Agencies

OSCAR-WINNING actress Olivia de Havilland is suing the makers of a television show which she says portrayed her as a “petty gossip.”

De Havilland, who turns 101 Sunday, fi led a lawsuit against FX Networks and producer Ryan Murphy over the minise-ries “Feud: Bette and Joan.”

The drama explored the bad blood between the Hollywood screen legends Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.

The actress, who appeared in 50 fi lms, was played by Cath-erine Zeta-Jones.

In papers fi led at the Los Angeles Superior Court, de Havilland — who was made a dame in the Queen’s birthday honors in June — said the

show’s characterization of her damaged her “professional reputation for integrity, hon-esty, generosity, self-sacrifi ce and dignity.”

The “Gone With the Wind” star is asking a jury to consider the emotional distress caused by the show, as well as potential fi nancial losses and the profi ts made from using her identity.

She last appeared on the big screen in 1979’s “The Fifth Mus-keteer.” (SD-Agencies)

Olivia de Havilland sues FX over ‘Feud: Bette and Joan’

Olivia de HavillandOlivia de Havilland