Star Wars FX Whiz Speaks Out

By Anita Hamilton Friday, May 28, 1999
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He made E.T. fly. He created the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. And he has won more Academy Awards than any other living person. Yet Dennis Muren of the special effects house Industrial Light and Magic remains unknown to most moviegoers. Now, as visual effects supervisor for Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, he is taking on his biggest project ever, overseeing hundreds of animators and programmers to create dazzling scenes, including the final battle pitting thousands of battle droids against the Gungan fighters, completely on the computer screen.

We spoke to Muren, a tall, pleasant man of 53 who was casually dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt, at his San Rafael office on a rainy afternoon in March as he put the finishing touches on Episode I... MORE >>