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WonderWorks Inc. is a special effects company that specializes in constructing filming miniatures. Originally founded by Oliver Ray "Brick" Price, a self taught modeler and designer, in the late 1970s, it first operated under the name "Brick Price Movie Miniatures". Starting out as a model maker for a hobby magazine, his work caught the attention of Gene Roddenberry who invited him in 1977 to help out Magicam to ease the workload for the upcoming Star Trek: Phase II television project. He was charged with the construction of the revamped USS Enterprise studio model. Bringing along Model Maker Don Loos to help with the construction, the model was three quarters complete, when in December 1977 the decision was made to upgrade the project to the Star Trek: The Motion Picture movie project. Both director Robert Wise and art director Richard Taylor dismissed the almost complete model as being inadequate to meet big screen requirements and Price and his team were pulled off the project. His company was still retained to build numerous props like phasers, tricorders and such, albeit uncredited.
Price working on the molds of the Phase II Enterprise
Original company logo
Although unsubstantiated it is possible that Price retained possession of the Phase II Enterprise model after it was discarded by Paramount Pictures and finished it years later for the "Planet Hollywood" restaurant in New York City in the early 1990s. The saucer section and torpedo launchers were heavily adjusted to reflect the appearance of the refit Enterprise has in the movies. The nacelles, secondary hull, and the upper dorsal retained its original Phase II design, resulting in an unfamiliar looking hybrid between the Phase II and the movie's Enterprise.[1] Star Trek aficionado William S. McCullars maintained on his now defunct website "The Idic Page" that it was indeed the original studio model, showcasing pictures provided by Price himself. The model was on display in the restaurant during the 1990s. Yet, at the same time several others were sighted at other Planet Hollywood restaurants which indicated that the franchise contracted Price to make several copies. "The model was built from parts pulled from the phase II molds. A lot of models were duplicated so that they cold be displayed at more than one Planet Hollywood.", John Eaves later confirmed. [2] American collector Adam Schneider [3] provided confirmation of existence of copies, as he acquired one and had it converted to approximate the The Motion Picture appearance as a companion piece to the actual drydock studio model he owned. [4] [5] Additional confirmation was provided in the documentary series Hollywood Treasure (season 1, episode 15, "Trek to the Future", broadcast 8 June 2011), in which Brick Price himself presented the molds and partial casts of the model. It could be discerned that some of the molds were at least partially modified and that the castings were not those of the original model, making it more likely that Price only retained the molds in 1978 and not the original model.
During the 1980s Price changed the name of the company to "WonderWorks Inc." and continued to provide special effects for numerous movies. Besides movies, the company also provided numerous models for museums, theme parks, and corporations as well as the aforementioned Planet Hollywood models.
In 1994 WonderWorks was reacquainted with the Star Trek franchise when it was called in to help out in a time when the production staff of Star Trek was spread thin while preparing the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the season 2 ending of Deep Space Nine, the production of Star Trek Generations, the documentary Journey's End: The Saga of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the pre-production of Voyager. "Wonderworks" was charged with building the physical studio models of the two Kazon starship classes.
Members
The crew of BPMM on the set of Star Trek: The Motion Picture
There have been a number of members and people that have worked closely with the group over the years, including:
- Steve Amos
- Darryl Anka
- Alan Faucher
- Cory Faucher
- Tracy Faucher
- Mike Jones
- Dale King
- Robin Leyden
- Don Loos
- Bruce MacRae (sub contractor)
- Mike Mulvey
- John Palmer
- Laura Price
- Oliver Ray "Brick" Price
- Ron Pusick
- Ken Swenson
Further reading
- David Hutchinson, Star Trek-The Motion Picture: Props, Starlog, Issue 47, 1981, pp.57-61.
- James Van Hise, Brick Price Movie Miniatures; The Group that Star Trek Forgot, Enterprise Incidents; special edition on the technical side, 1984, pp.35-56.
External links
- WonderWorks.com - official site
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