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Patrick Tatopoulos is a French-Greek production designer, who lives and works in the United States. His designs have appeared in numerous motion pictures, including Pitch Black, Underworld, I, Robot, The Chronicles of Riddick, Independence Day, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Stargate,Spawn, Godzilla, Stuart Little, I Am Legend, 10,000 BC, and Live Free or Die Hard.
Tatopoulos was born and raised in Paris, France, to an immigrant father from Macedonia, Greece, and a French mother.His parents had a clothing store in Paris. Patrick Tatopoulos raced motorcycles, worked in 2-D advertising and drew comic book covers. He lived in Greece for ten years before coming to the United States in 1989. He is tri-lingual, a fluent speaker of French, Greek and English.
In Greece, while working as a designer artist in the production of commercials, he was continually fascinated by creatures and special effects.[2] He studied at the École d'Art Décoratif de Paris, the École des Arts Appliqués de Paris, and the École des Beaux-Arts. From Paris he moved to Rome and Greece where he began selling his illustrations. Eventually, his passion for the entertainment business drew him to the United States and within a short time became a designer for commercials, music video and motion pictures. Tatopoulos is a frequent collaborator of directors Roland Emmerich, Alex Proyas, and Len Wiseman.
In May 2000, Tatopoulos was honored by The Hellenic Times at its ninth annual Scholarship Gala in New York. The goal of the organization is to identify young American scholars who best exemplify the values of their Greek heritage and provide them with educational support. A Patrick Tatopoulos Creative Arts Award Scholarship was created in 2001 and Tatopoulos has personally presented the scholarship, in his name, to a deserving student in 2001 and 2002. He owns Tatopoulos Studios, Inc. and Patrick Tatopoulos Designs, Inc.
The character of Niko Tatopoulos in Godzilla was named after his youngest daughter. He made his directorial debut with the 2009 film, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. He is currently working on the live action film adaptation of the Darkstorm Studios graphic novel, I, Frankenstein, which is being produced by Lakeshore Entertainment. The story follows the original monster of Victor Frankenstein who is the only force that stands between the human race and an uprising of supernatural creatures determined to overthrow the world. Filming kicks off in July 2010. Tatopoulos created the creature figures of the upcoming Stan Winston produced Speed Demon. He will direct the action horror film Suspension, which based on a screenbook by Scott Millam.