“Star Wars: The Rise of
Skywalker,” the last portion of the space opera franchise’s “Sequel Trilogy,”
as well as the reported final chapter in the film series to focus on the
eponymous family of Jedi who are strong in the Force, is due to premiere in the
last month of this year. Even as fans of the now Disney-owned franchise wait to
find out if the evil Emperor from the Original Trilogy does return as the “Skywalker”
trailer hints, Lucasfilm is finishing up SFX on the movie via its Industrial
Light and Magic arm. On that note ILM is opening a studio in Australia, with “Skywalker”
as its inaugural project.
The Hollywood Reporter tells us that a new visual effects studio
for Industrial Light and Magic will be opened at Sydney, where Fox Studios
Australia is located. Lucasfilm hopes to have the new studio operating before
the years’ end, where the staff once settled in can optimally contribute a
workload on the SFX for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” before its release
this December. It would be the fifth ILM studio in total, after their main headquarters
in San Francisco and other satellite studios in Vancouver, London and
Singapore.
ILM head and executive creative
director Rob Bredow has pegged Syndey as an ideal location for another overseas
studio on account of Australia having plenty of artistic and tech talent that
the company needs. Furthermore, working in the area will allow them to avail of
total tax rebates of up to 40%, both from the Australian federal government and
the State government of New South Wales, where Sydney is located. Bredow hopes
that the Australian workforce they will assemble would help in positively
strengthening the “culture of innovation” in ILM.
Just announced - @ILMVFX to open new studio in Sydney, Australia: https://t.co/CIOmnvW0Wt pic.twitter.com/QwmhDm1IFM— ILM Visual Effects (@ILMVFX) July 15, 2019
While ILM Sydney will be a distinct
studio on its own, Industrial Light and Magic is planning to have it to be
executively managed by Luke Hetherington, current executive at ILM Singapore.
This will entail Hetherington to shuttle between Singapore and Sydney studios
to manage them both. Bredow notes that by the end of 2019 ILM Sydney will have
anywhere from 50 to 100 employees, with room to growth further when the year
2020 comes.
As ILM is one of the leading
visual effects studios in Hollywood, it has other SFX projects beyond that of “Star
Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” They include 20th Century Fox’s “Terminator:
Dark Fate,” Netflix’s “The Irishman” and Disney’s “Jungle Cruise.” All but “Jungle
Cruise” will be premiering this year.
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