{"id":3899,"date":"2026-07-11T22:40:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T17:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3899"},"modified":"2026-07-11T22:40:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T17:40:47","slug":"production-designer-for-tarantino-schumacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3899","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Production Designer for Tarantino, Schumacher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/barbara-ling\/\" id=\"auto-tag_barbara-ling\" data-tag=\"barbara-ling\">Barbara Ling<\/a>, the Oscar-winning production designer of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood\/\" id=\"auto-tag_once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood\" data-tag=\"once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood\">Once Upon a Time in Hollywood<\/a>\u201d who also designed films including \u201cThe Doors\u201d and \u201cMichael,\u201d died July 9. She was 73.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLing\u2019s career spanned four decades, during which she worked on Oliver Stone\u2019s \u201cThe Doors\u201d and Joel Schumacher\u2019s \u201cFalling Down.\u201d She designed the sets for Antoine Fuqua\u2019s Michael Jackson biopic, \u201cMichael,\u201d and won an Oscar for her work on Quentin Tarantino\u2019s \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSchumacher also called on her to design the sets for his Batman movies including \u201cBatman and Robin\u201d and \u201cBatman Forever.\u201d Other notable films on which she served as production designer included \u201cLess Than Zero,\u201d \u201cFried Green Tomatoes,\u201d David Byrne\u2019s \u201cTrue Stories,\u201d \u201cMaking Mr. Right\u201d and Diane Keaton\u2019s \u201cHeaven.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn designing \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood,\u201d Ling had a tight 12-week prep period. Character and backstory were woven seamlessly throughout the script in such a way that the freeways, hills, streets, the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood Boulevard all lovingly embraced the scenery comprising Western towns and ranches, painted backdrops and facades-on-top-of-facades with era-specific signage of 1969 Hollywood, midcentury homes and vintage vehicles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLing\u2019s crew prepped, and the film crew shot, one side of Hollywood Boulevard at a time so as not to interrupt the tourism activities on the boulevard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a data-id=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2019\/artisans\/actors\/quentin-tarantino-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-1203430211\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2019\/artisans\/actors\/quentin-tarantino-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-1203430211\/\">In 2019, she told <em>Variety<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>that she sourced original blacklight posters on eBay. \u201cThe great thing about this film is that there are so many of the people we brought back to life with this movie. Particularly the poster artists who got ripped off. They\u2019d sign away the right to their posters back then. We did get to pay some people who were still alive some royalties to use their work. Quentin appreciated and loved those stories. That\u2019s what is also unique, he would love to hear those stories,\u201d Ling said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tShe was awarded <em>Variety\u2019s <\/em>artisan award for production design at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival where <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2020\/artisans\/awards\/artisans-awards-variety-joker-1917-1203473469\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2020\/artisans\/awards\/artisans-awards-variety-joker-1917-1203473469\/\">she talked about working with Tarantino<\/a>. \u201cHis love of directing is like a kid in a candy store,\u201d Ling said referring to the director\u2019s vernacular for detail, adding that being around his infectiousness was \u201ca unique experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLing also worked on \u201cA Man Called Otto\u201d starring Tom Hanks. The film was produced by Rita Wilson, who wrote <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DapPzIVNhQk\/\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">on Instagram<\/a>, \u201cBarbara Ling was our production designer on A Man Called Otto. In 2020 she won an Oscar for her production design for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. What she did on that film was extraordinary because there were no special effects or CGI in how she and Tarantino created 70s Hollywood. Hollywood is my home town. Her work replicated that era perfectly. To understand how she accomplished this \u201cold school\u201d is mind boggling when you\u2019re filming in 2019. Seeing her work in that film, the reality, the detail, the creativity made me realize she had to be the person who brought A Man Called Otto into visual reality. Barbara was quiet, kind, detailed, tenacious, and funny. She was one of the greats. And she will be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLing began her career in theater and opera and worked as lighting designer on \u201cThe Pee-Wee Herman Show\u201d special in 1981.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barbara Ling, the Oscar-winning production designer of \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood\u201d who also designed films including \u201cThe Doors\u201d and \u201cMichael,\u201d died July 9. She was 73. Ling\u2019s career spanned four decades, during which she worked on Oliver Stone\u2019s \u201cThe Doors\u201d and Joel Schumacher\u2019s \u201cFalling Down.\u201d She designed the sets for Antoine Fuqua\u2019s Michael&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1200649005.jpg?crop=0px%2C111px%2C5404px%2C3040px&resize=1000%2C563","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}