Kuran, Peter

PERSONAL:

Married Jacqueline Zietlow.

CAREER:

Film director, visual effects artist, and producer. Industrial Light and Magic, animation supervisor, 1978-82; Visual Concept Entertainment, founder, 1982—; worked on visual effects for films, including Addams Family, Men in Black, Robo Cop, and Beetle Juice; director and producer of films, including Trinity and Beyond, 1995, Nukes in Space, 1999, Atomic Journeys: Welcome to Ground Zero, 1999, Atomic Filmmakers: Behind the Scenes, 1999, and Nuclear Rescue 911: Broken Arrows & Incidents, 2001.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Saturn Award, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Horror Films, USA, 1988, for Robo Cop; Academy Award in scientific and engineering, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 2002, for Restored Color Image process developed for film Trinity and Beyond.

WRITINGS:

How to Photograph an Atomic Bomb, Visual Concept Entertainment, 2007.

Writer of films, including Atomic Journeys: Welcome to Ground Zero, 1999, and Nuclear Rescue 911: Broken Arrows & Incidents, 2001.

SIDELIGHTS:

Peter Kuran is a film director, visual effects artist, and producer. Kuran got his start in the film industry in 1976 working on George Lucas's landmark film Star Wars as an animator. By the time of its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, he was working as the animation supervisor. In 1982 Kuran started his own company, Visual Concept Entertainment, and subsequently embarked on a successful film career. Either independently or through his company, Kuban produced and directed a number of films, including Trinity and Beyond, Atomic Journeys: Welcome to Ground Zero, and Nuclear Rescue 911: Broken Arrows & Incidents. Kuran also worked in visual effects for a number of high-budget films, including Addams Family, Men in Black, Robo Cop, and Beetle Juice. In 2002 Kuran earned an Academy Award in the area of science and engineering.

In 2007 Kuran published his first book, How to Photograph an Atomic Bomb. Kuran compiled over 300 images of nuclear explosions. He gives extensive commentary of a half dozen of these images. A contributor to Publishers Weekly took note of the "vivid, full-color" pictures scattered throughout the text. The same reviewer thought that "Kuran's narrative skills may be lacking," but commented that "his sense of visual storytelling is right on target."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Publishers Weekly, August 20, 2007, review of How to Photograph an Atomic Bomb, p. 60.

ONLINE

Internet Movie Database,http://www.imdb.com/ (January 5, 2008), author profile.

Monarch Films Web site,http://www.mfilms.com/ (January 5, 2008), author profile.

NNDB,http://www.nndb.com/ (January 5, 2008), author profile.

Visual Concept Entertainment Web site,http://www.vce.com/ (January 5, 2008), author profile.