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www.postmagazine.com 25 POST MAR/APR 2025 F irst beginning as a passion project for writ- er/director Shannon Tindle over 20 years ago, Tsuburaya Productions & Netflix's Ultraman: Rising is an epic new chapter in the saga of an iconic Japanese superhero. The film follows all-star baseball player Ken Sato (voiced by Christopher Sean) as he takes on the legendary mantle of Ultraman, a title previously held by his own estranged father. While protecting Tokyo from a devastating new threat, Ken rescues an orphaned newborn kaiju — the offspring of his sworn enemy — and decides to raise her as his own child. Tindle and co-director John Aoshima joined forces with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to craft dynamic visuals that breathe new life into the beloved franchise while celebrating its heritage and mythos. Merging classic Japanese manga and anime aesthetics with cinematic camera move- ments and realistic lighting, the film is animated in a brilliantly-immersive style that pulls the audience directly into the heart of the action. At VIEW Conference 2024, director Shannon Tindle and ILM visual effects supervisor Hayden Jones — who previously collaborated on the acclaimed miniseries Lost Ollie in 2022 — gave us an inside look at the process of bringing Ultraman: Rising to life on-screen. DIRECTING Can you tell us a little about how you launched your career? Shannon Tindle: "I grew up in rural Kentucky, where nobody does what I do. I never remember a time when I wasn't drawing, but it just didn't seem like something that you could do. "I was a biology major — I thought I wanted to be a doctor for a while. My parents are both nurses. My dad said, 'You know, you're doing well in school, but you don't really seem to be into it.' I was going to the University of Louisville. I said, 'Well, I want to get into animation, I want to get into film.' And so he said, 'All right, well, let's see if we can figure it out.' "I applied to CalArts, and I never put a portfolio together. I was rejected, but then I tried again the next year, and I got in. I was there for two years, and my first job was working on a show called Mickey Mouse Works. I was working on that my second semester of my second year at CalArts, which was great because I had no money — I'd used it all on school. To have a little bit of money in my pocket and actually getting to do charac- ter design on that show was pretty incredible. So that's where it all began, and I just kind of worked my way up from there." How did your background in character design influence your approach to directing? Shannon Tindle: "I always approach character design from the perspective of story. Like, if you have costume design, you want to tell things about the character without them speaking — how they stand, how they fix their hair. Do they wear make- up? Do they not wear 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 character 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." What led you to direct Ultraman: Rising? 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, KY. I didn't know anything about the character. I didn't know how big the character was. I just saw this giant red & silver man fighting monsters, 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 broad- er 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 incredible. 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 Tsukagoshi-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." 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 separated from his little boy. I loved the idea. I read the book, and there had been some initial Cultural advisors helped make sure Tokyo was accurately represented. Each character's design is a tool in the storytellng effort.