Edge of Tomorrow: Pitch Art 1 (2010)

So in early 2010, director Rupert Sanders invited me to work with him on pitch material for a movie called All You Need Is Kill (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_You_… adapted from a Japanese novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka with illustrations by Yoshitoshi ABe.

I was never paid when the film got picked up (not that there were 'proper' contracts in place, but in my naivete back then assumed the best in people, and besides, even armed with contracts, pursuing international lawsuits that costs many times more than the work done doesn't make sense to me.) but I have to say that from a creative standpoint this gig that lasted maybe a week was thoroughly enjoyable. Some of the ideas discussed were truly fantastic, and moral discussions aside I found Rupert to be quite a visionary. From an artistic standpoint, I only wished that I could have been better equipped in skillset at the time to deliver more.

For the job, I was shown previz work by Legacy effects and was asked to put my spin on things. One thing in particular that was asked of me was to revisit the desgns of the powered armour, Rita's axe as well as the dropship and mimics, and hint at the ash covered LA in the settings I would portray them all in.
________________________________

The general direction of this image was to portray Rita and Keiji fighting "as though they are in love" even though they're pretty much submerged in sci-fi hell. One of my favourite parts of the image was showing a trooper getting flung about like a ragdoll, and his mind-controlled micro-missile launcher spewing rounds as it misinterprets his pain as a signal to fire.