Prime Focus World (PFW), the creative services division of Prime Focus and Academy Award winning VFX house Double Negative (Dneg) have announced the next phase of the companies’ expansion plans – the building of a brand new, world-class VFX facility in Mumbai.
Located in Mumbai’s Film City, the centre of the Indian film industry, the new studio will be built to the same exacting standards as Dneg’s facilities in London, Vancouver and Singapore, with particular emphasis on providing the very best working environment for artists.
Dneg’s technical infrastructure, tools and pipeline will be rolled out to the new facility as part of the build, mirroring Dneg’s other international locations.
Recruitment roadshows are being planned throughout India and key international locations to attract the very best VFX talent across all levels of experience to work exclusively on Dneg VFX projects. Movies already slated for work in Mumbai include ‘The Huntsman’ for Universal starring Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt, and ‘Inferno’, Ron Howard’s latest movie based on the Dan Brown novel, with many more projects in the pipeline.
In addition to being a world-class VFX facility, the new studio will also offer rigorous training programmes for staff with the intention of creating Asia’s leading ‘VFX Campus’, complete with specifically-built classrooms and training areas, and offering Dneg’s industry renowned training programmes.
“Prime Focus is the undisputed industry leader in India and knows the market, the culture and the landscape better than any other company,” said Double negative, CEO, Matt Holben. “This collaboration plays to the strengths of both companies, the intention being to create a world-class VFX facility that can proudly sit alongside the rest of Dneg’s global network.”
“This is another great step forward for Prime Focus World and Double Negative,” said Prime Focus, founder, executive chairman and global CEO Namit Malhotra. “Prime Focus is committed to supporting Dneg in achieving its vision of becoming a truly global company in the high-end film industry, and this new state-of-the-art facility will help them to remain creative and competitive across all of their locations, and to continue producing award-winning visual effects work that is second-to-none.”
Dneg and PFW have recently collaborated on a number of shows, providing VFX and stereo conversion services on projects such as ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ (Marvel Studios / Walt Disney), ‘Terminator: Genisys’ (Paramount Pictures) and ‘Ant-Man’ (Marvel Studios / Walt Disney). Upcoming projects include ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ (Warner Bros.), ‘Insurgent’ (Summit), ‘Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass’ (Walt Disney), ‘Tarzan’ (Warner Bros.), ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (Warner Bros.) and ‘Spectre’ (Sony Pictures).
