Case file D–02
DISPUTEDWho physically modified the mask?
Tommy Lee Wallace’s account
Wallace has consistently described buying and converting the mask himself. Carpenter corroborates an art-department purchase and in-house alterations, and Wallace explicitly denied Don Post involvement in 2008.
Don Post Studios’ account
A 2000 federal opinion records Don Post Studios’ claim that it modified the mask to the filmmakers’ instructions, delivered it, and received $150. The opinion notes conflicting testimony elsewhere in the case.
No production invoice, receipt, work order, or surviving contemporaneous document has been located that resolves who physically did the work.
“Wallace’s first-hand account is the primary version; Don Post Studios separately claimed a role, and a federal court recorded that claim as fact.”