Rick Heinrichs
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
An animator and production designer best known for his creative alliance with Tim Burton, Rick Heinrichs has done visually interesting and evocative work in capacities ranging from stop-motion animation to set design on films as varied as "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" (1985) and "Fargo" (1996). Like Burton, Heinrichs studied animation at the California Institute of the Arts and was recruited by Walt Disney Productions. The two collaborated on Burton's stop-motion animation short "Vincent" (1982) and the live-action "Frankenweenie" (1984), before teaming up on Burton's unforgettable feature debut "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," with Heinrichs serving as the film's animation effects supervisor. Before reprising his work in this capacity, perfecting animation-aided special effects with a visual effects consulting role on Burton's "Beetlejuice" (1988), Heinrichs branched out, doing stop-motion animation for "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzaii: Across the 8th Dimension" (1984) and supervising the models and miniatures for the Maurice Sendak-designed "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture" (1986).
Heinrichs made his debut as set designer with Ivan Reitman's sequel "Ghostbusters II" (1989). He followed up as art director of "To the Moon, Alice," a "Showtime 30-Minute Movie," and returned to set design duties on the features "Joe Versus the Volcano" and "Edward Scissorhands" (both 1990). While many of the films the designer worked on were Tim Burton movies, even those that were not bore Heinrichs' indelible mark, incorporating lively, almost surrealistically vibrant visuals from which the often over-the-top characters seemed to pop out. Even less fantastical films like "Soapdish" and "The Fisher King" (both 1991), with Heinrichs as assistant art director and set designer, respectively, had this vivid, extra animated feel.
Heinrichs' production designs often incorporated a darker color scheme than most other films, a feature that he used to good effect, evincing drama, danger and otherworldliness. He particularly excelled in this mode as art director of Burton's "Batman Returns" (1992). While the film's dark palette was similar to its predecessor, the crisp, cartoon-inspired settings of the sequel offered some well-needed contrast. The result was a film that used darkness to an atmospheric advantage, rather than a hindrance, a problem that arguably plagued "Batman" (1989). As art director of "Last Action Hero" (1993) Heinrichs merged this fluency with darkness with a masterful use of bright primary colors that captured the feeling of being transported into a film that rests at the otherwise disappointing movie's core. That same year he was a visual consultant on the stop-motion animation masterpiece "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas," working closely with Burton and animators to bring life to the director's vision.
In 1996, after working as supervising art director of the fantasy-adventure "Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill" (1995), and designing Showtime's popular noir anthology series "Fallen Angels," Heinrichs moved in a different direction, joining the team of the Coen brothers' comedic mystery "Fargo." Here his flair for the visually interesting had to be entirely squelched, as the Coen's requested a set with absolutely no visual interest or charm. He rose to the challenge of this admittedly tall task, and ended up with a look that pleased the brothers as well as critics and audiences, who applauded the simplicity of the sparse Minnesota landscape. Even here, with such minor visuals, Heinrichs' touch added the needed hyper-realism. He reteamed with the Coen brothers on the contrasting, visually busy comedy "The Big Lebowski" (1998). Referencing the odd vividness of Los Angeles architecture and design, specifically that of the 1950s and 60s, Heinrichs scouted appropriate locations for the film, and additionally built sets on a soundstage, that worked almost as characters in the film, bringing out traits of the players and aiding plot points.
Heinrichs reteamed with Tim Burton with the director's 1999 effort "Sleepy Hollow," a revisionist take on Washington Irving's Headless Horseman legend. Dark, haunting and nightmarish, Heinrichs' design of "Sleepy Hollow" gave the film an edge not present in other adaptations. His completely fabricated set (Heinrichs calls it 'Colonial Expressionism') merged painted backgrounds and real detailed materials and structures, giving an almost comic book-like appearance to the chilling film that evinced the Hammer horror tradition. Heinrichs' efforts earned him an Academy Award nomination and didn't go unnoticed by critics, many of whom praised the feature's visual design as the best part of the production.
Filmography
Producer (Feature Film)
Art Director (Feature Film)
Visual Effects (Feature Film)
Animation (Feature Film)
Art Department (Feature Film)
Production Designer (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Art Director (Special)
Life Events
1979
Spent four months at Disney's WED Enterprises, where he did sculpting for theme park audio-animatronic figures
1979
Relocated to Disney Studios animation; was an assistant animator for the feature "The Fox and the Hound"
1982
Worked with Tim Burton on his animated short "Vincent"
1984
Was part of the crew of the short "Frankenweenie", Burton's live-action directorial debut
1984
Worked as a stop-motion animator for the film "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension"
1985
Resumed association with Burton as animation effect supervisor on the director's feature debut "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure"
1986
Was models and miniatures supervisor for "Nutcracker: The Motion Picture"
1988
Reteamed with Burton as visual effects consultant on "Beetlejuice"
1989
Was set designer for Ivan Reitman's supernatural sequel "Ghostbusters II"
1990
Contributed to the "Showtime 30-Minute Movie" entitled "To the Moon, Alice" as art director
1990
Worked as set designer for "Joe Versus the Volcano"
1990
Joined crew of Burton's "Edward Scissorhands" as set designer
1991
Was assistant art director of the comedy "Soapdish"
1991
Worked as set designer for director Terry Gilliam's "The Fisher King"
1992
Was art director of Tim Burton's "Batman Returns"
1993
Worked as art director for "Last Action Hero"
1993
Served as visual consultant on the animated feature "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas"
1995
Was supervising art director for the adventure fantasy "Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill"
1995
Earned rare television credit as production designer of the popular Showtime anthology series "Fallen Angels"
1996
Was production designer of Joel Coen's Minneapolis-set mystery-comedy "Fargo"
1998
Reteamed with the Coen brothers as production designer of the comedy "The Big Lebowski"
1999
Reprised signature work with Burton as production designer of the director's haunting "Sleepy Hollow"; garnered Academy Award
2000
Designed the remake of "Bedazzled"
2001
Reunited with Burton for the remake of "Planet of the Apes"
2003
Served as the Production Designer for Ang Lee's "Hulk" based off the Marvel comic book character
2004
Was the production designer for "Lemony Snicket¿s A Series of Unfortunate Events" which is based on the children's books by Daniel Handler; earned an Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction
2006
Earned an Oscar nomination for his work as an Art Director on "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
Companions
