As of 2017, Weta Digital has won six Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects: "" (2001), "" (2002), "" (2003), "King Kong" (2005), "Avatar" (2009), and "The Jungle Book" (2016). Weta Digital has developed several proprietary software packages to achieve groundbreaking visual effects. The scale of the battles required for "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy led to the creation of MASSIVE, a program which can animate huge numbers of agents: independent characters acting according to pre-set rules. To recreate 1933 New York for "King Kong", Weta created CityBot, an application which could "build" the city on a shot by shot basis.
History
Weta Digital
Weta Digital | History
King Kong, Avatar and The Jungle Book. "Heavenly Creatures" "King Kong", "Avatar", and "The Jungle Book" King Kong, Avatar and The Jungle Book
who is josh hutcherson?
user
He is an American actor and producer.
assistant
does he own any production company?
user
No.
assistant
what was his role in the film that gave him a breakthrough?
user
Jesse Aarons.
assistant
and which movie was it?
user
Bridge to Terabithia.
assistant
what is the storyline of it?
user
It tells the story of bullied kids Jesse Aarons and Leslie Burke, 12-year-old neighbors who create a fantasy world called Terabithia and spend their free time together in an abandoned tree house.
assistant
who sort of film is it?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
what is its genre?
user
Fantasy adventure film.
assistant
who managed the graphical effects?
user
Weta Digital.
assistant
who owns it?
user
Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk.
assistant
can you name a few movies in which they have worked?
user
New Zealanders Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk founded visual effects company Weta Digital, naming it after the insect. There have been suggestions that Weta changes the spelling of its company name so it does not translate as "excrement".
Wētā | In popular culture
Weta Digital is a digital visual effects company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital special effects for "Heavenly Creatures". Weta Digital has won several Academy Awards and BAFTAs. Weta Digital is part of a number of Peter Jackson's co-owned companies in Wellington which includes Weta Workshop, Weta Productions, Weta Collectibles and Park Road Post Production. The company is named after the New Zealand wētā, one of the world's largest insects, which is also featured in the logo.
Weta Digital | Introduction
Sir Richard Taylor, the owner of Weta Workshop, was chosen as the 2012 New Zealander of the Year. A close friend of Peter Jackson, he and his company created all of the props, costumes, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry for Jackson's epic "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy.
New Zealander of the Year Awards | 2012 winners
Founded in 1987 by Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger as RT Effects, Weta Workshop has produced creatures and makeup effects for the TV series "" and "" and effects for films such as "Meet the Feebles" and "Heavenly Creatures". A digital division, Weta Digital, was formed in 1993. Weta Workshop's output was used in director Peter Jackson's film trilogy "The Lord of the Rings", producing sets, costumes, armour, weapons, creatures and miniatures. It supported the creation of "Reclaiming the Blade" (2009), a documentary film on stage combat, historical European and Asian swordsmanship.
Weta Workshop | History
As of 2017, Weta Digital has won six Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects: "" (2001), "" (2002), "" (2003), "King Kong" (2005), "Avatar" (2009), and "The Jungle Book" (2016). Weta Digital has developed several proprietary software packages to achieve groundbreaking visual effects. The scale of the battles required for "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy led to the creation of MASSIVE, a program which can animate huge numbers of agents: independent characters acting according to pre-set rules. To recreate 1933 New York for "King Kong", Weta created CityBot, an application which could "build" the city on a shot by shot basis.
Weta Digital | History
Richard Taylor, who is the head of Weta Workshop, has won a notable number of awards for his work on the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy and King Kong. Currently, he holds one of the largest Academy Award Collections.
List of New Zealand film makers | Special effects
Jackson was set to produce a remake of the 1955 film "The Dam Busters", to be directed by longtime Weta designer Christian Rivers. Stephen Fry has written a screenplay. Originally scheduled for filming by 2009, the project has been postponed. However, Jackson still holds movie rights as of October 2017.
Peter Jackson | "The Dam Busters"
Jackson's Weta Digital created the visual effects, which included computer-generated imagery, as well as scale models (which were necessary to make Wellington look American), prosthetic makeup and practical effects with help from Weta Workshop. Visual effects supervisor Richard Taylor explained that effects work on "The Frighteners" was complex due to Weta's inexperience with computer technology in the mid-1990s. Prior to this film, Weta worked largely with physical effects. With so many ghosts among its main cast, "The Frighteners" required more digital effects shots than almost any movie made up till that time. For a special effects company that had been in existence less than three years, the eighteen-month period for completing "The Frighteners" was largely stressful.
The Frighteners | Visual effects
The success of "Heavenly Creatures" helped pave the way for Jackson's first big budget Hollywood film, "The Frighteners" starring Michael J. Fox, in 1996. Jackson was given permission to make this comedy/horror film entirely in New Zealand despite being set in a North American town. This period was a key one of change for both Jackson and Weta Workshop, the special effects company—born from the one-man contributions of George Port to "Heavenly Creatures"—with which Jackson is often associated. Weta, initiated by Jackson and key collaborators, grew rapidly during this period to incorporate both digital and physical effects, make-up and costumes, the first two areas normally commanded by Jackson collaborator Richard Taylor.
Peter Jackson | Hollywood, Weta, and the Film Commission
The company was founded by film director James Cameron, Stan Winston and Scott Ross. They began producing visual effects in 1993 with its first three films, "True Lies", "Interview with the Vampire", and "Color of Night," being released in 1994. Digital Domain produced effects for more than 100 films, including "Dante's Peak", "Titanic", "Apollo 13", "What Dreams May Come", "The Fifth Element", "Armageddon", "" and "The Day After Tomorrow". Other films include "", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "", "", "2012", "", "", "Thor", "", "", "Real Steel", "", "Oblivion", "Iron Man 3", "Her", "", "Into the Storm", "Maleficent", "Furious 7", "Pixels" and most recently "Deadpool", "", "", "Suicide Squad", "Beauty and the Beast", "", "", Aquaman, "Captain Marvel", "Shazam", "", "" and "Sonic the Hedgehog".
Digital Domain | History
Although Jackson and Walsh re-read "The Hobbit" and even commissioned their workshop at WETA for some concept art, the rights to "The Hobbit" proved difficult because they were split between Zaentz and United Artists. Harvey Weinstein tried to purchase them from the studio, but was unsuccessful.
