By Laura Frykberg
The man who has achieved every success within the film industry has been awarded one of the highest honours of academia.
Weta Workshop’s co-founder, Sir Richard Taylor, can now add an honorary doctorate in fine arts to his list of accolades.
He’s already been awarded four Baftas, five Oscars and a knighthood.
Now the man who has fought long and hard for the New Zealand film industry has had the height of his achievements recognised.
For 25 years Sir Richard and his wife, Tina Rodger, have run Weta Workshop – beginning their careers creating caricatured puppets for well-known Kiwi cult cinema.
More recently, the couple were the brains behind the visual effects of larger Hollywood blockbusters like Avatar.
“I don’t think anyone sets out to get a doctorate or win an Oscar, they set out to do beautiful work that hopefully people will enjoy. Thankfully, that’s been the case this far,” says Sir Richard.
But where his career has taken him is no surprise to his family.
“He spent all his early life building boats and cars and things like that. So he’s always sort of been into that kind of thing,” says his father Norman Taylor.
Sir Richard was reluctant to talk about the controversial Wellywood sign, saying his opinion is “well-guarded”.
“I think I’ll let other people play that out at the moment,” he says.
He says he’ll keep an eye on the issue with interest.
But, in the meantime, he’ll keep working hard within the industry which has brought him such success.
3 News