In this episode, we go behind the scenes with legendary production designer Graham “Grace” Walker—the visual mastermind behind films like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, House of Wax, Pitch Black, and a long run on The Walking Dead.
From his earliest art department credits on Caddie (1976) and Summerfield (1977) to his modern horror designs, Walker’s career spans gritty, visceral worlds and cult classics alike.
We unpack his work on The Walking Dead—eighty episodes of post-apocalyptic decay and must-see set transformation—and his stylized design vision in Baz Luhrmann’s surreal Beyond Thunderdome and the waxy nightmares of House of Wax.
But most thrillingly, we dive into Walker’s memories of the famously chaotic 1996 production of The Island of Dr. Moreau, directed by Richard Stanley and later taken over by John Frankenheimer.
Walker not only designed the sets, but appears briefly in the documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau recounting the madness on set.
Expect tales of:
- Building dense dystopias for The Walking Dead—how you make a world feel dead in every corner
- Crafting the post-apocalyptic cityscape of Beyond Thunderdome and the visceral horror interiors of House of Wax
- Surviving the Moreau production nightmares: creature-heavy jungles, star clashes, and set takeovers
- His early Australian cinema roots—including Dead Calm, Crocodile Dundee, and the early Mad Max films
- How production design shapes storytelling in horror, sci‑fi, and genre films
Whether you’re interested in film design, horror history, or the infamous legend of Dr. Moreau, this conversation with Graham “Grace” Walker is a journey through some of cinema’s wildest visual worlds.
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