Douglas Trumbull has passed away at the age of 79, after a major two-year battle with cancer, a brain tumor and a stroke.
Trumbull’s name should be familiar to film and visual effects fans. Ghostbusters fans may not know his contribution to the film franchise that they’ve come to love. In fact, it’s quite possible that without Douglas Trumbull’s involvement in the founding of EEG and Boss FIlms, many of the iconic elements of the original Ghostbusters we can close our eyes and picture could have been radically different.
In a wonderful article from American Cinematographer, Trumbull’s involvement from the ground floor was perfectly described:
While Richard Edlund, ASC was still working on Return of the Jedi, he participated in a special effects seminar sponsored by Women In Film in Los Angeles. On the panel with him was Douglas Trumbull, and in the course of their conversation, Trumbull asked Edlund if he would be interested in joining Richard Yuricich, ASC and himself as a partner in their company Entertainment Effects Group (EEG). Trumbull was interested in getting out of effects work to concentrate on directing and developing his Showscan process. Yuricich likewise wanted to be freer to work as a director of photography.
Edlund had known Trumbull for many years, and they had talked before about working together, but the occasion had not arisen. Edlund was one of the first people involved in the special effects work on Star Wars and the development of the Industrial Light and Magic effects facility. He had, as he puts it, “been on a roll” for several years, garnering a handful of Oscars, nominations, and Scientific and Technical awards for his work on Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Poltergeist. He felt very lucky and was glad to be able to see the Star Wars trilogy through to its culmination in Return of the Jedi, but he was anxious to return to Los Angeles after living and working for so many years in Marin County. “I’m an Angeleno,” he comments. “By the time I started working on Jedi, I had spent a great deal of time under the Lucasfilm umbrella, and I wanted to go out and get wet myself. I felt that once I had finished Jedi, my job was essentially done.”
Edlund made a deal with Trumbull and Yuricich whereby he became a partner in EEG and the exclusive visual effects director for the company. Another instrument, Boss Film Corporation (BFC), was formed to facilitate working relationships with studios, and almost immediately two major projects surfaced within a week of each other. They were 2010 (the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Ghostbusters, and it wasn’t long before there were as many as 163 people working at EEG/BFC on both these pictures. Many of the people came down from ILM to join Edlund in the new company and many of the others were people who had worked with EEG before. “It is,” he says, “an incredible talent pool, led by a group of 20 or so who function as a hunting band, a tight-knit group who are all going after the same goal and who constantly support each other.”
Trumbull was the son of Hollywood royalty, directed the films Silent Running and Brainstorm, and left his stamp on incredible visuals in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His work with miniatures, trick photography, compositing and optical printing, and filming cloud tanks became replicated and mimicked by films for decades. If you enjoyed Back to the Future: The Ride at Universal Studios, Trumbull was instrumental in developing the technology and the technique utilized for the ride film.
Trumbull left Hollywood behind to continue his research and development work on emerging technologies, particularly in 3D and high-framerate projection. I actually had the unique opportunity to meet and talk with Trumbull back in 2015 that you can read more about here if you’re interested. In truth, it’s been difficult to even sit and complete this write-up for just how saddened I am by his passing. He was a visionary who loved film and the craft of creating it.
I’d highly encourage everyone to read the amazing obituary written by the Visual Effects Society, then spend some time watching through Trumbull’s amazing filmography in remembrance.