JACK THE GIANT SLAYER Concept Art by Brian Matyas

Feast your eyes on concept art of the massive world of the giants for the film Jack the Giant Slayer.

"It’s a very traditional fairytale, probably the most traditional thing I’ve ever done." director Brian Singer said describing the film, "But it’ll also be a fun twist on the notion of how these tales are told... Fairytales are often borne of socio-political commentary and translated into stories for children. But what if they were based on something that really happened?.. What if we look back at the story that inspired the story that you read to your kids? That’s kind of what this movie’s about."

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013) has been out in the US since March 1 of this year, but it's just opening now in the UK. This means the embargo on concept art has been lifted and I can share interviews I've had with the concept artists that worked on the film.

The first one is from Brian Matyas who just updated his website, www.bmaty.com, with new illustrations.

Brian Matyas is Senior Cinematics Illustrator at Kabam and works on video games and on films like Mars Needs Moms and Beowulf (2007) . On Darren Aronofsky's Noah (2014), he worked closely with Costume Designer Michael Wilkinson designing costumes for key characters.

Check out the rest of the illustrations and find out the most challenging part of designing a world of giants. As always, click on the images to enlarge. In Dutch that would be "klik op de foto's om ze groter maken."



Brian worked with the Production Designer Gavin Bocquet as a concept designer. He primarily did concepts for the Gantua (Giant World) environments. In fact, he says he recognized some of the root bridges he designed in the trailer.

Jack's Journey

Root Bridges

When envisioning the world of the giants in Jack the Giant Slayer, Singer said he imagined a world "more ancient and primitive, crudely built, with lots of stone. It’s a culture based on eating, because these beasts require a lot of food, so we focused on large areas where they could feed, primarily a converted throne room with massive, long tables"

Matyas said the scale of Gantua was a challenge, but a fun one.

"Jack had to appear as tiny as a doll except it had to be clear he was a normal sized human being and not Indian in the Cupboard." Matyas said, "A lot of what sold this concept was crazy camera distortion for scale. I used google sketch up quite a bit to make crude models of these environments to establish these camera shots."

Gantua City

"I worked on the film relatively early on and worked in several different versions of Gantua before the settled on the final on for the film." Matyas said, "A challenge for me would be getting attached to certain scenes and locations in the script, doing some concepts I was proud of pertaining to these, and then an executive decision was made to cut them in the later version of the script. It one of the many challenges a concept artist has to face when a script changes. You can marry your images and you have to reset yourself and start over."

These are only my favorites, so make sure you check out the rest of Brian Matyas' portfolio at www.bmaty.com.

See more concept from Jack the Giant Slayer and Brian Matyas on my site soon.

Official Synopsis
Jack the Giant Slayer tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants. Unleashed on the Earth for the first time in centuries, the giants strive to reclaim the land they once lost, forcing the young man, Jack, into the battle of his life to stop them. Fighting for a kingdom, its people, and the love of a brave princess, he comes face to face with the unstoppable warriors he thought only existed in legend—and gets the chance to become a legend himself.

Official Site: jackthegiantslayer.warnerbros.com

What do you think of the illustrations?

@ Copyright 2013 New Line Cinema, Legendary Pictures, Original Film Brian . All rights reserved