Biography
John Coppinger is a sculptor and was one of the design and fabrication supervisors for the environmental creatures in The Dark Crystal. Models that he produced for the film include those of walking trees for a swamp sequence, and he supervised the creation of moving flowers, flying seeds, a giant swamp creature, and the crystal spiders on Aughra’s mountain. Also with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Coppinger worked on the computer-generated models for the film, Babe, on sea creatures for the mini-series The Odyssey and others. Beyond Henson, Coppinger was instrumental in designing Jabba the Hutt for Return of the Jedi and performed as a Wookiee Senator in Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. He has also worked on Return to Oz with many of his Dark Crystal colleagues, The Fifth Element, and Harry Potter. While continuing to make models for films and museums, Coppinger has added author to his resume, publishing his first novel in 2008.
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