Weta Digital Tech Sale has 1.65 Billion Special Effects

Unity Software, a 3D game-development platform, is expanding its VFX footprint in a big way with the US$1.625 billion acquisition of the technology division of Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based Weta Digital, Todd Spangler reports for Variety.

The deal promises to make the tools used to create Gollum for Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, Caesar from The Planet of the Apes and characters and settings from a slew of other movies available to creators all over the world, Spangler writes.

Now the tools the company’s VFX artisans use will become available to creators outside of Hollywood’s confines ¬ which, according to Unity, will ultimately enable the next generation of real-time 3D content for the metaverse.

Jackson said in a statement provided to Variety, “Weta Digital’s tools created unlimited possibilities for us to bring to life the worlds and creatures that originally lived in our imaginations.”

Jackson co-founded Weta in 1993 to produce the digital special effects for his movie Heavenly Creatures.

Original article by Todd Spangler, Variety, November 11, 2021.