- The director Roland Emmerich, best known for his high-budget, spectacle-filled films like “10,000 BC” and “Independence Day,” told his designer to make his house “as nonfrumpy as possible.”
I’m not so much into Emmerich as his designer.
- He instructed the designer, John Teall, of Flux Interiors, to make it so that “when the neighbors peek in, they might want to call the police or something.” A taxidermy zebra faces the living room, which reflects his predilection for art with a political edge.
I don’t know what it is, but there seems to be a thing for Communist memorabilia and genocidal irony among many modern designers…sometimes it works.
- A mural in the master bedroom was inspired by Chinese propaganda posters. The Chairman Mao sculptures, clocks and dictator nesting dolls were purchased in a Shanghai market and on eBay.
Knick knacks would be better replaced by vintage/reproduced patriotic propaganda magazines or books of murals of the sort on the wall – with some Commie bookends. Maybe the Great Wall on one end and the Berlin Wall on the other?
- The walls and ceiling in an office are covered with chalkboard paint. The desk is made from a wing of a World War II plane; the chair once belonged to a military dentist.
Now this is something to look into: Chalkboard paint. Side note: what’s with the ball of Barbie dolls?
- Mr. Teall had originally planned to put a life-size waxwork statue of Mr. Emmerich under the stairs. After discussing news coverage of Pope John Paul II’s death with Mr. Emmerich, though, he decided it would be much funnier to depict the pope reading his own obituaries.
The novelty of this will soon wear thin and he’ll be left with a creepy wax mannequin peering disgustedly from under his stairs. Not very comfortable.
- The library coffee table is made of a missile from Iraq and holds an Arabs-and-Americans chess set commissioned by Mr. Teall. (On the Arab side, pieces include an oil rig, Saddam Hussein and a suicide bomber, and on the American side, an exploding World Trade Center, President Bush and Rambo.)
I like that shade of green on the ceiling. Not sure about having that many dead zebras though.
- The dining room chairs were designed by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. The door, a replica of one from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow, was made of wood and given a metal finish.
Ornamentally awesome door. Having vault/super villain lair/submarine type doors in a normal living space has always seemed like a cool idea to me.
- A guest bedroom features a headboard made from the wing of an airplane.
Great look…would be even better with a painted bomber girl on the wing.
- A chair on the terrace was made of Shell oil cans by children in Ghana. Benches are laser-cut with the words “insurgents” and “infidels.” Skylights to the living room form the floor.
Chair must be cheap? Could make one yourself.
- In the terrace hallway are a birdcage in the shape of the White House and a statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger inspired by Rodin’s “The Thinker.”
I hope he has a bird in there. Could make it a blackbird as a poignant, unsubtle symbol of the times.
- A diorama depicts John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Not sure of this thing’s purpose. Would be better as a diorama of Red Square with marching Russians.
- The large murals that run throughout the house were done by the painter James Gemmill.
Hope the director likes the color red. AK-47 art or Russian onion domes would have also fit in.
