# Wētā FX

Wētā FX, formerly known as Weta Digital, is a New Zealand–based digital visual effects and computer animation company based in Miramar, Wellington. It was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital visual effects for Heavenly Creatures. The company went on to produce some of the highest-grossing films ever made, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Avatar series. Considered one of the most influential film companies of the 21st century, Wētā FX has won several Academy Awards and BAFTA Awards. The company is named after the New Zealand wētā, one of the world's largest insects, which was historically featured in the company logo.

## History

The company was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital visual effects for the film Heavenly Creatures. As of 2025, Wētā FX has won eight Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), King Kong (2005), Bridge to Terabithia (2007), Avatar (2009), The Jungle Book (2016), and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).
The studio has developed several proprietary software packages to achieve groundbreaking visual effects. The scale of the battles required for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy led to the creation of MASSIVE, a program which can animate huge numbers of agents: independent characters acting according to pre-set rules.
To recreate 1933 New York for King Kong, the company created CityBot, an application which could "build" the city on a shot by shot basis. Kong's fur also required the development of new simulation and modeling software. A set of tools that combined procedural and interactive techniques added wind to the five million individual strands of fur and modeled interaction with other surfaces. New shaders were written that accounted for the scattering of light from within each hair that added to the volumetric quality of the fur. Large chunks of fur were ripped out and filled in with scars, blood, and the mud of Skull Island. Each frame of fur took two gigabytes of data.
For James Cameron's Avatar, Weta Digital modified MASSIVE to give life to the flora and fauna on Pandora, for which the company did most of the visual effects with Joe Letteri, under a team led by executive and producer Eileen Moran. The film is regarded as a landmark for visual effects. By 2017, Weta Digital had started visual effects development for the sequels.
In 2010, a texture painting application developed by the studio for Avatar called Mari has been bought by The Foundry Visionmongers. For The Adventures of Tintin and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the studio developed a new grooming system called Barbershop where users can interactively manipulate digital hair. This tool received a Sci-tech award in 2015. The Adventures of Tintin was Weta Digital's first fully animated feature film.
For Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011, the company was able to develop their motion capture technique to be able to leave the studio for shooting on location. The motion capture technology would be improved in the 2014 sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. This was further refined in War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017.
On June 19, 2020, Weta Digital announced that it would be producing original animation content under the name Weta Animated. The company also announced a new chief executive Prem Akkaraju, who comes from Los Angeles. In September 2020, Weta was able to secure a multi-year deal with Amazon Web Services to use the Amazon cloud to forward its VFX and computer animation production.
In December 2020, Weta Digital CEO Prem Akkaraju announced additional board members including Tom Staggs, Jeff Huber and Ken Kamins. They join current board members Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Sean Parker and Joe Letteri.
On June 17, 2021, Weta Digital announced they have partnered with Autodesk to productize Weta's proprietary tools based in Autodesk Maya for a cloud service called WetaM. It will first be released in Q4 as a private beta.
On August 23, 2021, Weta Digital announced a collaboration with SideFX for a cloud service combining the studio's proprietary tools within SideFX's Houdini called WetaH.
On November 9, 2021, Jackson sold the company's VFX tools development division to video games software company Unity Technologies for US$1.625 billion. Unity's acquired tech assets of Weta will be called Weta Digital, while the visual effects company remained separate and renamed as Wētā FX. The acquisition was completed in December 2021. In April 2022, Wētā FX opened a new studio in Vancouver. It is the company's first dedicated VFX and animation studio outside New Zealand.
For Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022, Wētā worked on 3,240 visual effects shots, 2,225 of which involved water. The studio developed new motion capture technology for the film's underwater sequences. The digital water in the film was created by artists using Wētā's latest Loki simulation software. Wētā also refined their Facial Action Coding System (FACS) from Alita: Battle Angel for its use in Avatar: The Way of Water. The company eventually ended up rendering close to 3.3 billion thread hours. Letteri won his fifth Academy Award for his work on the film.
On November 25, 2023, Unity and Wētā FX mutually agreed to terminate Unity’s service agreement with Wētā FX effective December 10, 2023; this comes after Unity laying off the entire Wētā Digital staff in a "company reset". Unity will continue to own the software from the Wētā Digital acquisition (with Wētā FX being able to continue using them), but the Wētā Digital name and related intellectual property will be transferred back to Wētā FX with no current plans to use the old Wētā Digital name. Wētā FX will be extending offers to as many of the Digital team as possible "as it looks to expand its research, development and support functions".

