J. Michael Riva

J. Michael Riva

Birth : 1948-06-28, Manhattan, New York, USA

Death : 2012-06-07

Profile

J. Michael Riva

Movies

Django Unchained
Production Design
With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
The Amazing Spider-Man
Production Design
Peter Parker is an outcast high schooler abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors, his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.
Iron Man 2
Production Design
With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark faces pressure from the government, the press and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, with Pepper Potts and James 'Rhodey' Rhodes at his side, must forge new alliances – and confront powerful enemies.
Seven Pounds
Production Design
An IRS agent with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.
Iron Man
Production Design
After being held captive in an Afghan cave, billionaire engineer Tony Stark creates a unique weaponized suit of armor to fight evil.
Spider-Man 3
Production Design
The seemingly invincible Spider-Man goes up against an all-new crop of villains—including the shape-shifting Sandman. While Spider-Man’s superpowers are altered by an alien organism, his alter ego, Peter Parker, deals with nemesis Eddie Brock and also gets caught up in a love triangle.
The Pursuit of Happyness
Production Design
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.
Zathura: A Space Adventure
Production Design
After their father is called into work, two young boys, Walter and Danny, are left in the care of their teenage sister, Lisa, and told they must stay inside. Walter and Danny, who anticipate a boring day, are shocked when they begin playing Zathura, a space-themed board game, which they realize has mystical powers when their house is shot into space. With the help of an astronaut, the boys attempt to return home.
Stealth
Production Design
Deeply ensconced in a top-secret military program, three pilots struggle to bring an artificial intelligence program under control ... before it initiates the next world war.
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
Production Design
The Angels are charged with finding a pair of missing rings that are encoded with the personal information of members of the Witness Protection Program. As informants are killed, the ladies target a rogue agent who might be responsible.
Evolution
Production Design
A comedy that follows the chaos that ensues when a meteor hits the Earth carrying alien life forms that give new meaning to the term "survival of the fittest." David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, and Julianne Moore are the only people standing between the aliens and world domination... which could be bad news for the Earth.
Charlie's Angels
Production Design
The captivating crime-fighting trio who are masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts are back! When a devious mastermind embroils them in a plot to destroy individual privacy, the Angels, aided by their loyal sidekick Bosley, set out to bring down the bad guys. But when a terrible secret is revealed, it makes the Angels targets for assassination.
Lethal Weapon 4
Production Design
In the combustible action franchise's final installment, maverick detectives Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh square off against Asian mobster Wah Sing Ku, who's up to his neck in slave trading and counterfeit currency. With help from gumshoe Leo Getz and smart-aleck rookie cop Lee Butters, Riggs and Murtaugh aim to take down Ku and his gang.
Six Days Seven Nights
Production Design
When Quinn, a grouchy pilot living the good life in the South Pacific, agrees to transfer a savvy fashion editor, Robin, to Tahiti, he ends up stranded on a deserted island with her after their plane crashes. The pair avoid each other at first, until they're forced to team up to escape from the island -- and some pirates who want their heads.
Hard Rain
Production Design
An armored car driver tries to elude a gang of thieves while a flood ravages the countryside.
Congo
Production Design
Eight people embark on an expedition into the Congo, a mysterious expanse of unexplored Africa where human greed and the laws of nature have gone berserk. When the thrill-seekers -- some with ulterior motives -- stumble across a race of killer apes.
North
Production Design
Eleven-year-old North has had it with his parents. They are always busy with their careers and don't give North the attention he needs, so he files a lawsuit against them. The judge rules that North should either find new parents or return to his own parents within two months. Thus North starts off on a journey around the world to find parents that really care about him.
Dave
Production Design
A sweet-natured Temp Agency operator and amateur Presidential look-alike is recruited by the Secret Service to become a temporary stand-in for the President of the United States.
A Few Good Men
Production Design
When cocky military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee and his co-counsel, Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway, are assigned to a murder case, they uncover a hazing ritual that could implicate high-ranking officials such as shady Col. Nathan Jessep.
Radio Flyer
Production Design