Middle-earth in film | Warner Brothers
"Massive" was originally developed in Wellington, New Zealand. Peter Jackson, the director of the "Lord of the Rings" films (2001–2003), required software that allowed armies of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fight, a problem that had not been solved in film-making before. Stephen Regelous created "Massive" to allow Weta Digital to generate many of the award-winning visual effects, particularly the battle sequences, for the "Lord of the Rings" films. Since then, it has developed into a complete product and has been licensed by a number of other visual effects houses.
MASSIVE (software) | History
Negotiations with Zaentz were elongated due to Weinstein's intention to keep Zaentz from producing the film himself, and by the fact that the distribution rights for "The Hobbit" were left in United Artists' hands. Miramax tried to buy the rights from the studio in vain. By April 1996, Jackson had reread "The Hobbit" and commissioned WETA to produce concept art, when Harvey suggested postponing it to a potential prequel.
Production of The Lord of the Rings film series | Early Development
It now has a catalogue of rights in over 50 features including Academy Award Nominee and Venice Golden Lion winner "Before the Rain", box office horror hit "Deathwatch"; Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener "Princess"; Sundance South African hit "Son of Man"; Jason Biggs starrer "GUY X" and Dinard winner "White Lightnin" as well as 2012 Berlinale Audience Award Winner "Parada" by Srdjan Dragojevic. The company remains fully owned and managed by producers Mike Downey (European Film Academy Board Member, BAFTA Council member and member of the BAFTA Film Committee) and Sam Taylor ( Board of PACT) backed by its advisory board film director Stephen Daldry (Chairman), ex-Creative Artists Agency agent Johanna Baldwin, former Chief Executive of the Guardian Group, James Markwick, merchant banker and internet investor Matthew Wilson.
Film and Music Entertainment | History
"Prince Caspian" has over 1,500 special effects shots, more than "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"'s 800 effects shots, yet the film had less time to complete them. The scale of special effects led Andrew Adamson to base production in the UK, to take advantage of new tax credits. Therefore, it legally qualifies as a British film. This also meant the director only had to walk five minutes from the editing room to supervise the effects. British visual effects companies the Moving Picture Company and Framestore CFC were hired to create the visual effects alongside Weta Digital. Framestore worked on Aslan, Trufflehunter and the door in the air; Scanline did the River-god; Weta created the werewolf, the wild bear and Miraz's castle; MPC and Escape Studios did the main battle, the tunnel scene, the castle assault, the council scenes and all the other creatures.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | Effects
Jackson was one of three producers on "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn", directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 2011. He is officially credited as producer but before he began working on "", helped Spielberg direct the film. Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis were cast due to their collaboration with Peter Jackson on "King Kong" and "The Lord of the Rings". Spielberg also chose to work with Peter Jackson due to the impressive digital work on the "Lord of the Rings" films, and knew Peter Jackson's company Weta Digital would make his vision a reality. It received positive reviews and grossed $374 million at the box office.
Peter Jackson | "Tintin" franchise
The latter part of the first decade of the new century saw the expansion of Peter Jackson's filmmaking empire, with the producer-director optioning the rights to "The Lovely Bones", "Halo", "The Dam Busters" and the fantasy series "Temeraire". Major productions such as "Avatar" and the 2007 blockbuster "" used Jackson's Wellington studios and the services of the special-effects company Weta Digital. "Eagle vs Shark" (2007) was director Taika Waititi's first feature film, starring Jemaine Clement and Loren Horsley. The film earned over at the box office. Waititi's film "Boy", released in 2010, topped the box office receipts for the opening week, earning more on its opening day than any previous locally made film, becoming the highest-grossing New Zealand film of all time.
Cinema of New Zealand | 2006–present
Sir Richard Leslie Taylor (born 1960s) is the founder, creative director and head of New Zealand film prop and special effects company Weta Workshop.
Richard Taylor (filmmaker) | Introduction
For "The Two Towers", Weta Digital doubled their staff of 260. In total, they would produce 73 minutes of digital effects with 799 shots. The film would feature their first challenge in creating a battle scene, as well as creating two digital characters who needed to act rather than be a set piece, unlike 's Cave Troll and Balrog. Weta began animating Gollum in late 1998 to convince New Line they could achieve the effect. Andy Serkis "played" Gollum by providing his voice and movements on set, as well as performing within the motion capture suit later on. His scenes were filmed twice, with and without him.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | Special effects
As with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Weta Digital was involved in the creation of special effects. However, as opposed to "The Lord of the Rings", where the actors who played Orcs portrayed them through full-body makeup and prosthetics, many of those actors in "The Hobbit" had computer-generated faces in order to portray them. Many of the actors who played Orcs in this trilogy portrayed them through performance capture.
The Hobbit (film series) | Visual effects
Sir Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop said "Savage Islands" kick-started the New Zealand filmmaking boom of the 1980s. "Nate and Hayes" inspired Lawrence Watt-Evans to write the 1992 novella "The Final Folly of Captain Dancy".
Nate and Hayes | Legacy
Ross had a falling out with his co-founder, James Cameron, over a conflict of interest whereby Cameron insisted, as co-owner of Digital Domain, that it continue working overtime on "Titanic" leading the company close to bankruptcy. Although he achieved some success in producing Secondhand Lions, other productions including "Instant Karma", "Plant Life", "Shadowplay", and "A Thousand Cranes" remain in Hollywood development hell.
Scott Ross (film executive) | Controversy
"On "Tintin", I have both of my eyes open". Jackson took the hands-on approach to directing Weta Digital during post-production, which Spielberg supervised through video conferencing. Jackson will also begin development for the second film, for which he will be officially credited as director. Spielberg says "there will be no cell phones, no TV sets, no modern cars. Just timeless Europe". His frequent collaborator and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński served as lighting consultant for Weta, and Jackson said the film will look "film noirish, very atmospheric". Spielberg finished six weeks of additional motion-capture filming in mid-July 2009. Post production was finished in September 2011.
The Adventures of Tintin (film) | Filming and visual effects
They asked themselves the question: How many times has a brilliant idea been levelled by the restrictions of a budget? Digital technology answers the question of how to make an excellent quality film on tight finances. With the advent of 3chip DV, original ideas were finally beginning to be realized. It was the Figgis Brothers childhood dreams of making movies and the advent of digital technology lead them to set up the company in February 2001. Jason directs while his younger brother Jonathan produces. Watching Hammer Films was a passion for them both and equal to the terror as they half hid behind pillows was the thrill at being confronted by monsters, swirling mists and dark villainous characters.
