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makeup? All of those things. What choices do they make? I always knew that I wanted to tell my own stories. I grew up in the South. We're always telling stories. Conversation is a big part of our familial relationships. Even from the early days when I was a charac- ter designer, I was pitching to studios, wanting to do my own things. So it really came out of that tradition that I'd grown up with of telling stories, and wanting to tell stories to a broader audience. CGW: What led you to direct Ultraman: Rising? I know it was a very long journey to the screen. Shannon Tindle: I was first introduced to Ultraman on I think it was WDRB Channel 41 in my hometown of Shepherdsville, Kentucky. I didn't know anything about the character. I didn't know how big the character was. I just saw this giant red and silver man fighting mon- sters, and it blew me away and it stuck with me. When you go to Japan, you can't escape the character. I have friends who grew up in Japan, and it's like Ultraman is everywhere. I could buy toys, comic books, coloring books. I didn't have any of that. When I moved to LA in '97 and I went to Little Tokyo, Ultraman was everywhere, and Ultraman Tiga had just come out. So it kind of rekindled my love for the character. Then I thought, "While he's big in not just Japan but all over Asia, could I tell a relatable story about parents and children that might appeal to a broader audience and bring a character like that?" So I had this idea called Made in Japan. The character was called Gamma Man because I was like, "I can never get the rights to Ultraman." So for 20 years I pitched this idea everywhere. I had it set up at Sony for a while, and we had a different set of creative opinions there. But Kristine Belson, who runs Sony Animation, she's incredi- ble. I love her so much. She was very generous and said, "We'll let you take the film out." When I went and brought it over to Netflix, they said, "We love this script, we love this story. What if we could actually get you the rights to Ultraman?" Then they flew me to Japan, and I pitched it to Tsuk- agoshi-san and the folks at Tsuburaya, and they loved the idea and have been very supportive. We got to tell that story. But my thing was, I want to tell this story about parents and children. To me it's not a Superman film. It's a film about relationships that happens to star a superhero. CGW: Can you tell us about your ongoing collaboration with ILM? Shannon Tindle: My good friend Teddy Biaselli, who's an executive over at Netflix, had asked if I would consider adapting a book called Ollie's Odyssey, written by William Joyce, about a toy that gets sep- arated from his little boy. I loved the idea. I read the book, and there had been some initial work done on it, but I had a different take on it. I wanted to set it in my hometown. When you start a project and you know that there's going to be a big CG element—a live action series with CGI characters in it—you're going to test a lot of different studios. There was an executive on the Netflix VFX side, and they said, "Look, all the bids are coming in at the same at about the same amount. ILM is going to get it done the right way, so maybe you should work with them." 8 cgw j a n u a r y • f e b r u a r y • m a r c h 2 0 2 5 Helicopter jitter helped convey the massive size of the kaiju infant.