'Penny Dreadful' Season 1 News: No 'CG Monsters' for Showtime's Dark Drama; More To Come? [VIDEO]
Showtime's new drama Penny Dreadful is getting up, close, and personal with its creatures.
More Literary Characters to Come on Showtime Series?
"Something we said very early on," said creator John Logan in an interview released by Showtime Tuesday, "Is that we don't want CG monsters."
With the growing popularity of digital effects it's today's movie industry, as well as the wealth of supernatural creatures to populate the Showtime series, which is halfway through its first season, this is no easy feat.
According to the prosthetics department, their aim was to create characters "so accurately that you can't tell what's fake and what's real." They wanted to be able to film close up shots and give the actors real people to perform with.
"This isn't about effects," a make-up artist explained, "It's about character design."
The show is certainly dedicated to this philosophy. To create the primary vampire for the first episode, it took over six hours to apply prosthetics and makeup to the actor and, based on previews, it is very possible for more to begin popping up.
As the drama continues, more and more of these characters are being introduced. In the last three episodes Creature (Rory Kinnear), produced by Frankenstein, has become a prominent figure on the show. The short-lived blood eating Fenton, with his vein riddled face and haunting eyes was prominently features over a multiple episode arc.
With four episodes to go in the show's first season, there are likely to be more "monsters" to come.