October Eleven Pictures | Introduction
Visual effects on the film were handled by New Zealand visual effects specialists Weta Digital and Weta Workshop who mainly did Crusoe. Most of the roughly 600 effects shots in the film involved Crusoe. And many of those shots involved the creature (Crusoe) interacting with water, which, in terms of the history of computer graphics, has always been a particularly difficult substance to deal with. In terms of the design of the creature, Weta Digital tried to not humanise him but instead based some of his expressions on real animals such as a dog. "We wanted to create something which seemed familiar, but was unique at the same time," said Russell.
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep | Visual effects
Middle-earth as envisioned by Jackson was primarily designed by Alan Lee and John Howe, former Tolkien illustrators, and created by Weta Workshop, who handled all the trilogy's weapons, armour, miniatures, prosthetics, and creatures, as well as the Art Department which built the sets. Richard Taylor headed Weta, while Grant Major and Dan Hennah organized the planning and building respectively. The city of Minas Tirith, glimpsed briefly in both the previous two films, is seen fully in this film, and with it the Gondorian civilization. The enormous soundstage was built at Dry Creek Quarry, outside Wellington, from the Helm's Deep set.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Design
Founded in 1978 by Julian Schlossberg, Castle Hill Productions revived and restored over 200 classic motion pictures, many of which were originally United Artists releases and inherited from the family and/or estates of the films' original producers under the Caidin Film Company. As the company grew, Castle Hill acquired the rights to many films by John Cassavetes, such as "Faces" and "A Woman Under the Influence". Both Schlossberg and Gena Rowlands (Cassavetes' widow), through their company, "Faces Distribution", have worked hard to revive the films for today's audiences in order for them to better appreciate the late director's work. Castle Hill also bought the rights to many of the films of Elia Kazan and Orson Welles.
Castle Hill Productions | History
The lead visual effects company was Weta Digital in Wellington, at one point employing 900 people to work on the film. Because of the huge amount of data which needed to be stored, cataloged and available for everybody involved, even on the other side of the world, a new cloud computing and Digital Asset Management (DAM) system named Gaia was created by Microsoft especially for "Avatar", which allowed the crews to keep track of and coordinate all stages in the digital processing. To render "Avatar", Weta used a server farm making use of 4,000 Hewlett-Packard servers with 35,000 processor cores with 104 terabytes of RAM and three petabytes of network area storage running Ubuntu Linux, Grid Engine cluster manager, and 2 of the animation software and managers, Pixar's RenderMan and Pixar's Alfred queue management system.
Avatar (2009 film) | Visual effects
The visual effects in the film were handled by the then newly created Weta Digital. The girls' fantasy life, and the "Borovnian" extras (the characters the girls made up) were supervised by Richard Taylor while the digital effects were supervised by George Port. Taylor and his team constructed over 70 full-sized latex costumes to represent the "Borovnian" crowds—plasticine figures that inhabit Pauline and Juliet's magical fantasy world. "Heavenly Creatures" contains over thirty shots that were digitally manipulated ranging from the morphing garden of the "Fourth World," to castles in fields, to the sequences with "Orson Welles" (played by Jean Guérin).
Heavenly Creatures | Post-production
Republic Pictures later bought the film and used some of the destruction footage in "S.O.S. Tidal Wave" (1939), "Dick Tracy vs Crime Inc" (1941) and "King of the Rocket Men" (1949). Republic Pictures never bought the film for theatrical exhibition. They bought the special effects footage only. For many years, "Deluge" was considered lost until Forrest J Ackerman discovered a print dubbed in Italian "(La distruzione del mondo)" in a film archive in Italy in 1981. Wade Williams actually discovered an Italian-language nitrate print of the film in the basement of an old mansion in Rome in 1981 belonging to his friend and Italian film producer Luigi Cozzi aka Lewis Coates.
Deluge (film) | Preservation status
The rights to the Selznick library have been scattered, as noted in the following timeline. David O. Selznick retained ownership of "The Garden of Allah", "The Prisoner of Zenda", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "Intermezzo", and "Rebecca" after the liquidation of Selznick International Pictures. Selznick died in 1965, and the following year, his estate sold the rights to 26 of his features to ABC, who continues to own most of them today (via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures). The notable exception is "Gone with the Wind", which Jock Whitney and his sister sold to MGM in 1944. Turner Entertainment, which purchased the MGM studio and pre-1986 film library in 1986, now owns the film with distribution currently held by Warner Bros.
Selznick International Pictures | Film library
Cinergi Pictures Entertainment Inc. was an independent production company that was founded by Andrew G. Vajna, after he had sold his interest in his first production company, Carolco International Pictures, in 1989. The company had a number of major hit films, most notably "Tombstone", "Die Hard with a Vengeance" and "Evita". However, the majority of their films lost money. A string of box office bombs – including "Renaissance Man", "Color of Night", "Judge Dredd", "The Scarlet Letter", "Nixon", "Shadow Conspiracy", "Deep Rising" and "" – ultimately undid the company, and it was discontinued in 1998. Cinergi Pictures' library is now owned by Disney.
Cinergi Pictures | Introduction
The DW Funding library is now co-owned by ViacomCBS (through the Paramount Pictures unit) and Access Entertainment (since it has acquired RatPac-Dune, Dune Entertainment's successor).
List of DreamWorks Pictures films | <a href="Universal%20Pictures">Universal Pictures</a>/<a href="DreamWorks%20Pictures">DreamWorks Distribution</a> (1997–2005)
They still remain today,
Wetherby's Cinema | History
the Extra-Terrestrial", "Batteries Not Included", "The Abyss", and "Flubber", and also provided work for "Avatar", alongside Weta Digital. In addition to their work for George Lucas, ILM also collaborates with Steven Spielberg on many films that he directs and produces. Dennis Muren has acted as Computer Animation Supervisor on many of these films. Apart from flashy special effects, the company also works on more subtle effects—such as widening streets, digitally adding more extras to a shot, and inserting the film's actors into preexisting footage—in films including "Schindler's List", "Forrest Gump", "Snow Falling on Cedars", "Magnolia", and several films directed by Woody Allen.
Industrial Light &amp; Magic | History
The project was delayed because Jackson decided to make "The Hobbit". Weta Workshop was making the models and special effects for the film and had made 10 life size Lancaster bombers. Fry said Wing Commander Guy Gibson's dog "Nigger" will be called "Digger" in the remake so as to avoid controversy, despite the historical inaccuracy. Les Munro, a pilot in the strike team, joined the production crew in Masterton as technical advisor. Jackson was also to use newly declassified War Office documents to ensure the authenticity of the film.
