SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON — Industrial Light & Magic is extending is visual effects and animation services to the streaming and episodic television markets via a new division called ILM TV. Based out of ILM’s new 47,000-square-foot London studio, the business will be supported by the company’s global locations in San Francisco, Vancouver and Singapore.
Photo (L-R): Privett, Hussey, Drury and Jones
The ILM TV team will be led by visual effects supervisors Hayden Jones and Jonathan Privett, alongside executive producers, Louise Hussey and Stefan Drury. Previously, the team set up and oversaw Dneg’s television division. They won a BAFTA for “Special, Visual and Graphic Effects” for their work on Black Mirror.
The business’s first projects will be Lucasfilm’s live action series Mandalorian, based in the Star Wars universe, and developed by Jon Favreau, and the Superman prequel series Krypton, which is now in its second season, based on DC characters from Warner Horizon Scripted Television for Syfy.
“It’s not often you get to create a new division at Industrial Light & Magic”, explains Rob Bredow, executive creative director and head of ILM, “We are seeing a real convergence in our creative approach used on films and in our immersive entertainment division ILMxLAB, and now we’re proud to be able to offer these ILM innovations in a way that’s suitable for streaming and television work to creatives around the world.”
ILM’s legacy in television dates back to the studio’s Emmy-winning work for The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
“We are extremely excited to be re-igniting ILM’s involvement in this market and to showcase the team’s expertise, unrivaled technology and production management globally.” adds VFX supervisor Hayden Jones, “The television and streaming segments have grown exponentially in recent years and we are seeing substantial demand for high calibre visual effects that can be delivered on schedule and within budget, all of which lie at the core of our teams expertise and proven track record.”
ILM TV will offer producers and showrunners access to Industrial Light & Magic’s VFX talent, infrastructure and technology, combined with a fresh approach to visual effects designed to suit the condensed production schedules and rapid turnaround times that episodic series and online streaming programs demand.