Patrick Philippe Tatopoulos (born September 25, 1957 in Paris) is a French-American production designer, art director, special effects artist and film director of French and Greek descent.
He has worked on the designs of sets, props, vehicles and creatures of a number of high profile Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction films in Hollywood since the early 1990s. He made his directing debut in 2009 with Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
He's also been a jury member in two seasons of the makeup and special effects-related Talent Show Face/Off.
Films he has worked on include:
- Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)
- Beastmaster 2 : Through the Portal of Time (1991)
- Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
- Super Mario Bros. (1993)
- Stargate (1995)
- Se7en (1995)
- Independence Day (1996)
- Spawn (1997)
- Godzilla (1998)
- Dark City (1998)
- Battlefield Earth (2000)
- The Patriot (2000)
- Supernova (2000)
- Stuart Little (2000)
- The Chronicles of Riddick:
- Pitch Black (2000)
- The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
- Riddick (2013)
- They (2002)
- Underworld series
- I, Robot (2004)
- Van Helsing (2004)
- The Cave (2005)
- Silent Hill (2006)
- Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
- Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
- I Am Legend (2007)
- Outlander (2008)
- 10,000 BC (2008)
- Solomon Kane (2009)
- Total Recall (2012)
- 300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
- DC Extended Universe:
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
- Justice League (2017)
- Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
- Snow Steam Iron (2017)
- Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)
- Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)
- Damsel (2023)
Tropes & Trivia in his works:
- Approval of God: He has expressed no hard feelings at his 1998 Godzilla design being renamed "Zilla", and he is actually happy that it went on to be used in other media such as the animated series or even Godzilla: Final Wars (even though the monster is brought back in the latter solely to be annihilated in seconds by the original Japanese Godzilla).
- Awesome, Dear Boy: He's loved working on most projects he's been part of even some not so well received ones, bar rare exceptions such as Battlefield Earth.
- The Cameo: He was an extra in The Patriot.
- Creator Thumbprint: No matter the creature he designs, he will always make sure it has a "human" feature of some sort.
- Creator's Favorite: His favorite creature among those he designed is the Bioraptor from Pitch Black.
- The Greys: The aliens he designed for Independence Day are among the most famous examples of the trope on film.
- Old Shame: He considers Battlefield Earth as his worst experience to date.
- Production Posse: He has worked multiple times with several directors such as Roland Emmerich, David Twohy, Alex Proyas and Zack Snyder.
- Tuckerization: As one might easily guess, Nick Tatopoulos, the main human character played by Matthew Broderick in the 1998 Godzilla film, is named after him.