Christian Rivers | "The Dam Busters"
These included the "Hollywood" (1980) series and a restoration of Abel Gance's epic "Napoléon", which was performed in 1980 at the Empire, Leicester Square. Brownlow and Gill formed their own company, Photoplay Productions in 1990, in order to continue their restoration work and documentaries on silent cinema. Among the 25 films they restored are "", "The Phantom of the Opera", "The Thief of Bagdad" and "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse".
David Gill (film historian) | Career
Jackson and his colleagues Sir Richard Taylor (VFX) and Jamie Selkirk (Editor) have built a series of multimillion-dollar studios, sound stages, and pre- and post-production facilities in Miramar that include Stone Street Studios, Park Road Post, Weta Digital, and Weta Workshop. Jackson filmed the studio scenes of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "King Kong" in Miramar. Miramar has been hailed by Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro as "Hollywood the way God intended it".
Miramar, New Zealand | Film
Musgrave received screen credits for digital effects in the films "Titanic", "Dante's Peak" and "Lawnmower Man". His MojoWorld software was used to procedurally generate background mattes and terrains on big-budget movies such as "The Day After Tomorrow".
Ken Musgrave | Cinema work
A year later, The Scala Cinema's twelve-year lease expired simultaneously as its defeat in a court case caused by an illegal screening of "A Clockwork Orange", whose screening rights had been withdrawn in the UK by Stanley Kubrick in 1971, and the financial collapse of Palace precipitated its closure in 1993. Woolley and Powell went on to found Scala Pictures, where they made "Backbeat" (1994), "Little Voice" (1998)", Twenty Four Seven" (1997), and a series of low budget UK features. Simultaneously, he secured a three-picture deal with Warner Brothers and made three films with Jordan after the worldwide box office hit of "Interview with the Vampire".
Stephen Woolley | Career
Smaug was voiced and interpreted with performance capture by Benedict Cumberbatch in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of "The Hobbit". From the motion capture, Smaug's design was created with key frame animation. Weta Digital employed its proprietary "Tissue" software, which was honoured in 2013 with a "Scientific and Engineering Award" from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to make the dragon as realistic as possible. In addition, Weta Digital supervisor Joe Letteri said in an interview for "USA Today" that they used classic European and Asian dragons as inspirations to create Smaug. "The Telegraph" stated that Cumberbatch had "the authority to make of Smaug a cunning nemesis".
Smaug | "The Hobbit" (film series)
Peter Lyon also forged swords, each taking from three to six days, creating spring steel "hero" swords for close-ups, aluminum fight swords and rubber versions, too. Weta also created 10,000 real arrows and 500 bows. Howe even created a less crude type of crossbow, intended for the Uruk-hai while requiring no external tools to rearm, based on a 16th-century manuscript. Weta created numerous pieces of prosthetics and continually monitored them on set. They created 1,800 Orc body suits to go with 10,000 Orc heads, lasting six days and one day respectively. Weta also spent a year creating hobbit feet that would look like large, furry feet yet act as shoes for the actors.
Production of The Lord of the Rings film series | Weta Workshop
Perry has full ownership of his movies, and Lions Gate Entertainment serves as his distributor for all of his films (with the exception of "Nobody's Fool" and "A Fall from Grace", which was distributed by Paramount Pictures and Netflix respectively due to his new deal with ViacomCBS). His first movie, "Diary of a Mad Black Woman", produced on a budget of $5.5 million, became an unexpected commercial success prompting widespread discussion among industry watchers about whether middle-class African-Americans were simply not being addressed by mainstream Hollywood movies. Its final gross box office receipts were $50.6 million, although it was critically panned scoring only 16 percent approval rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes.
Tyler Perry Studios | History
Harvey tried to buy the studio's share of the rights, but was unsuccessful. With the Hobbit postponed for a later prequel, Jackson proceeded with making two or more "Lord of the Rings" films: "We pitched the idea of three films and Miramax didn't really want to take that risk, but we agreed on two." He began writing the scripts with Walsh and Stephen Sinclair, storyboard with Christian Rivers and discussing casting ideas with the Weinsteins. Meanwhile Weta Digital began software development for the digital effects required, and WETA Workshop were producing props and concept art. Sinclair later dropped from the project, but Jackson felt that some of his contributions survived into the finished scripts, particularly the middle film, "The Two Towers", for which he is credited.
The Lord of the Rings (film series) | Pitch to Miramax
He also appeared on set to give direction to actors and stunt personnel in several fight scenes. Both Richard Taylor and Weta Workshop appear in the documentary film "Reclaiming the Blade", where they discussed the creative and technical process of how movie props (specifically swords) are created at Weta Workshop. Swords created by Weta for films such as "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" are featured in the film as well.
Richard Taylor (filmmaker) | Career
Founded in 2012 by Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar, Embankment procures pre-sales, tax-credit facilities, equity, gap financing and worldwide distribution for feature films and television. Haslam was formerly CEO at Hanway Films, and has overseen sales of more than 150 films, including Steve McQueen's "Shame" starring Michael Fassbender, Becoming Jane starring Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy, "Resident Evil" starring Milla Jovovich, seven films directed by Woody Allen, and Academy Award winners "The Piano", "Dances With Wolves" and "Iris." Grumbar was formerly joint MD of the UK division of Icon Film Distribution. Grumbar was responsible for the acquisition and distribution of films such as "Paranormal Activity", "Apocalypto", "The Passion Of The Christ", "La Vie En Rose", "Man on Wire", "A Single Man", "Drive", and "Precious".
Embankment Films | History
Original Film was started out in the early 1990s by Neal H. Moritz and Bruce Mellon as a film producer and a commercial company. In 1991, David Heyman joined in as employee of the motion picture department. He later resigned to join Heyday Films. In 1993, Stokley Chaffin joined the company. He stayed on with the company for eight years until 2001. In 1997, the studio struck a long-time partnership deal with Sony Pictures, and it remained until 2019. At the same time, Brad Luff joined the company. He left in 2003 to run Morgan Creek Productions. In 1998, the studio struck a deal with Newmarket Capital Group to produce lower-budget feature films.
