Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic today announced the expansion of its global operations with the opening of ILM London in the UK, the growth and relocation of ILM Vancouver and the relocation of ILM Singapore to the newly constructed ‘Sandcrawler’ building located in the Fusionopolis business district. Coupled with the new and expanded facilities, the company has hired key talent to staff the offices. ILM president and general manager, Lynwen Brennan, made the announcement.
“We continue to embrace the global opportunities that have come with advances in technology while maintaining a strong operation here in the U.S.,” noted Brennan, “ILM has always prided itself on having the industry’s top creative talent. The difference now is that we can access incredible talent where they live and countries such as Singapore, Canada and the United Kingdom have a great deal to offer.”
Located in Central London, ILM London’s creative team will be led by creative director Ben Morris and animation director Michael Eames. The studio’s director of operations, Sue Lyster will oversee all London-based operations. ILM London will be working with ILM’s existing offices in San Francisco, Singapore and Vancouver on a number of high profile releases at launch including the highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode VII and Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Founded in 2006, ILM Singapore is the company’s second largest studio. Recently relocated to the newly constructed Sandcrawler building the location will also serve as the regional headquarters for Lucasfilm Singapore, The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) and ESPN Asia Pacific. ILM Singapore, under Colin Brown, general manager and former head of the U.K. Film Commission, will continue to work on high profile Hollywood films including the upcoming “Star Wars” films, regional projects and feature animation.
In 2011, ILM established its second international office in Vancouver, British Columbia. Initially planned as a temporary, production-based facility ILM has seen great success both in terms of attracting high-level talent and producing impressive visual effects work.
This success has led to ILM making Vancouver a permanent studio; one that will soon relocate to a larger facility in the historic Gastown section of the city. Randal Shore has joined the studio as supervising producer and will manage day-to-day operations. The new facility will officially open in March and allow the company to accommodate the planned expansion of its Canadian workforce to meet the needs of future projects including Star Wars, World of Warcraft and Tomorrowland. The studio’s current projects include Transformers: Age of Extinction and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
