Oscar Profile #589: Douglas Trumbull

Born April 8, 1942 in Los Angeles, California, Douglas Trumbull was the son of an aerospace engineer who had briefly worked as visual effects creator for 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. His mother, who died when he was 7, was an artist. As a child, he liked to construct mechanical and electrical devices such as crystal-set radios and enjoying watching alien invasion movies. He initially wanted to be an architect, leading him to take classes in illustration. His abilities in creating photorealistic art led to a job at Graphic Films, which produced short films for NASA and the Air Force.

Trumbull’s early work was for L.A.’s Graphic films which produced To the Moon and Beyond for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. This caught the attention of Stanley Kubrick who hired him to work on visual effects for 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. That led to his doing the effects for 1971’s The Andromeda Strain for Oscar winning director Robert Wise, which in turn led to his being hired to direct 1972’s Silent Running for which he also did the visual effects. In 1974, he did uncredited special effects work on The Towering Inferno.

In 1975, Trumbull turned down an offer to work on George Lucas’ 1977 film, Star Wars, choosing instead to work on Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind for which he would receive the first of his three Oscar nominations for Visual Effects. His next film, 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture for Robert Wise would earn him his second. The one after that, 1982’s Blade Runner for Ridley Scott would earn him his third.

Trumbull’s second and last film as a director was Brainstorm which began filming in 1981. It was supposed to be a showcase for Trumbull’s “Showscan” process, which used special cameras and projectors to capture and project 70 mm film at 60 frames per second. At the last minute the Showscan process was not used, because theatre owners balked at the idea of installing expensive new projection equipment. The film was shot conventionally at 24 frames per second on 35 mm film, although Trumbull continued his process of shooting effects work in 70 mm.

The film was nearly scuttled by the mysterious drowning death of Natalie Wood during a break in production in November 1981. MGM immediately shut down production and initially wanted to dump Brainstorm (and collect the insurance on the unfinished film). Trumbull argued that the film could easily be finished – Natalie Wood’s performance was already “in the can” and only a few scenes would have to be reshot. Lawyers and insurance companies battled over whether to even complete the film. The movie was finally finished two years later when the insurance company supplied the money to finish production.

The experience so rattled Trumbull that he walked away from Hollywood, setting up various special effects businesses in Massachusetts. He returned to filmmaking with 2011’s The Tree of Life. His last film was 2018’s The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then Bigfoot.

Douglas Trumbull married three times and had two children. He died February 7, 2022 at 79.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), directed by Stanley Kubrick

Although the film won its only Oscar for Best Visual Effects, that award went to Kubrick who put his name on everything instead of to Trumbull and other effects geniuses who did the work. Whenever Trumbull was credited in print as being the sole creator of the film’s visual effects, an irate Kubrick would call Trumbull to complain. Although this created a strained relationship between the two, Trumbull was the first to say after Kubrick’s death that he missed him terribly. Interestingly, the effects wizards who created the effects for the film’s 1984 sequel, 210: The Year We Make Contact were given Oscar nominations for their efforts.

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971), directed by Robert Wise

A naïve Trumball won the bid to create the film’s special effects without realizing what the costs for his efforts would be. It practically bankrupted him, but the results for the film directed by two-time Academy Award winner Robert Wise (West Side Story, The Sound of Music) were such that he later worked for Wise on his 1979 film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture for which Trumbull received the second of his three Oscar nominations for Best Visual Effects. Trumbull state-of-the-art laboratory was inhabited by the likes of Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, and Kate Reid.

BLADE RUNNER (1982), directed by Ridley Scott

Scott’s film was Trumbull’s third in a row, and the third for which he would be nominated for Best Visual Effects following Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Robert Wise’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. According to Trumbull, the refinery flames bursts in the opening shot were footage of large-scale explosions he had originally filmed for Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1970 film, Zabriskie Point. He had initially turned down Scott’s offer to work on the film due to his commitment to his own Brainstorm which was shut down following Natalie Wood’s death.

BRAINSTORM (1983), directed by Douglas Trumbull

Trumbull’s second film as director started out with great promise. Although he was disappointed by the veto of his “Showscan” process to being used in the filming process, he shouldered on. It all came to a halt with the sudden death of Natalie Wood in November 1981. The film was finally released two years later, Wood’s role having been pretty much “in the can” prior to her death. Her sister Lana filled in for her in long shots. Christopher Walken, Louise Fletcher, and Cliff Robertson had the other main roles. The experience so demoralized Trumbull that he walked away from Hollywood for almost thirty years.

THE TREE OF LIFE (2011), directed by Terrence Malick

Having spent twenty years working for various special effects companies in Massachusetts, where he produced and directed several short films, he finally agreed to return to big screen moviemaking for what was director Malick’s only fifth film in nearly forty years. Malick had him employ effects using bygone optical and practical methods. The film was nominated for 3 Oscars for Best Picture, Director, and Cinematography. It starred Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, and Tye Sheridan in the story of a family in Waco Texas in 1956. Chastain’s Oscar nomination that year was for The Help.