John Kilkenny John Charles Kilkenny ( born ) is a and film producer who produced Blue Sky / VIFX ' s effects , contracted by Paramount Pictures in for . His is currently the Executive Vice President head of Twentieth Century Fox , where he is the head of the studio ' s visual effects department . Career . John Kilkenny attended the University of Arizona in the 1980s , studying radio / television and graduating in 1985 . During his time at the university , he interned at the NBC affiliate in Tucson , and was a sports producer at the local ABC station . In addition , he headed the Association of Students concert division , booking concerts headlined by superstars like Huey Lewis and the News , Barry Manilow , Kenny Rogers , and Hall and Oats . In recognition of his later contributions to the motion picture industry , he was awarded in May 2009 with an honorary doctorate by his alma mater . He began his career in the motion picture industry as an assistant director on the late 1980s independent films " Dance of the Damned " ( starring Cyril O ' Reilly ) and " Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II " ( featuring Sid Haig ) . He later produced the visual effects for ' s short film " Ghosts " , on which Mike Smithson was Jackson ' s make - up artist . While working with Paramount , Kilkenny produced Digital Domain ' s visual effects for the 1997 Paramount films " Conspiracy Theory " ( starring Patrick Stewart ) and the multi Academy Award - winning " Titanic " ( starring David Warner ) , before moving over to Blue Sky / VIFX for " Insurrection " . Afterwards , following a brief stint with Buena Vista Pictures to produce the visual effects for the 2000 film " Gone in Sixty Seconds " , Kilkenny began working at Twentieth Century Fox . At Fox , Kilkenny was the visual effects producer for the such films as " Dr . Dolittle " , " The First $ 20 Million Is Always the Hardest " , " Daredevil " , " Garfield " , and " I , Robot " . He was also an associate producer on the latter two films . " Daredevil " featured performances by Erick Avari and Leland Orser , while the cast of " I , Robot " included James Cromwell and Bruce Greenwood . The visual effects he produced for " I , Robot " , were nominated for an Academy Award ( although he did not officially share the nomination ) . After " I , Robot " , Kilkenny was promoted into the executive ranks of the studio as the president of its visual effects department . In this new function ( usually uncredited , as is currently commonplace for studio executives and therefore missing out on any award nominations ) , his more recent projects for Fox in the time period 2005 - 2010 , included " Night at the Museum " , " Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer " , and " Live Free or Die Hard " ( featuring Tim Russ ) . He has headed the visual effects department on ' s 2009 science fiction film ( starring Zoe Saldana ) , and which is the one that has virtually broken every record in the book , in a very large part due to the visual effects ; it is by a huge margin as of 2016 still holding the absolute record of US $ 2 . 8 billion worldwide gross box - office take , a record previously held by Cameron ' s other blockbuster , " Titanic " .