Original Film | History
By 1994, Nelson's catalog had been acquired by Epic Productions and folded into the Alpha Library Company. After Epic's closure Crédit Lyonnais assumed responsibility of its library. Upon the collapse of the bank the library was retitled as the Consortium de Realisation a.k.a the Epic library. Crédit Lyonnais later sold the Epic film library to PolyGram Filmed Entertainment in 1997, then Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired 2/3 of PolyGram's pre-April 1996 library in October 1998. Therefore, MGM now owns most of the Nelson Entertainment library with the copyrights being held by Orion Pictures. Due to a previous agreement with Viacom Enterprises, Paramount Pictures via Trifecta Entertainment & Media holds the television rights to Nelson's post-January 1989 films not co-produced with Castle Rock.
Nelson Entertainment | Introduction
In 1865, the site on Caxton Street was acquired by a consortium, headed by local entrepreneur Henry Crossley for £2000. In 1914, his son, George, started work redeveloping the residential cottages as a cinema, which was completed in 1915. Crossley sold the cinema that year to Raby Picture House Ltd, a Leeds based cinema operating company. The cinema then had a capacity of 260, which has since been reduced to 136. At the time of the cinema's opening, Wetherby lacked mains electricity and so a 400 volt gas-powered generator provided power. That and the flammable nitrate film then in use meant that the projection room required steel shutters to contain any potential fire.
Wetherby's Cinema | History
Douglas bought it in 1946. His descendants still own the estate today. Filmmaker and director Gore Verbinski used Hampstead as a filming location for scenes of a three-way sword fight from "".
Hampstead, Dominica | History
Joe" films, the "Beverly Hills Cop" films, the "Terminator" films, the "Pet Sematary" films, the "Without a Paddle" films, "Jackass", the "Odd Couple" films, "South Park", the "Crocodile Dundee" films, the "Charolette's Web" films, the "Wayne's World" films, "Beavis & Butthead", "Jimmy Neutron", the "War of the Worlds" films, the "Naked Gun" films, the "Anchorman" films, "Dora the Explorer", the "Addams Family" films, "Rugrats", the "Zoolander" films, "Æon Flux", the "Ring" films, the "Bad News Bears" films, "The Wild Thornberrys", and the "Paranormal Activity" films; as well as the first four films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the "Indiana Jones" films, and various DreamWorks Animation properties (such as "Shrek", the "Madagascar" sequels, the first two "Kung Fu Panda" films, and the first "How to Train Your Dragon") before both studios were respectively acquired by Disney (via Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm) and Universal Studios.
Paramount Pictures | Film library
Many of Palace Pictures projects were first supported by Channel 4, and Woolley also helped establish many first-time directors including Michael Caton-Jones and Richard Stanley. Woolley established an association with Miramax, which distributed a number of Palace films in the United States, including "Scandal" (1989), "A Rage in Harlem" (1991), "Hardware" (1990) and "The Crying Game" (1992). Woolley had established his reputation with a series of low budget but high production value releases, but began developing more ambitious projects. After some box-office disappointments and the recession which weakened Nik Powell's parent company in 1992 Palace Pictures was forced to close.
Stephen Woolley | Career
MGM did not acquire the Hemdale films, (which include "The Terminator", "Hoosiers", and "Platoon") or the Nelson films (including the "Bill & Ted" films), until MGM bought the pre-1996 library of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (the “Epic Library”), which included both companies' libraries, although the television and digital rights to certain Nelson films are now held by Paramount Television, with television syndication handled on behalf of Paramount Television by Trifecta Entertainment & Media.
Orion Pictures | Orion's library today
"The Return of the King" contains 1,488 visual effect shots, nearly three times the number from the first film and almost twice that of the second. Visual effects work began with Alan Lee and Mark Lewis compositing various photographs of New Zealand landscape to create the digital arena of the Pelennor Fields in November 2002. Jackson and Christian Rivers used computers to plan the enormous battle up until February 2003, when the shots were shown to Weta Digital. To their astonishment, 60 planned shots had gone up to 250, and 50,000 characters were now 200,000. Nevertheless, they pressed on, soon delivering 100 shots a week, 20 a day, and as the deadline neared within the last two months, often working until 2 am.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Visual effects
Barron contributed to the visual effects of more than 100 films during MWD's near-25-year run, creating innovative techniques for the digital effects of Zodiac", Captain American: The First Avenger, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", which won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 2009. MWD closed in 2012 after 24 years of service. The company's last project was for Martin Scorsese's "Hugo".
Craig Barron | Matte World Digital
Duborgh. From 1929, when William Duborgh died, Wettre was the company's sole owner, and when he died, the company was passed on to Ragnar Wettre.
Trygve Wettre | Introduction
The company was sold to Tyne Tees Television in the early 1970s, although Halas and Batchelor themselves broke away from this association after a few years. Most of the 2,000 films now form part of The Halas and Batchelor Collection, founded in 1996. This collection was part of a donation by the couple's daughter to the British Film Institute in 2010.
Halas and Batchelor | History
Film director Sir Peter Jackson has based his film production empire in Miramar, with studios, sound stages, and pre- and post-production facilities. Weta Workshop, involved in many movies directed by Sir Peter, such as "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, "King Kong", and "The Hobbit", is also in Miramar.
Miramar Peninsula | Film industry
Earlier versions of the script included additional characters like Fatty Bolger, Glorfindel, Elladan, Elrohir, Erkenbrand, Imrahil and Forlong. At one point, Jackson even considered reintroducing Tom Bombadil in a cameo. Gimli was going to swear throughout the films, and Arwen would join the Fellowship in Rohan and share a nude scene with Aragorn in the pools of the Glittering Caves. Jackson hired long-time collaborator Richard Taylor to lead Weta Workshop on five major design elements: armour, weapons, prosthetic makeup, creatures, and miniatures. At New Line's request, animation supervisor Jim Rygiel replaced Weta Digital's Mark Stetson. In November 1997, famed Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe joined the project; most of the imagery in the films is based on their various illustrations, but Jackson also relied on the work of Ted Nasmith, who later had to turn down an offer to join Alan and John.
The Lord of the Rings (film series) | Production
Nor would his company make such a "squalid" film again. More generally, it ended producers' willingness to back such British New Wave films. John Russell Taylor in 1980 thought it a mistake to link "This Sporting Life" with the "kitchen sink" films released in the preceding few years, because its "emotionalism" made it "unique", apart from Anderson's other work
This Sporting Life | Critical reception and box-office
Barris Industries originally owned a 5.27% stake in Reeves. It was purchased by Thames Television in 1990 for $89 million. The rights to the company's library is now owned by Fremantle. Distribution rights in the United States vary on an individual basis.
