Tag: King Kong

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Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital Renamed WetaFX After Tech Assets Are Sold For $1.625 Billion To Unity

In a massive deal, Peter Jackson has sold the tech assets and name of his effects company Weta Digital to Unity Software for a hefty $1.625 billion. This deal doesn’t mean that Weta won’t have an effects division as Jackson’s company will stay separate from the deal and has been renamed/rebranded as WetaFX.

Unity’s acquired company, the tech assets of Weta, will be titled Weta Digital, while Peter Jackson’s Weta visual effects business will remain separate under the banner of WetaFX.

On the tech side, with this transaction Unity acquires Weta’s 275 engineers and proprietary technology including Weta’s cloud service and tools including Manuka and Gazebo renderers, Barbershop hair and fur system, Loki physics-based simulation tool for water and smoke; and facial capture technology.

Weta Digital, now called WetaFX, has been a pioneer of digital effects alongside fellow VFX house Industrial Light & Magic. They’re known for working on films such as The Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit, King Kong, multiple pics in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and DCEU.

It’s nice to know that Weta’s effects division will continue under Jackson’s oversight and won’t stop doing visual effects for films/television, something that might have confused fans that maybe only read headlines about the deal.

Below is the original press release.

Unity (NYSE: U), the world’s leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D (RT3D) content, announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Weta Digital’s tools, pipeline, technology, and engineering talent. Ultimately, this acquisition is designed to put Weta’s incredibly exclusive and sophisticated visual effects (VFX) tools into the hands of millions of creators and artists around the world, and once integrated onto the Unity platform, enable the next generation of RT3D creativity and shape the future of the metaverse.


Weta Digital will join Unity’s Create Solutions focused on the continual evolution of Weta Digital’s dozens of proprietary graphics and VFX tools, such as Manuka, Lumberjack, Loki, Squid, Barbershop, HighDef, CityBuilder, and many more. In the future, with Unity’s deep expertise in real-time, these world-class artist tools will be available to creators through an accessible cloud-based workflow.

Weta Digital’s Academy Award-Winning VFX teams will continue to exist as a standalone entity known as WetaFX and is expected to become Unity’s largest customer in the Media and Entertainment space. WetaFX will still be under majority ownership by Sir Peter Jackson and helmed by CEO Prem Akkaraju.

SOURCE: WETA

Posted on in Film News, News

Legendary Entertainment Reportedly Exploring Sale/Merger; Behind ‘Dune’ & ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’

After reports of Apple inquiring a potential purchase of A24 and Amazon picking up MGM Studios for a hefty $8.45 billion, it looks like another major production studio might end up on the auction block. Variety is reporting that Legendary Entertainment could be looking to be sold or merge with another company,. This comes after Bloomberg revealed that Legendary was working with investment bank LionTree LLC to develop possible deals.

Any deal would likely be for less than than the $3.5 billion that Dalian Wanda paid to acquire Legendary in 2016 from founder Thomas Tull, because that pact included the assumption of substantial debt. 

Legendary is behind recent releases such as Godzilla vs. Kong and the upcoming sci-fi epic Dune from director Denis Villeneuve. In the past, the company has had distribution deals with Universal Pictures and Warner Bros., however, there have been tension with the partnering companies over the years. There were multiple reports that Legendary was on the cusp of suing WarnerMedia over blocking a deal to offload Godzilla vs. Kong at Netflix for around $200 million. Instead, WarnerMedia with little notice announced plans to add Godzilla vs. Kong and Dune to their big day-and-date slate, that would the two pricey films dropped on HBO Max at the same time as theaters.

A sale could essentially dissolve distribution deals, meaning that future Dune and Monsterverse (pending Toho extending their rights deal) franchise installments could find a new home depending if there is a sale or merger on the horizon. That is unless WarnerMedia believes they want to acquire Legendary.

There a bunch of projects still in development including Dune: Part Two and a handful of Monsterverse movies such as the rumored Son of Kong from director Adam Wingard. It remains to be seen what this could mean for those films and other various things being worked on behind the scenes.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Crosses $400M At Global Box Office – Will Legendary Announce More MonsterVerse Films?

While the massive MonsterVerse flick Godzilla Vs. Kong hasn’t crossed $100 million domestically, this weekend saw the Legendary event pic hit $406.5 million at the global box office, according to numbers via Box Office Mojo.

Some outlets have stated that $160-200 million budgeted project needed to reach $400+ million to turn a profit. That creative math that still puzzles me as similar budgeted movies in the past had to earn a lot more money to cover costs. Ultimately, Godzilla Vs. Kong will unlikely surpass the box office of other films in the MonsterVerse such as Kong: Skull Island ($566.6 million) or the first Godzilla ($524.9 million).

