In the footsteps of all the past ground-breaking projects from Weta down in Wellington and Miramar, the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern recently opened the new facility with a project reveal for Weta Workshop’s gaming arm, Weta Gameshop.
Wellington New Zealand is home to Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, production facilities for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit franchise, AVATAR and Alita: Battle Angel, due for release later this year.
Joined by the co-founder of Weta Workshop Sir Richard Taylor and Game director Greg Broadmore, the PM spoke of the immense new possibilities of the technologies. “This is absolutely the next step forward for the globe. The fact that this workshop in Wellington is at the cutting edge of that is something we should all be really proud of,” the PM said, as also the Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister.
“I think the impact of this technology will be huge, and it’s very exciting that New Zealand is a part of that.”
Weta Gameshop executive producer Hayley Gray said the technology was being developed by US technology firm Magic Leap while fifty artists and engineers in Wellington worked on Dr. G: Invaders, which is based on Broadmore’s science-fiction comic book, Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders.
The announcement is topically interesting, close to the imminent yet unrelated release of Steven Spielberg’s latest movie, Ready Player One, which depicts a world full of virtual reality adventures and entertainment possibilities.
VFX SCIENCE 