Alan Landsburg Productions | Introduction
"The Lord of the Rings" film series began production design in August 1997. Peter Jackson required complete realism and plausibility in his vision of Middle-earth, and hired Weta Workshop to create the various pieces of armour, weapons, prosthetics and creatures seen in the trilogy, as well as aged costumes and historically influenced sets.
Production of The Lord of the Rings film series | Production design
Designing "Contact"s visual effects sequences was a joint effort among eight separate VFX companies. This team included Sony Pictures Imageworks, Peter Jackson's Weta Digital, George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, and Effects Associates, with Pixar's RenderMan used for CGI rendering. Weta Digital, in particular, was responsible for designing the wormhole sequence. Jodie Foster admitted that she had difficulty with blue screen technology because it was a first for the actress. "It was a blue room. Blue walls, blue roof. It was just blue, blue, blue", Foster explained. "And I was rotated on a Lazy Susan with the camera moving on a computerized arm.
Contact (1997 American film) | Visual effects
He shared that fee with co-writers Walsh (which also covered her producing credit) and Boyens. However, if "King Kong" were to go over its $175 million budget, the penalties would be covered by Jackson. Immediately after the completion of "The Return of the King", Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, supervised by Taylor, Rivers, and Joe Letteri, started pre-production on "King Kong". Jackson brought back most of the crew he had on "The Lord of the Rings" series, including cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, production designer Grant Major, art directors Simon Bright and Dan Hennah, conceptual designer Alan Lee, and editor Jamie Selkirk.
King Kong (2005 film) | Revival of the project
Free Cinema was a major influence on the British New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and all of the founders except Mazzetti would make films associated with the movement. Richardson directed "Look Back in Anger" (1958), "A Taste of Honey" (1961) and "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" (1962); Reisz directed "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1960); and Anderson directed "This Sporting Life" (1963) and "If..." (1969). Many of these films have also been categorized as part of the kitchen sink realism genre, and many of them are adaptations of novels or plays written by members of Britain's so-called "angry young men".
Free Cinema | Legacy
In 2001, Spielberg revealed his interest in depicting Tintin with computer animation. In November 2002, his studio DreamWorks reestablished the option to film the series. Spielberg originally said he would only produce the film. In 2004, French magazine "Capital" reported Spielberg was intending a trilogy based on "The Secret of the Unicorn" / "Red Rackham's Treasure", "The Seven Crystal Balls" / "Prisoners of the Sun" and "The Blue Lotus" / "Tintin in Tibet" (which are separate stories, but both feature Chang Chong-Chen). By then, Spielberg had reverted to his idea of a live-action adaptation and called Peter Jackson to ask if Weta Digital would create a computer-generated Snowy.
The Adventures of Tintin (film) | Development
After the studio closed, the Hemdale library was then incorporated into Consortium de Réalisation, a French holding company set up by Crédit Lyonnais to handle the rights to titles acquired by Credit Lyonnais Bank (this was otherwise known as the “Epic” library). In 1999, the library was incorporated into the Orion Pictures output now owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer via PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, after MGM acquired the Consortium de Réalisation/“Epic” library from PolyGram (ironically, Orion was the theatrical distributor for a number of Hemdale's films). One significant exception is "The Last Emperor", a Hemdale production whose rights are now held by its producer, Jeremy Thomas.
Hemdale Film Corporation | Aftermath
Kino's theatrical arm handles theatrical distribution of much of the Janus Collection, and has a focus on recent art house and foreign films. Their non-theatrical arm has more of a focus on classic cinema, providing silent film classics which are otherwise difficult to find. They are the largest video distributor of silent films, including a great many from the earliest days of cinema (before 1914). These include important early landmark films by Thomas Edison, Georges Méliès, the Lumière brothers and D.W. Griffith. Many of those were restored by David Shepard's Film Preservation Associates. In 2009, Kino International merged with Lorber HT Digital to form Kino Lorber.
Kino International (company) | History
With Stigwood's partnership, WEG was to finance a film version of "Evita" with Oliver Stone as writer/director and Meryl Streep as Eva Perón. However, the studio dropped the project. WEG purchased from The Cannon Group in May 1987 its 2,000-title British film library, the Thorn-EMI Screen Entertainment library, for $85 million with $50 million from a loan. On July 20, Harry Usher joined the Group as President of the Weintraub International Enterprises division and as a senior vice president.
Weintraub Entertainment Group | History
Programmes wholly shot on film were made there also, such as "Alice in Wonderland" (1966), "The Singing Detective" (1986), Portrait of a Marriage, (1986) and "Fortunes of War" (1987).
Ealing Studios | Owned by the BBC (1955–1995)
Hart now owns the rights to 11 movies made by her late husband's company: "It Conquered the World" (1956) and its 1966 remake "Zontar, The Thing from Venus", "Invasion of the Saucer Men" (1957) and its 1965 remake "The Eye Creatures", "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" (1957), "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" (1957), "The Amazing Colossal Man" (1957), "Terror from the Year 5000" (1958), "Apache Woman" (1955), "The Oklahoma Woman" (1956) and "Naked Paradise" (1957).
Susan Hart | Movies ownership
He meticulously managed the release pattern of his father's films and restored "Hondo" and "McLintock!" in the early 1990s for release on VHS and television. His passion was to restore the other two films, but water damage to the original elements made it impossible during his lifetime. Taking advantage of the new digital restoration processes, Michael's widow Gretchen restored these films in 2004 and released them through a distribution deal with Paramount Pictures in 2005.
Batjac Productions | The "lost" Wayne films
The Cinerama company exists today as an entity of the Pacific Theatres chain. In recent years, surviving and new Cinerama prints have been screened at the following venues: In 1998, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen purchased Seattle's Martin Cinerama, which then underwent a major restoration/upgrade to become the Seattle Cinerama. As of 2015, the Pictureville Cinema, Seattle Cinerama, and Cinerama Dome continue to hold periodic screenings of three-projector Cinerama movies. The Cinerama Dome was designed for the three-projector system but never actually had it installed until recent years as it opened with the first of the single film 70 mm Cinerama films, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963).
