Effects Guru Douglas Trumbull on How Technology, Spectacle Can Rescue Hollywood

Within three years of starting his Hollywood career, Douglas Trumbull changed the moviemaking process irrevocably; working with Stanley Kubrick on 1968’s 2011: A Space Odyssey, when he was barely 25, he not only created a landmark cinematic experience, but pioneered special-effects techniques which filmmakers continue to use even today. Since then he’s done Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner, and most recently, Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life. And almost 45 years later, Trumbull still doggedly pushes the industry to grow and change, even if he finds resistance – or worse, indifference - to innovations which he claims will not just revolutionize current technologies but resuscitate the dwindling receipts studios and exhibitors try to squeeze from the theatrical experience.