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In a series of exclusive columns for MTV, New Zealand filmmaker Jonathan King is taking us inside the making of his new horror/comedy, "Black Sheep." Last time, King described joining forces with Peter Jackson's creature shop, Weta. Today, we learn how he pulled together the perfect crew for his hilarious take on animal mutation.

Once we were greenlit for our ovine extravaganza, we had to take our crazy script and a pile of concept drawings and turn them into reality. Weta were, at the time, deep in a number of other projects, but determined to honour their commitment to help us make the film. They enlisted the help of Dave and Lou Elsey - an English couple based in Australia.

They'd been doing a TV show called "Farscape" there -- churning out almost a different alien each week -- followed by a little film called "Star Wars: Episode III - Return of the Sith." Dave was nominated for an Oscar for Make-Up for "Star Wars" while we were prepping "Black Sheep" and, in fact, he missed the first few days of shooting to attend the Oscar ceremony (as did our Art Director Simon Bright, who was nominated for a small New Zealand film called "King Kong"). Read More...

Tags black sheep, jonathan king, weta

Writer/director Jonathan King's new horror-comedy "Black Sheep" (read Kurt Loder's review here) has been generating buzz with its "Shaun of the Dead" take on animal mutation. In a series of guest posts for MTV, King takes us inside the making of the film. In this first entry, he tackles the initial concept of the movie and discusses working with Peter Jackson's world-famous special-effects shop, Weta.

So, I had this idea: a horror movie about sheep. From New Zealand. It was a fun idea that you could make anywhere. But New Zealanders have this, well...special relationship with sheep. I knew that people would enjoy the idea of combining those elements as much as I did: they made me laugh as well as relish the possibilities for splatterific mayhem.

One of the first people we told about the project was Weta Workshop's Richard Taylor. Once he'd got over the reminder of childhood sheep-related traumas, he laughed and said he'd love to help us make the idea a reality. Weta helped answer people's first question: 'Cool idea, but how do you make sheep scary?' Anyone who's ever seen sheep up close knows that it's no big leap: they have sharp hooves, lizardy eyes and hard bony brows. I always knew that if we could capture that on screen, we'd be halfway to making the idea work. Read More...

Tags black sheep, jonathan king, weta