Cinerama | Legacy
The Moving Picture Company (MPC) and Weta Digital created the film's visual effects. MPC developed new software for animating muscular structure in the animals. Around 1,000 remote jungle locations in India were photographed and used as a reference in post-production. Weta was responsible for animating the King Louie sequence, with visual effects supervisor Keith Miller adding that, "It was important for Jon to see Christopher Walken in the creature. So we took some of the distinctive Walken facial features—iconic lines, wrinkles and folds—and integrated them into the animated character". Favreau expressed desire in wanting the film's 3D shots to imbue the abilities of the multiplane camera system utilized in Disney's earlier animated films.
The Jungle Book (2016 film) | Filming and visual effects
The footage was transmitted to Weta Digital, who produced a twenty-minute test reel that demonstrated a photorealistic depiction of the characters. Spielberg said he would not mind filming it digitally because he saw it as an animated film, and reiterated his live-action work would always be filmed traditionally. Lead designer Chris Guise visited Brussels to see the inspiration for Hergé's sceneries.
The Adventures of Tintin (film) | Development
Heyman started in the film industry as a production assistant on David Lean's "A Passage to India", and in 1986, Heyman became a creative executive at Warner Brothers. In the late 1980s, he became vice president of United Artists and subsequently embarked on an independent producing career with his first film, "Juice", in 1992, followed by the cult "stoner" film "The Stoned Age" (1994) and others. In 1997 Heyman returned to London and founded his own production company, Heyday Films. He has since produced a number of films including the "Harry Potter" film adaptations. Other notable productions during this time include the 2007 blockbuster "I Am Legend" and the 2008 films "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas", "Is Anybody There?", and "Yes Man".
David Heyman | Career
In 2003, Vicente and Kliot co-founded HDNet Films with Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner. The company produced 18 films in five years, all shot on digital video. The HDNet Films production of Steven Soderbergh's "Bubble" was the first film ever to be released "day-and-date," in the United States, simultaneously opening across theatrical, cable and satellite television, and home video platforms. This innovative distribution strategy allowed consumers to choose how, when and where they wished to see a film. Films produced under HDNet include Academy-Award nominated "", and "Redacted", which took the Silver Lion at the 2007 Venice Film Festival.
Joana Vicente | HDNet Films
"The Frighteners" was regarded as a box office failure. Film critic Roger Ebert expressed disappointment stating that "incredible effort has resulted in a film that looks more like a demo reel than a movie". In February 1997, Jackson launched legal proceedings against the "New Zealand Listener" magazine for defamation, over a review of "The Frighteners" which claimed that the film was "built from the rubble of other people's movies". In the end, the case was not pursued further. Around this time Jackson's remake of "King Kong" was shelved by Universal Studios, partly because of "Mighty Joe Young" and "Godzilla", both giant monster movies, that had already gone into production.
Peter Jackson | Hollywood, Weta, and the Film Commission
In the early 1980s ownership of the film was purchased by film and record producer, Vijaya Ramanayake. Tharanga films and music currently owns and distributes the film.
Ranmuthu Duwa | Ownership
It is best known for the period when it was managed by Sir Alexander Korda. Korda's company London Films bought the controlling interest in British Lion in 1946 and then acquired Shepperton Studios, basing its productions there. In 1949, due to financial problems, the company accepted a loan from the National Film Finance Corporation. Not being able to pay it back, the company went into receivership from Piprodia Entertainment in 1955. As a result, British Lion Films Ltd. was formed as a distribution company in January 1955, with the Boulting brothers, Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat as directors. Until 1976 their distributor filmography included 155 films.
British Lion Films | Introduction
Ivey has continuously cited Syd Mead as a substantial influence for the film. Weta Workshop created the exosuits for Damon and Copley's characters, while the complicated visual effects were handled primarily by Image Engine (who also collaborated on "District 9) "with additional work by Whiskytree, MPC, The Embassy and Industrial Light and Magic. Re-shoots took place through October 2012. The film's music score was composed by newcomer Ryan Amon and recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the Philharmonia Orchestra. The soundtrack was released on August 6, 2013.
Elysium (film) | Production
Universal feared it would be thrown aside by the two higher budget movies. This period of transition seems not to have been entirely a happy one; it also marked one of the high points of tension between Jackson and the New Zealand Film Commission since "Meet the Feebles" had gone over-budget earlier in his career. Jackson has claimed the Commission considered firing him from "Feebles", though the NZFC went on to help fund his next three films. In 1997, the director submitted a lengthy criticism of the commission for a magazine supplement meant to celebrate the body's 20th anniversary, criticising what he called inconsistent decision-making by inexperienced board members.
Peter Jackson | Hollywood, Weta, and the Film Commission
This includes the film version, since Carlton had acquired the rights to the film, and through the mergers of the various ITV companies Granada Television subsequently acquired the rights to both the Carlton and Yorkshire Television archives.
Rising Damp | Home releases
The magazine felt that the material was too long and potentially defamatory to publish in that form; a shortened version of the material went on to appear in "Metro" magazine. In the "Metro" article Jackson criticized the Commission over funding decisions concerning a film he was hoping to executive produce, but refused to drop a client-confidentiality clause that allowed them to publicly reply to his criticisms.
Peter Jackson | Hollywood, Weta, and the Film Commission
"Prometheus" contains approximately 1,300 digital effect shots. The main effects studio was Moving Picture Company (MPC), which produced 420 of the shots. Several other studios, including Weta Digital, Fuel VFX, Rising Sun Pictures, Luma Pictures, Lola Visual Effects, and Hammerhead Productions, also produced effects shots for the film. The creation of life from the disintegration of an Engineer in the film's opening scene was created by WETA Digital. The scene was difficult to produce because it had to convey the story of the Engineer's DNA breaking apart, reforming and recombining into Earth DNA in a limited span of time. The team focused on making the DNA stages distinct to convey its changing nature.
Prometheus (2012 film) | Visual effects
Thorn EMI later sold its film production and distribution arm (Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment), home video (Thorn EMI Video), and cinema (ABC Cinemas) operations to businessman Alan Bond in April 1986. Bond, in turn, sold it to The Cannon Group a week later. A year after the purchase, a cash-strapped Cannon sold the film library to Weintraub Entertainment Group. The library ended up in the hands of several companies over the years and is now owned by StudioCanal, a sister company to Universal Music Group who acquired EMI in 2012 and parent company Canal+ Group's acquisition of European cinema operator UGC who acquired the library's then-owner, the United Kingdom-based Lumiere Pictures and Television in 1996, via Cannon Films.
