A massive 12 foot long spaceship actually used in the filming of Christopher Nolan’s stunning new film Interstellar was placed on display in the lobby of BFI IMAX London. The replica of the Ranger spacecraft will be on display until November 17th and is only one of several massive 3D printed props created for the movie.
In Nolan’s latest blockbuster science fiction movie, our planet has been devastated by famine and extreme climate change and the Earth is on the brink of becoming inhospitable. In order to prevent the end of humanity, a group of explorers venture out into space through a newly discovered wormhole looking for a new planet on which to settle.
Take a look at the film’s trailer (just in case you haven’t seen it yet):
The films characters travel through space on their ring-shaped mothership called the Endurance, can land on new worlds in the Lander and travel in atmospheres with the Ranger. Nolan wanted to create as realistic an experience as possible, so rather than use CGI to create the various spaceships, they used very large scale miniatures to film the space sequences. All of the ships were made in part with 3D printing, including a 46 foot long replica of the Ranger that was so large it had an IMAX camera mounted inside of it. This made for some incredibly authentic action sequences.
The large scale miniature spaceships were created by the films production designer Nathan Crowley and LA special effects house New Deal Studio. The models were created to hold up to an incredible amount of scrutiny so they could be shot up close and against a variety of backgrounds and other models. Cowley nicknamed the huge miniatures “maxatures” because they were so large.
The film has already managed to pull in over $50 million during its first weekend and will most certainly win loads of awards. A smaller 1:15 scaled replica of the Ranger was selected to go on display at the BFI IMAX theatre in London for the films premiere. Interstellar stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine and is in theatres now.
