Special effects artists are often tasked with creating things that have never existed before. Sometimes that's a cool new alien species. Other times, it's a human body that farts a lot. Just because the effects are bizarre doesn't mean that making them can't be as epic an endeavor as anything that WETA Workshop has ever done. For example, watch them build of Manny, Daniel Radcliffe's farting corpse double for Swiss Army Man.
The craziest thing in this video, about the creation of the mannequin version of Daniel Radcliffe, is the use of the film's fairly epic music. It makes it feel like they're in the middle of creating the greatest invention of the modern era, not something that will allow Paul Dano to cross the water propelled by farts. And yet, that's exactly what they did. They did an amazing job with it, too. By the end, it looks like exactly what it should look like, a dead Daniel Radcliffe.
Swiss Army Man wins the award for being a movie with one of the most utterly bizarre premises we've ever heard. Paul Dano stars as a man stranded alone on an island when he comes across the dead body of "Manny" as played by Daniel Radcliffe, and this dummy you see here. By harnessing the body's... umm, natural functions, he's able to travel across the water to a more hospitable location, as well as obtain food and shelter. It's a movie that has made early audiences fairly uncomfortable.
Makeup effects producer Jason Hamer seems to be truly excited to have been part of this experience. We can't really disagree with him. Nobody has ever done this before, and there's surely some excitement that comes along with that. And we can't argue about the quality of the work. This thing is creepy, but it also looks remarkably like the guy who used to be Harry Potter.
From the trailers for Swiss Army Man, we know that using gas as propulsion isn't the only thing that Daniel Radcliffe's body does. He also fires grappling hooks from his mouth, we're assuming propelled by more internal gasses, and chops through logs with his bare hands (something to do with atrophying muscles or something?). None of it makes any sense, but that's not really the point. The movie is as unique as the effects needed to bring it to life.
You'll be able to see everything that Daniel Radcliffe, and Manny, can do when Swiss Army Man hits theaters on Friday.
