Trivia

Stanley Kubrick hired Trumbull to work on 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) after seeing a documentary Trumbull worked on for the 1964 World's Fair, To the Moon and Beyond (1964).

Quit directing feature films after Brainstorm (1983) due to conflicts with the studio involving the making of the film and then in the salvaging of the project when the studio had hoped to get an insurance payout from scrapping it, following the death of Natalie Wood during production.

In 1975, Trumbull turned down an offer to provide the effects for George Lucas' Star Wars due to other commitments.

Son of Don Trumbull.

His mother was a commercial artist, and his father was an engineer who also worked in Hollywood special effects, including "The Wizard of Oz".

Trumbull spent a week to 10 days in the hospital after he completed his work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

His first major job was with Graphic Films, an animation and graphics arts studio in L.A. which produced films for NASA and the Air Force.

He studied illustration at El Camino College and worked as an illustrator on NASA and Air Force movies and on "To the Moon and Beyond," a 15-minute documentary created for the 1964 New York World's Fair.

He developed a filming and exhibition system he called "Showscan". The basic system used 70mm film running at 60 frames per second (24 fps is the industry standard). It was planned to be used to film "Brainstorm" (1983). The 250% increase in the already very expensive costs of shooting in 70mm, plus the need for exhibitors to install new equipment led to the plans being abandoned. The current version of the system uses laserdisc inputs for use in "ride" applications.