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Exclusive Interview: Horrifying EDGE OF TOMORROW Concept Art by Alex Mandra

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Edge of Tomorrow (2014) concept art by Alex Mandra
Check out Edge of Tomorrow concept art by Alex Mandra!

While the latest Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow had a weak $28.7 million domestic opening, it's proven to be another blockbuster for Warner Bros. It's made $339,470,000 worldwide. Part of it's staying power are it's original story and visuals. One of the artists that helped shape those visuals is "visual storyteller" Alex Mandra. He agreed to a short interview about his work on the film, the influence of the graphic novel  and why he thought it was being directed by the Wachowskis.

Alex Mandradiev is a professional concept and storyboard artist who's worked on major projects like Archetype(2011) and the upcoming The Leap (2014).

Updated: Corrected the credits.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Maurice Mitchell: Thanks for your time Alex! How did you get the job working on this blockbuster film?
Alex Mandra: At the time when I was working on “Edge of Tomorrow” I was a freelance concept artist for the Aaron Sims Company. Every detail and instruction that came in from directors or producers went through Aaron and then was filtered to the team working at the ASC. One day I was told I was going to be on a project called ALL YOU NEED IS KILL.

I spent most of my time on the project painting scenes of war between aliens and human soldiers. It was very simple explorative process. The basic description given to me for the alien designs was something along the lines of “huge, long, menacing”.

At the time, I was told this was all based on a graphic novel “All You Need Is Kill” but I never looked in to the graphic novel. I figured I should go in to it with my personal film knowledge and ideas, rather than be influenced by something else. It was an explorative process.





MM: What an amazing experience it must have been. Were there any surprises while working on the movie?
AM: I don’t know if this was a lie at the time or bad communication, but I was told that this film was to be directed by the Wachowski Brothers. This was exciting news for me, and with that in mind I was painting and designing for what I thought a Wachowski Brothers film, set in that universe, would feel like to me.



For a lot of my personal work I create my musical tracks. A keyframe in my head plays out in to a full sequence, but I try my best to capture that memorable shot. Music plays a very important role in my work let alone my life. 


I am currently working on short films concepts from which I will pick one to take further and develop/edit in to a "still image" like short film. This is influenced by"La Jetée".

For example, this image  
 goes with this track that I had made.


See more of Alex Mandra's awe-inspiring portfolio at his blog http://alexmandra.blogspot.com. Warning: some of the artistic pieces are NSFW. Hear more of his kickin' tracks at https://soundcloud.com/alex-mandra.

Click on the links if you want to see more of Alex Mandra' work or Edge of Tomorrow artwork on my blog.

What do you think of the concept art? If you've seen Edge of Tomorrow what do you think of the movie?

Official Edge of Tomorrow Summary
"Major William Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission.  Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop—forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again…and again. But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt).  And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy. Liman is directing “Edge of Tomorrow” from a screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth, based on the novel entitled All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka."
Directed by Doug Liman
Cinematography by Dion Beebe
Production Design by Oliver Scholl
Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Jeremy Piven, Ciarán Hinds, Noah Taylor, Kick Gurry, Dragomir Mrsic, Charlotte Riley, Jonas Armstrong, Franz Drameh, Masayoshi Haneda, and Tony Way
Release date: May 28, 2014 (London IMAX),  June 6, 2014 (United States), July 4, 2014 (Japan)
Official Site: http://www.edgeoftomorrowmovie.com
© Copyright 2014 Warner Bros. Pictures. All rights reserved

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