Oliver Stone hired Riva to create the world depicted in his schlocky horror film "The Hand" (1981). He fared better creating the quirky, subterranean world of "The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai: Across the 8th Dimension" (1984), the nightclubs and baseball fields of Hal Ashby's "The Slugger's Wife" (1985) and the dual suburban and cavernous worlds of Richard Donner's "The Goonies" (also 1985). For Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple" (1985), Riva created the detailed Southern period settings that spanned forty-years and shared in an Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction-Set Design. Subsequently, he designed the contemporary Los Angeles of Donner's "Lethal Weapon" (1987) and its first sequel "Lethal Weapon 2" (1989) as well as the past, present and future world inhabited by a NYC TV executive (Bill Murray) in "Scrooged" (1988), a contemporary version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". Riva has collaborated with Rob Reiner on the military courtroom drama "A Few Good Men" (1992) and "North" (1994). For Ivan Reitman's "Dave" (1993), he recreated the Oval Office and other rooms within the White House while "Congo" (1995) required not only a jungle setting but also a legendary lost city. More recently, Riva created the design for "Hard Rain", "Six Days/Seven Nights" and "Lethal Weapon 4" (all 1998).