An unsung grasp of film magic, Solon Luigi Colani has labored on a few of the greatest Hollywood films ever shot in Germany and past, amongst them works by Quentin Tarantino, Ron Howard, George Clooney, Denis Villeneuve, Paul W.S. Anderson, Gore Verbinski and the Wachowskis.

His huge vary of sensible visible results have additionally develop into common fixtures in Germany’s home movie and TV trade, the place he has helped filmmakers and showrunners convey their visions to life.

In Matthias Glasner’s present Berlinale Competitors screener “Dying,” for instance, he created a pneumatic pump, hose system and the required chunky liquid for a dramatic scene during which a personality falls unwell on the Berlin Philharmonic live performance corridor.

Colani established his Berlin-based firm Pyro Labs within the Nineties as a aspect enterprise whereas working as a younger IT specialist. Initially targeted on firework shows for weddings, birthday events and different reside occasions, the corporate finally moved into movie when Colani was employed to help on “Inglourious Basterds,” for which he constructed digital flame management consoles utilized in a key scene.

With a knack for inventiveness and deep data of chemistry, biology, model-making, electronics and mechanics, Colani has since develop into a go-to professional within the sensible results area.

Probably the most difficult job he’s needed to date was making a fire-proof ceramic physique reproduction of Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312T2 Method One automobile used for the pivotal crash scene in “Rush,” Colani says. Whereas he had an thought of what sort of ceramics could possibly be used, preliminary checks proved disappointing because the ceramic combine took too lengthy to harden and remained brittle. “I actually needed to crank up the analysis to seek out another resolution inside 5 days.”

For the World Warfare II thriller “Monuments Males,” Colani constructed round a dozen replicas of a classic U.S.-made bazooka from a historic weapons rental firm in Berlin that was “prohibitively costly and not likely appropriate for harsh dealing with on set,” he explains.

He additionally made some 30 copies of “these iconic American pineapple hand grenades” that have been a lot lighter than the iron replicas supplied by the rental firm. 

Colani’s eclectic designs span centuries, from the rotating canon system utilized by Luke Evans’ Aramis to assault the Tower of London from an airship within the 2011 swashbuckling epic “The Three Musketeers” to the ceiling-mounted hologram projector that introduced Ryan Gosling’s character’s AI girlfriend to life in “Blade Runner 2049.”

Excessive-tech weapon props are a Colani specialty. His designs can be seen in “With out Regret,” “Gunpowder Milkshake,” “The Matrix Resurrections,” “Uncharted” and the Luc Besson-produced “Renegades.”

On “With out Regret,” he not solely custom-made the Glock 17 utilized by Michael B. Jordan in accordance with the actor’s requests, similar to modifying the grip, partly gold plating elements, including his character’s initials and a cobra head, he additionally designed and constructed elements for an previous working Soviet DShK heavy machine gun “to cover just a little bit its origins and make it look extra trendy.”

For “Gunpowder Milkshake,” he created a custom-made Colt 1911-style pistol with attachable bayonet for Lena Headey’s murderer character and constructed a duplicate of the well-known M134 Minigun with a Gatling-style rotating barrel.

Within the newest “Matrix” sequel and “Uncharted,” Colani geared up rubber gun replicas with programmable electronics and high-powered LEDs within the muzzles that emit vibrant flashes, “so that you don’t have to fret about shadows and lighting in publish,” he explains. And it’s additionally a lot safer. “This can be a actually cool means of doing close-ups of gun results the place you shoot any individual within the face.”

“‘Renegades’ was one other cool undertaking as a result of I bought to construct a navy variant of an MD 500 helicopter.” Colani made the carrying wing, mounting {hardware}, two faux machine weapons and rocket pods that could possibly be connected to a civilian model of the helicopter used on the shoot in Croatia.  

Colani’s skills go far past firearms and heavy weapons, nevertheless.   

On “Cloud Atlas,” he designed and constructed a 3D hand controller so the administrators may function a hexapod movement base manually.

For “A Treatment for Wellness,” he created an ultra-thin head-piece for Jason Isaacs’ character that could possibly be worn beneath his particular results make-up and to which a lethal head-crushing shovel was mounted. He additionally supplied the custom-made, color-matched kites flown by sufferers of the mysterious sanitarium.

Colani’s wide selection of abilities can also be evident within the rigging he designed and constructed for a difficult automobile stunt in an upcoming German TV sequence during which a automobile is hoisted excessive into the air by a magnetic crane.

He additionally created a steampunk-style rail sizzling rod for the 2023 German youngsters pic “Mission: Faculty of Enjoyable” (“Die unlangweiligste Schule der Welt”).

Amongst his many contributions to the hit German sequence “Babylon Berlin” was the fecal sludge and tank he concocted for a Season 1 episode during which a Trotskyite escapes a bloodbath by hiding in an outhouse latrine.  

Along with movie and TV productions, Colani has labored on music movies for the likes of Rammstein and Olexesh in addition to Australian metalcore band Parkway Drive, for which he constructed a gravity-defying, rotating set for the music video “Crushed.” The band was so exited in regards to the impact that they ordered a stage model for his or her reside reveals, during which drummer Ben Gordon rotates 360 levels whereas taking part in. 

Colani attributes a lot of his eclectic skills and pursuits to his well-known father, the late industrial designer Luigi Colani, who taught him the fundamentals of design course of and how you can work with high-tech supplies, construct fashions and make molds at an early age.

It contributed “quite a bit as a result of I had the chance to work with supplies that will have been downright unimaginable for even regular hobbyists to purchase on the time. After I was eight years previous my father gave me sheets of carbon and glass fiber and epoxy resin. I labored with this at residence. At the moment utilizing carbon fiber was cutting-edge house know-how.”