Express & Star

Out of this world! Stafford special effects guru picks up Interstellar Oscar

A visual effects guru from Stafford is celebrating after his work on the blockbuster film Interstellar won an Oscar, beating a field of some of the biggest movies of 2014.

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It is the second Oscar for former Walton High School student Andrew Lockley who won his first – and a Bafta – for his effects on the Leonardo DiCaprio's Inception four years ago.

Earlier this month he also received a Bafta for Special Visual Effects for Interstellar.

The film, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine, talks about a crew of astronauts who travel through a space wormhole in search of a new home for humanity.

With the effects, the team did something that had never been done before by changing light rays using distorted paths and even shapes of millions of light beams to create a realistic look.

Backstage after picking up the trophy, he said: "Thank you to Chris Nolan and Emma Thomas for taking us on an amazing voyage across space and time.

"And thank you to one of the smartest people on Earth, Professor Kip Thorne of Caltech, and all the explorers of science who show us the universe in all its amazing and terrifying beauty. And one of these (Oscars) apparently is good for a free drink, so we're going to go and test that out back there."

See a graphic showing the big winners of this year's Oscars here

This morning, Andrew took to Twitter to share a picture of the statue:

Mr Lockley, aged 43, now lives in London and works for Double Negative, on movies including The Dark Knight, Hot Fuzz and the Harry Potter franchise.

He picked up the gong at the 87th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles in front of a host of Hollywood's finest including Meryl Streep, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore, Reese Witherspoon and Keira Knightley.

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