| Ernie Fosselius | |
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Fosselius in 2010 |
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| Born | Ernie Ford Fosselius 1946 San Francisco, California, United States |
| Occupation | Film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, satirist, inventor, musician, sound engineer, Foley editor, craftsman, puppeteer, performer |
| Years active | early 1970’s–present |
Ernie Fosselius (born 1946) is an American filmmaker who has largely stayed out of the public eye. He is best known for his satirical spoofs of popular films, including the classic Star Wars parody Hardware Wars.
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Fosselius' film career began in the early 1970s when he co-created 20 original animated films for Sesame Street.[1][2]
Fosselius is known for his satirical short films. One of the most notable, made in 1976 for "Mother's Little Network",[3] a Pythonesque sketch comedy show for WGBH in Boston, was The Hindenburger,[4] in which a flying Big Mac burst into flames over New Jersey while a radio announcer (voiced by Fosselius) emotionally sobbed: "Oh the humanity!"
Porklips Now was a send-up of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now which starred Billy Gray of TV's Father Knows Best.
It has been said that Fosselius was the studio pick for the director of Pee-wee's Big Adventure but passed on the film after a meeting with the film's star, Paul Reubens. A later encounter in an elevator with the film's director, Tim Burton led to his role in working as a sound editor on the Ed Wood film. Fosselius was sound engineer and foley editor on many films, including Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Fosselius continued to work in the movie business as a director of "industrial" shorts, an actor, a screenwriter (11 scripts that never went into production, including the Zippy the Pinhead movie) sound effects and Foley editor, voice actor, and special effects fabricator (Robocop 2, etc.)
Ben Burtt asked Fosselius to contribute unusual voices and vocal effects to several Lucasfilm productions, such as the two pilots in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. He wrote the lyrics to "Lapti Nek".
He voiced many of the "Ack Ack"s in Mars Attacks and he is also the voice of Trantor The Troll in Ernest Scared Stupid. He provided the voice of Poggle the Lesser in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones and voiced the sobs of the Rancor Keepers, Malakili and Giran, in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.[5] He also contributed to the music score of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and is credited with co-writing the song "Lapti Nek".
After a long hiatus from filmmaking and directing, Fosselius returned to the scene, directing the Eegah episode of Cinema Insomnia with Mr. Lobo in which he also created many of the props. Most recently, Fosselius created the short film, Plan 9.1 from Outer Space, which featured hand-carved wooden puppets of the characters from the popular Ed Wood film, Plan 9 from Outer Space.[6] The puppets acted out the scenes along with the edited soundtrack of the original film.
Fosselius' biggest hit was his 1978 parody Hardware Wars,[4] a 12 minute parody of Hollywood coming attractions that took on the cultural juggernaut that was Star Wars.
Complete with cardboard sets and visible wires holding up ships which were various household appliances, the film was shot over 4 days with a budget of around $7,000. When released, the film became a hit on its own, grossing close to three million dollars over its lifetime, making it one of the most popular and profitable short films of all time, but Fosselius netted very little of that profit.
In later years, George Lucas called it his favorite Star Wars parody. Fosselius was honored by Lucasfilm when Hardware Wars was given the Pioneer Award at the 2003 Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards.
When Hardware Wars was re-released in 1997 with new special effects in a "Special Edition" to spoof the special editions of the original Star Wars trilogy, Fosselius was not involved, as he disagreed with the concept of adding actual digital effects to a film which satirized digital effects, and asked that a "Not Approved by Ernie" label be added to the release. The film was finally released on DVD in its original form in 2002, Fosselius did participate, restoring the original stereo soundtrack, adding additional material and original outtakes, and recording a director's commentary that itself was a parody, poking fun at similarly self-indulgent tracks. However, Fosselius was reportedly flummoxed by the technicians who performed the telecine transfer and who made attempts to digitally remove the strings and wires and clean up the print, not realizing that the "defects" in the original were put there on purpose. Fosselius later teamed up with Apprehensive Films to release a 30th anniversary DVD.
Fosselius performed with the San Francisco bands 'Earth Mother' and 'The Final Solution'. He was also a founding member of the band The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, for whom he wrote the song "Hipsters on Parade".
In recent years, Fosselius has taken to whittling mechanically animated carved caricatures and automata which he displays in traveling galleries called the "Marvelous Mechalodeon" and the "Crankabout Mechanical Theater", an entirely human powered exhibit.[2][7][8] Several of these creations were used in a 2005 music video for The Heavenly States' song "Car Wash." Some photographs of these devices is in this flickr album. He is a celebrated performer and a puppeteer and is constantly creating.