A Hollywood special effects artist who broke her wrist in a fall from a beach scene while working on Disney’s blockbuster remake of the Little Mermaid is suing for £150,000.
Veteran model-maker Christine Overs, 74, fell on to a concrete floor when part of the set for the live-action movie gave way at Pinewood Studios in October 2020.
Ms Overs, who specialises in creating beach and snow scenes, was sculpting part of a lagoon scene on a raised beach set at the time of the incident, and broke her wrist when she hit the hard floor of the studio.
A former member of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Ms Overs is a “highly-prized” artist, Central London county court heard, and had previously worked on Bond film GoldenEye, the original Dune, sci-fi classic Aliens and 1987’s Superman IV.
She is suing for £150,000, saying the fall has ruined the final years of a career which requires precise finger movements, as she now struggles even to do up buttons and zips, or lace shoes.
Sandcastle Pictures Ltd - the company set up to make the Disney movie - has admitted liability for the fall, but is disputing the amount of damages she seeks.
Ms Overs, of Taplow in Buckinghamshire, has enjoyed a long career in special effects, beginning with work on Terry Gilliam’s ‘Time Bandits’ in 1981 before amassing a string of screen credits for Hollywood blockbusters.
The Little Mermaid, which stars Halle Bailey, Javier Bardem, Art Malik and Melissa McCarthy, grossed £450m worldwide at the box office after its release in May this year.
The court heard the beach scene Ms Overs was on had been constructed several feet off the ground, and she fell when a makeshift access step gave way.
Ms Overs needed surgery to fit five steel pins and a “fixator” from wrist to elbow to stabilise her arm.
The injuries left her with “ongoing wrist pain” and Ms Overs is “less dexterous with her hand”, her lawyers say.
Her work involves intricate hand movements, but Ms Overs now has problems even tackling buttons, laces and zips, it is claimed.
“She also has ongoing hypersensitivity on the left ring and little fingers, her grip strength is poor and she suffers swelling on the border of the wrist.”
She was left with a “substantial level of disability”, she was unable to drive for a year after the accident and had disrupted sleep and ongoing problems with fine finger movements.
At a hearing last week, her barrister Colm Nugent said Ms Overs had expected to carry on working into her eighties, but the fracture had dented her working potential in this “very specialist profession”.
“She is still working, but just doing less work,” he told Recorder Catherine Rowlands.
Ms Overs was part of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop on ‘Neverending Story III’ in 1994, she worked on makeup effects for ‘London’s Burning’ and model-making for the Thomas the Tank Engine children’s series between 2002 and 2006.
Ms Overs’ lawyers have accused the Little Mermaid creators of failing to “provide any adequate access to the set, which led to the claimant falling from a makeshift polystyrene step and injuring her wrist”.
Sandcastle Pictures Ltd has admitted liability for her fall, but is contesting the amount of compensation she is due. Last week’s pre-trial hearing determined the legal costs of a trial which is due to take place at a later date.