## Workplace culture

An investigation into Wētā's workplace culture by Kiwi public TV broadcaster 1News, begun in June 2020 following a social media post by former Wētā Workshop employee Layna Lazar, resulted in more than 40 current and former Weta Digital employees anonymously sharing accounts of "sexism, bullying and harassment" in September 2020.
In their testimonies, workers identified the existence of a male-only pornographic mailing list called "Caveman", which originated in 2002 following a company-wide tradition known as Porn Friday, and continued to circulate until 2015. Several reports also alleged that the company's IT systems required upgrades in order to accommodate the volume of pornographic content hosted on the company intranet, in addition to numerous allegations of sexual harassment, bullying, intimidation, misogyny and homophobia.
In response to these allegations, Wētā owners, including Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and chief executive officer Prem Akkaraju, commissioned an independent review from barrister Miriam Dean, who stated in her report that she received 80 complaints of bullying behavior, 120 complaints of inappropriate conduct and 19 complaints of sexual harassment from amongst the company's 1,500 employees.
Dean put forward 17 recommendations for internal reform, including the establishment of a code of conduct, restricting the executive team, expanding the diversity and inclusion program, and reviewing the company's pay structure. Her review also stated that the existing management systems were not sufficient to protect workers "from bullying, sexual harassment, sex discrimination and other inappropriate conduct".

## Films
### 1990s

| Year | Films | Studio(s) and Distributor(s) |
| 1994 | Heavenly Creatures | Miramax Films |
| 1995 | Forgotten Silver | TBC |
| 1996 | The Frighteners | Universal Pictures |
| 1997 | Contact | Warner Bros. |

### 2000s

| Year | Films | Studio(s) and Distributor(s) |
| 2001 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | New Line Cinema |
| 2002 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | New Line Cinema |
| 2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | New Line Cinema |
| 2004 | Van Helsing | Universal Studios |
| 2004 | I, Robot | 20th Century Fox |
| 2005 | King Kong | Universal Studios |
| 2006 | X-Men: The Last Stand | 20th Century Fox |
| 2006 | Eragon | 20th Century Fox |
| 2007 | Bridge to Terabithia | Walt Disney Pictures |
| 2007 | Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer | 20th Century Fox |
| 2007 | Enchanted | Walt Disney Pictures |
| 2007 | The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep | Columbia Pictures |
| 2007 | 30 Days of Night | Columbia Pictures |
| 2008 | Jumper | 20th Century Fox |
| 2008 | The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2008 | The Day the Earth Stood Still | 20th Century Fox |
| 2009 | District 9 | TriStar Pictures |
| 2009 | The Lovely Bones | Paramount Pictures DreamWorks Pictures |
| 2009 | Avatar | 20th Century Fox |

### 2010s

| Year | Films | Studio(s) and Distributor(s) |
| 2010 | The A-Team | 20th Century Fox |
| 2010 | Knight and Day | 20th Century Fox |
| 2010 | Predators | 20th Century Fox |
| 2010 | Gulliver's Travels | 20th Century Fox |
| 2011 | X-Men: First Class | 20th Century Fox |
| 2011 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes | 20th Century Fox |
| 2011 | The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn | Paramount Pictures |
| 2012 | The Avengers | Walt Disney Studios Paramount Pictures |
| 2012 | Prometheus | 20th Century Fox |
| 2012 | Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter | 20th Century Fox |
| 2012 | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | Warner Bros. |
| 2013 | Iron Man 3 | Walt Disney Studios Paramount Pictures |
| 2013 | Man of Steel | Warner Bros. |
| 2013 | The Wolverine | 20th Century Fox |
| 2013 | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | Lionsgate |
| 2013 | The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug | Warner Bros. |
| 2014 | Godzilla | Warner Bros. |
| 2014 | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | 20th Century Fox |
| 2014 | The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies | Warner Bros. |
| 2014 | What We Do in the Shadows | Paramount Pictures |
| 2015 | Furious 7 | Universal Studios |
| 2015 | Fantastic Four | 20th Century Fox |
| 2015 | Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials | 20th Century Fox |
| 2015 | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 | Lionsgate |
| 2015 | Krampus | Universal Studios |
| 2015 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip | 20th Century Fox |
| 2016 | Deadpool | 20th Century Fox |
| 2016 | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | Warner Bros. |
| 2016 | The Jungle Book | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2016 | Central Intelligence | Warner Bros. Universal Studios |
| 2016 | Independence Day: Resurgence | 20th Century Fox |
| 2016 | Hunt for the Wilderpeople | Madman Entertainment |
| 2016 | The BFG | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2016 | Pete's Dragon | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2017 | Spectral | Netflix |
| 2017 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2017 | Avatar Flight of Passage | Disney Parks |
| 2017 | Wonder Woman | Warner Bros. |
| 2017 | War for the Planet of the Apes | 20th Century Fox |
| 2017 | Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | EuropaCorp Distribution Lionsgate |
| 2017 | Justice League | Warner Bros. |
| 2018 | Maze Runner: The Death Cure | 20th Century Fox |
| 2018 | Rampage | Warner Bros. |
| 2018 | Avengers: Infinity War | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2018 | Deadpool 2 | 20th Century Fox |
| 2018 | Animal World | Enlight Pictures |
| 2018 | Aquaman | Warner Bros. |
| 2018 | Mortal Engines | Universal Studios |
| 2019 | Alita: Battle Angel | 20th Century Fox |
| 2019 | Avengers: Endgame | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2019 | Annabelle Comes Home | Warner Bros. |
| 2019 | Ad Astra | 20th Century Fox (under Walt Disney Studios) |
| 2019 | Gemini Man | Paramount Pictures |
| 2019 | Terminator: Dark Fate | 20th Century Fox Paramount Pictures |
| 2019 | Lady and the Tramp | Walt Disney Studios Disney+ |
| 2019 | Jumanji: The Next Level | Columbia Pictures |

