La Cité des enfants perdus
Jeunet hired French special effects supervisor Pitof and cinematographer Darius Khondji, both of whom he had worked with on "The City of Lost Children". Nigel Phelps was chosen for production designer, having made a name for himself designing Gotham City in "Batman" and Mega-City One in "Judge Dredd". Jeunet and his crew watched the latest science fiction and "Alien" films as reference material, and obtained production reports from the "Alien" films to study the camera setups. Jeunet was given creative control, contributing several elements to the script including five different endings, although the expensive ones were dismissed. He also opted to make the film a dark comedy and was encouraged to include more violence. In June 1996, Jeunet's frequent co-director, conceptual artist Marc Caro had drawn rough sketches of characters' costumes, which were shown to veteran costume designer Bob Ringwood. Ringwood made several modifications for the final design.