Normally, Legendary has upcoming MonsterVerse installments in the works when the movies are released and tease those projects, but at this time we don’t know if we’ll be getting more movies. There was a cryptic video thanking fans posted by Legendary that felt more like a goodbye message than “we have more movies coming.”

At one time, there had been chatter of a Mothra movie and the end of Godzilla Vs. Kong leaves the door open for a Kong sequel taking place in Hollow Earth. We’ll have to wait for Legendary to announce plans for future MonsterVerse movies or that they’re winding things down.

SOURCE: BOX OFFICE MOJO

Posted on in Film News

‘King Kong’ & ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Actor Thomas Kretschmann Joins ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Cast

Following announcements that Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen would be joining Harrison Ford in James Mangold’s untitled Indiana Jones 5, another cast member had been added according to a report from The Wrap.

They’ve revealed that German character actor Thomas Krestschmann has taken a role. Thomas is likely known for his roles in Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Blade II, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Westworld, Wanted, Downfall, and Valkyrie.

Indiana Jones 5 is set for release on July 29,2022.

SOURCE: THE WRAP

Posted on in Film News

Guillermo del Toro Hopeful For ‘Pacific Rim’ & ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Crossover – “Perhaps, One Day They Can Rumble”

While Legendary is about release their big Monsterverse crossover Godzilla vs. Kong, director Guillermo del Toro is on Twitter responding to fans with the hope that at some point his Pacific Rim universe could “rumble” with the Monsterverse in a crossover of it’s own.

DEL TORO: “I personally love seeing the Neon, Sea battles, building demolition, etc because secretly -maybe- the PAC RIM Universe co-exists in the LEGENDARY Kaijuverse and, perhaps, one day they can rumble!”

Pacific Rim: Uprising didn’t do the kind of business that had been expected and given the two films have their other mythology with kaiju (titans in the Monsterverse) being sent to Earth by aliens. Adding aliens to the Monsterverse could one way to continue the franchise beyond the next installment. However, they might have to do a soft-reboot to make it fit for a crossover. Similar to how Kong: Skull Island was Legendary’s soft-reboot of King Kong to become a direct entry point into the established universe of Godzilla.

You can’t watch the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer without noticing the visual cues from del Toro’s neon-filled Pacific Rim. They’re also seemingly teasing robots with the possible inclusion of Mechagodzilla in the new film.

GODZILLA VS. KONG – Legends collide in Godzilla vs. Kong as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home, and with them is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But they unexpectedly find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, cutting a swath of destruction across the globe. The epic clash between the two titans—instigated by unseen forces—is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth. 

SOURCE: GUILLERMO DEL TORO

Posted on in Film News

‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ Trailer Teases Mechagodzilla – Pulls In 21M+ Views

It seems like people have been starving for a new blockbuster trailer, Legendary’s latest entry in the Monsterverse, Godzilla vs. Kong, has feed that need becoming quite the online hit because of the lack of big trailer releases over the last couple of months. 

How big of a hit?

Within the first 20 hours, the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer saw an impressive 13 million views from the Warner Bros. YouTube channel and then another 8 million from various official Twitter accounts connected to the film (HBO Max, Legendary, and Godzilla vs. Kong) that posted the trailer. 

I have to say the visual effects on display here are a huge improvement from the previous two Godzilla movies where the filmmakers and effects department made the shots so dark you couldn’t even figure out what was going on, which sort of makes these expensive VFX (kind of the point of the whole film) useless if they’re obscured too much by poor lighting or muddy textures on the creatures. So, a big thumbs up from me for that.

There is also a huge tease towards the inclusion of Mechagodzilla, a giant robotic version of the King of Monsters seen in the screenshot below. 

The film will be released in theaters and HBO Max (for a month) on March 26th. 

GODZILLA VS. KONG – Legends collide in Godzilla vs. Kong as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle for the ages, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home, and with them is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But they unexpectedly find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, cutting a swath of destruction across the globe. The epic clash between the two titans—instigated by unseen forces—is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth. 

The film stars Alexander Skarsgård (“Big Little Lies,” “The Little Drummer Girl”), Millie Bobby Brown (“Stranger Things”), Rebecca Hall (“Christine,” “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Joker,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”), Shun Oguri (“Weathering with You”), Eiza González (“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw”), Julian Dennison (“Deadpool 2”), with Kyle Chandler (“Godzilla: King of the Monsters”) and Demián Bichir (“The Nun,” “The Hateful Eight”).