### 2020s

| Year | Films | Studio(s) and Distributor(s) |
| 2020 | Birds of Prey | Warner Bros. |
| 2020 | Mulan | Walt Disney Studios Disney+ |
| 2020 | Shadow in the Cloud | Rertical Entertainment Redbox Entertainment |
| 2020 | The Christmas Chronicles 2 | Netflix |
| 2020 | We Can Be Heroes | Netflix |
| 2021 | Zack Snyder's Justice League | Warner Bros. |
| 2021 | Godzilla vs. Kong | Warner Bros. |
| 2021 | Black Widow | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2021 | The Tomorrow War | Amazon Studios Paramount Pictures |
| 2021 | Jungle Cruise | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2021 | The Green Knight | A24 |
| 2021 | The Suicide Squad | Warner Bros. |
| 2021 | Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2021 | Eternals | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2021 | The King's Man | 20th Century Studios |
| 2022 | Kimi | Warner Bros. |
| 2022 | No Exit | 20th Century Studios |
| 2022 | The Batman | Warner Bros. |
| 2022 | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2022 | Thor: Love and Thunder | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2022 | Black Adam | Warner Bros. |
| 2022 | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2022 | Avatar: The Way of Water | 20th Century Studios |
| 2022 | Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery | Netflix |
| 2023 | Cocaine Bear | Universal Pictures |
| 2023 | Shazam! Fury of the Gods | Warner Bros. |
| 2023 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2023 | The Little Mermaid | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2023 | Transformers: Rise of the Beasts | Paramount Pictures |
| 2023 | The Flash | Warner Bros. |
| 2023 | Nyad | Netflix |
| 2023 | Woaca | Woaca Productions Ltd |
| 2023 | The Creator | 20th Century Studios |
| 2023 | The Marvels | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2023 | Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire | Netflix |
| 2023 | Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| 2024 | The Mountain | Piki Films |
| 2024 | Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| 2024 | Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver | Netflix |
| 2024 | Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes | 20th Century Studios |
| 2024 | Deadpool & Wolverine | Walt Disney Studios |
| 2024 | Alien: Romulus | 20th Century Studios |
| 2024 | Better Man | Paramount Pictures |
| 2024 | Carry-On | Netflix |
| 2025 | Captain America: Brave New World | Walt Disney Studios |

### Upcoming

| Year | Films | Studio(s) and Distributor(s) |
| 2025 | A Minecraft Movie | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| 2025 | Superman | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| 2025 | The Fantastic Four: First Steps | Marvel Studios |
| 2025 | Avatar: Fire and Ash | 20th Century Studios |
| TBA | In the Blink of an Eye | Searchlight Pictures |

## Animation

| Year | Films | Studio(s) and Distributor(s) |
| 2020 | Meerkat | Epic Games |
| 2022 | Overwatch 2: The Wastelander | Blizzard Entertainment |
| 2023 | War Is Over! | ElectroLeague |
| 2024 | The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim | Warner Bros. Pictures |

## Television
### 1990s

| Year | Series | Network |
| 1995 | Tales from the Crypt (Season 6) Episode: "You, Murderer" | HBO |

### 2010s

| Year | Series | Network |
| 2017 | Game of Thrones (Season 7) | HBO |
| 2019 | Game of Thrones (Season 8) | HBO |
| 2019 | The Umbrella Academy (Season 1) | Netflix |

### 2020s

| Year | Series | Network |
| 2020 | Space Force (Season 1) | Netflix |
| 2020 | The Umbrella Academy (Season 2) | Netflix |
| 2020 | The Wilds (Season 1) | Amazon Prime Video |
| 2021 | The Falcon and the Winter Soldier | Disney+ |
| 2021 | Mr. Corman | Apple TV+ |
| 2021 | Invasion (Season 1) | Apple TV+ |
| 2021 | Hawkeye | Disney+ |
| 2022 | Peacemaker | HBO Max |
| 2022 | Moon Knight | Disney+ |
| 2022 | Obi-Wan Kenobi | Disney+ |
| 2022 | She-Hulk: Attorney at Law | Disney+ |
| 2022 | The Umbrella Academy (Season 3) | Netflix |
| 2022 | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season 1) | Amazon Prime Video |
| 2023 | The Last of Us (Season 1) | HBO |
| 2023 | Invasion (Season 2) | Apple TV+ |
| 2023 | Monarch: Legacy of Monsters | Apple TV+ |
| 2024 | Masters of the Air | Apple TV+ |
| 2024 | Ripley | Netflix |
| 2024 | House of the Dragon (Season 2) | HBO |
| 2024 | The Umbrella Academy (Season 4) | Netflix |
| 2025 | The Last of Us (Season 2) | HBO |

### Television films & specials

| Year | Films | Network |
| 2022 | The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special | Disney+ |