NORMAN REYNOLDS
Remembering the man who got the ball rolling…
STEEPED IN WHAT PRODUCER Kathleen Kennedy called “old style craftsmanship”, art director and production designer Norman Reynolds was a key creative influence in some of the most cherished and acclaimed fantasy blockbusters. Born in Willesden, London, he had a lifelong interest in art and architecture. A chance visit to Shepperton Studios while working for a company supplying illuminated signs convinced him the movies were his calling. “I was totally gobsmacked by the whole concept of filming on a stage,” he recalled. “I felt that I’d found what I wanted to do.” Two years on TV’S The Saint served as an apprenticeship while 1965’s Thunderball saw him transfer to the big screen. He also earned a credit as assistant art director on 1974’s apocalyptic ant chiller Phase IV. As art director on Star Wars Reynolds helped bring reality to
George Lucas’s revolutionary “used universe” aesthetic. On location in Tunisia, seeing the camera frame R2-D2 and C-3PO among the blinding dunes of Tatooine, he glimpsed the film’s potential: “The light began to dawn, this could be something extraordinary.”
It was as production designer that Reynolds returned to that galaxy for The Empire Strikes Back – among his designs were the carbonite freezing chamber, praised by director Irvin Kershner as “the best set in the movie” – and Return Of The Jedi.
Lucas recommended him to Steven Spielberg for Raiders Of The Lost Ark, for which his Oscar-winning work included everything from the Raven bar to the unforgettable giant boulder that almost crushes Indy in the opening setpiece. “I’d shown it to Steven – who got very excited and immediately asked me to make it bigger!”
Reynolds was also art director on Superman and Superman II and production designer on Return To Oz, Young Sherlock Holmes and
Alien 3. “The better the make-believe the more people who believe it,” he reflected in 2016. NS