A father reminisces about his childhood when he and his younger brother moved to a new town with their mother, her new husband and their dog, Shane. When the younger brother is subjected to physical abuse at the hands of their brutal stepfather, Mike decides to convert their toy trolley, the "Radio Flyer", into a plane to fly him to safety.
Tango & Cash
Production Design
Ray Tango and Gabriel Cash are narcotics detectives who, while both being extremely successful, can't stand each other. Crime Lord Yves Perret, furious at the loss of income that Tango and Cash have caused him, frames the two for murder. Caught with the murder weapon on the scene of the crime, the two have no alibi. Thrown into prison with most of the criminals they helped convict, it appears that they are going to have to trust each other if they are to clear their names and catch the evil Perret.
Lethal Weapon 2
Production Design
In the opening chase, Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh stumble across a trunk full of Krugerrands. They follow the trail to a South African diplomat who's using his immunity to conceal a smuggling operation. When he plants a bomb under Murtaugh's toilet, the action explodes!
Scrooged
Production Designer
Frank Cross is a wildly successful television executive whose cold ambition and curmudgeonly nature has driven away the love of his life. But after firing staff member Eliot Loudermilk on Christmas Eve, Frank is visited by a series of ghosts who give him a chance to re-evaluate his actions and right the wrongs of his past.
Lethal Weapon
Production Design
Veteran buttoned-down LAPD detective Roger Murtaugh is partnered with unhinged cop Martin Riggs, who -- distraught after his wife's death -- has a death wish and takes unnecessary risks with criminals at every turn. The odd couple embark on their first homicide investigation as partners, involving a young woman known to Murtaugh with ties to a drug and prostitution ring.
The Golden Child
Production Design
After a Tibetan boy, the mystical Golden Child, is kidnapped by the evil Sardo Numspa, humankind's fate hangs in the balance. On the other side of the world in Los Angeles, the priestess Kee Nang seeks the Chosen One, who will save the boy from death. When Nang sees social worker Chandler Jarrell on television discussing his ability to find missing children, she solicits his expertise, despite his skepticism over being "chosen."
The Color Purple
Production Design
An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing 'Mister' Albert Johnson, things go from bad to worse, leaving Celie to find companionship anywhere she can. She perseveres, holding on to her dream of one day being reunited with her sister in Africa.
The Goonies
Production Design
A young teenager named Mikey Walsh finds an old treasure map in his father's attic. Hoping to save their homes from demolition, Mikey and his friends Data Wang, Chunk Cohen, and Mouth Devereaux run off on a big quest to find the secret stash of Pirate One-Eyed Willie.
The Slugger's Wife
Production Design
Darryl Palmer (Michael O'Keefe) is a major league baseball player who meets and pursues an attractive singer (Rebecca De Mornay). After some setbacks, the two are married and sent on an emotional journey that sees his career take off, while hers doesn't. When she gives up her dreams to support her husband, she can't escape her own unhappiness. With a separation on the horizon, Darryl must choose between his big-league life and his one true love.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Art Direction
Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension.
Bad Boys
Production Design
Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.
Halloween II
Production Design
After failing to kill stubborn survivor Laurie and taking a bullet or six from former psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael Myers has followed Laurie to the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, where she's been admitted for Myers' attempt on her life. The institution proves to be particularly suited to serial killers, however, as Myers cuts, stabs and slashes his way through hospital staff to reach his favorite victim.
Callie & Son
Production Design
A fictional drama, covering a 30-year period, about a poverty-stricken teenager forced to give up her illegitimate son at birth, and the climb to wealth and power as the wife of a newspaper publisher who helps her locate her son, in whose future she becomes obsessed.
The Hand
Production Design
Jon Lansdale is a comic book artist who loses his right hand in a car accident. The hand was not found at the scene of the accident, but it soon returns by itself to follow Jon around, and murder those who anger him.
Ordinary People
Art Direction
Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together.
Brubaker
Art Direction
The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.
Fast Charlie... the Moonbeam Rider
Art Direction
A World War I deserter competes in the first long-distance motorcycle race.
Bare Knuckles
Production Design
A bounty hunter in Los Angeles sets out to track down and stop a masked serial killer who murders women by using kung-fu moves.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Production Design
A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.
Bad Georgia Road
Art Direction
New York City woman inherits a moonshine farm in the South.
Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks
Production Design
Ilsa works for an Arab sheik who enjoys importing females to use as sex slaves.