Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542693
P E A C E M A K E R S 2 | P E R S P E C T I V E 2 9 The premise of Peacemaker S2 was simple: What if Chris/Peacemaker walked into an alternate world, which was clean and proper and…fascist, but he didn't notice that last part? All he saw was his brother Keith and father Auggie, alive and together with him—part of the Top Trio, a superhero team. The opportunity to work with James Gunn was hard to pass on, so I signed up to design Peacemaker S2. For at least once in my life, I got to work with a director who wrote all the screenplays and had them ready for filming on day one. I arrived in Atlanta and upon landing, I was asked to build a set! (Yes, you read that correctly.) The dialogue went something like this: "What set?" "Abandoned store." "What kind of store?" "Hmmm, a toy store." "Well, I don't even have a Supervising Art Director yet, let alone a paint and construction crew." "We have crew from Superman." "OK, then I'll have a design for you!" Within a day or two, I landed Drew Monahan as the Supervising Art Director, and as it turned out, a trusted confident, co-worker, associate… you name it. Another three days for fleshing out the preliminary design and concept work by Hugh Sicotte, and we were off to the races. That very first set was the Krank Toys store, for which graphics were created by the Lead Graphic Artist Jenn Moye, and set decoration was done by Andrea Doyle. On the surface, the design was simple, but the devil is in the details. I spent two days looking at abandoned malls for the exterior, and found one ten minutes away from the studio that was perfect. Now I had door and exterior architecture to match. I came up with the concept of Dinozone behind the three superhero interviewers who had taken over the store. It was a facade with windows and a door through which you saw the giant mural of dinosaurs, looking menacing…but not too much—it was a toy store after all! The crew divided the store by building a sleek metal wall with rivets and glass, as if the superheroes had it done themselves, and planted a single chair for the interviewee. I had the door and windows boarded up because the superheroes really didn't like conducting their business in the open. Different-colored balloons were painted on the wall, and before you could blink, the set was ready to shoot on a Saturday, three weeks after my arrival. James Gunn, who at the time was shooting Superman, came in and loved it. A. QUANTUM UNFOLDING CHAMBER. SET PHOTO. P e a c e m a k e r S 2 F A S C I S M I S I N T H E D E T A I L S B Y K A L I N A I VA N O V, P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A