EMI Films | Denouement
LONDON: Ice Pick, Tandem, Panico Productions (studio owned by Julian Doyle - Director of Photography for Brazil, Holy Grail, and other Gilliam-related projects), Blue Sunflower Studios, Uli Meyer Animation, Passion Pictures NEW YORK: RockAMedia LLC http://www.rockamedia.com, DMA Animation, High5 Games, Badcat
Richard C. Jack | Studios
Forry Ackerman, his wife Wyndane, the Mossman Brothers and Wade Williams were guest speakers at a Science-Fiction Festival in Rome. Forry Ackerman verified it was a lost film in the US. Wade Williams bought the access rights, made a dupe preservation negative and 35mm print. It was sub-titled in English for the first US re-release on VHS by Englewood Entertainment and the 35mm print was re-released theatrically and played at the Film Forum in New York and other revival houses and archives.
Deluge (film) | Preservation status
Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing many films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was "Walter", directed by Stephen Frears, which was released in 1982. It is especially known for its gritty, kitchen sink-style films and period drama.
Film4 Productions | Introduction
According to the WIFTS Foundation, Jamieson was one of the first directors to include documentaries with home video releases of classic movies as a way to promote "cinema literacy". He later established Twilight Time with Nick Redman, which serves to release limited runs of classic movies not yet on DVD. , the label has already released Michael Curtiz's 1954 film "The Egyptian", with plans to release Cy Endfield 1961 film "Mysterious Island" and Tom Holland's 1985 film "Fright Night" by the end of the year. Jamieson notes that it is a "win-win" project, with film lovers getting access to rare classic movies and studios able to release and profit from undervalued productions without financial investment.
Brian Jamieson (director) | Cinema history
WET was founded as WET Enterprises, Inc., which at the time stood for Water Entertainment Technologies, by Mark Fuller, Melanie Simon, and Alan Robinson in 1983. All three had worked together as Imagineers at Disney. During his time at Disney, Fuller created the “Leapfrog” fountain at Epcot, using laminar technology, which evolved from the subject of his senior college thesis project at the University of Utah. The company was renamed WET Design in 1985, the same year that Claire Kahn joined the company as Director of Design. Later, its name became simply WET from WET Design. The company also named WET Labs.
WET (company) | 1980s
In 1992, the company was renamed Matte World Digital, reflecting the new technological tools available to matte painters. Since then, MWD has created digital-matte environments for films directed by (among others) Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, and David Fincher. After working on shots for more than 100 films, Matte World Digital closed its shop in August, 2012.
Matte World Digital | History
Tartan Films, established in 1984, was a UK-based film distributor. Founder Hamish McAlpine (not to be confused with the Hamish McAlpine that played football for Dundee United) is credited with creating the term "Asia Extreme" and making such films accessible to the masses. It also owned the US-based Tartan USA and Tartan Video. It has distributed East Asian films under the brand "Tartan Asia Extreme". Between 1992-2003 Tartan Films operated under the name Metro-Tartan Distribution before reverting to Tartan Films. More recently, it has released similar films of other origins, under its Tartan Terror brand. Such films include "Battle Royale", the "Whispering Corridors" series "A Tale of Two Sisters", "The Last Horror Movie" and "Oldboy".
Palisades Tartan | History
In 2013 "It Happened One Night" underwent digital restoration. A new wet-gate master was produced by Sony Colorworks for scanning at 4K. The images were digitally treated at Prasad Corporation to remove dirt, tears, scratches, and other artifacts. Care was taken to preserve the original look of the film.
It Happened One Night | Restoration
Currently, Warner Bros. owns the copyrights and overall rights to most of the Castle Rock films and television shows from the pre-1994 and post-1993 eras, with a few notable exceptions. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer owns the worldwide home video rights to most of the pre-1994 films by virtue of the purchase of the pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment/“Epic” library via Orion Pictures (which had included, in part, the Nelson Entertainment holdings) in 1999.
Castle Rock Entertainment | Ownership of the Castle Rock library
Tarantino and Bender are no longer working together and Tarantino is the sole owner of A Band Apart Films. David Heyman ("Harry Potter", "Gravity") produced Tarantino's 9th film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood". While the company is listed as studio for Tarantino's 2009 "Inglourious Basterds" and 2012 "Django Unchained", and credited in the 2007 "Grindhouse" movies, it is unclear whether the company was reformed for the films or was credited for involvement in pre-2006 production of those films.
A Band Apart | Company closure
In 1922, the studios, generally known as Isleworth Film Studios, were sold to British Super Films, in which Samuelson retained an interest. However, in 1928, an expensive lawsuit with the American actress Betty Blythe forced Samuelson to sell Worton Hall to British Screen Productions. By 1931 the studios were being used by Fidelity Films. Films produced here included "Madame Guillotine", with Madeleine Carroll. In 1934, they were leased by Alexander Korda and in 1936 he produced "Things to Come", based on "The Shape of Things to Come" by H G Wells. Wells wrote the screenplay, Arthur Bliss the music. From 1936 to 1944, the studios were owned by Criterion Film Productions, and afterwards by British Lion.
Isleworth Studios | Worton Hall Studios 1913-1952
Special effects for the film were handled by Weta Workshop, including participation from Richard Taylor. The film was financed in part by an investment from the Korean company Daesung Group. This was the first time a Korean company had directly invested in a New Zealand film (though Weta Workshop had previously collaborated with Korean effects houses on the South Korean film "The Host").
Black Sheep (2006 New Zealand film) | Production
The company "Paradise" produced the DVDs of the film, which appeared in commercial centers; unauthorized copies of the DVDs, which appeared on the market simultaneously with the licensed discs, were so successful in sales that the store chain "Titanic" named the film a "sales hit" in its informational pages for April 2009. All of the director's attempts to defend his copyright and to fight with the infringers were by far unsuccessful.
Don't Think About White Monkeys | History
This reputation has continued through the 1990s and into the 21st century with films such as the James Bond series, "Gladiator" (2000) and the Harry Potter franchise. From the 1990s to the present day, there has been a progressive movement from traditional film opticals to an integrated digital film environment, with special effects, cutting, colour grading, and other post-production tasks all sharing the same all-digital infrastructure. The London-based visual effects company Framestore, with Tim Webber the visual effects supervisor, have worked on some of the most technically and artistically challenging projects, including, "The Dark Knight" (2008) and "Gravity" (2013), with new techniques involved in "Gravity" realized by Webber and the Framestore team taking three years to complete.
Cinema of the United Kingdom | Film technology