{"id":676454,"date":"2026-11-06T05:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T05:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/676454\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T05:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T05:40:09","slug":"lord-of-the-rings-avatar-vfx-team-weta-fx-to-back-taiwan-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/676454\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Lord of the Rings,’ ‘Avatar’ VFX Team Weta FX to Back Taiwan Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWeta FX<\/a>, the New Zealand visual effects company behind \u201cThe Lord of the Rings<\/a>\u201d and \u201cAvatar,\u201d is partnering with Taiwanese animation and VFX outfit Moonshine Studio.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe investment is part of a partnership with the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA<\/a>) aimed at making Taiwan an AI hub<\/a> for Asia\u2019s content industries.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeta FX CEO Daniel Seah and TAICCA chair Sue Wang signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday at Taiwan Creative Content Fest<\/a> (TCCF) in Taipei. Taiwan\u2019s Minister of Culture Li Yuan attended the signing. No figure was given for the investment.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeah said the partnership has three parts. The first is the partnership with Moonshine, founded by Lin Chia-chi, which he said had been around six months in the making. The second is a technology platform that will invest in Taiwanese film and TV projects and use Weta FX\u2019s global reach to get them in front of wider audiences.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOn the AI road, nobody is really far, far ahead,\u201d Seah said. \u201cWe all have to venture into this tech-filled AI world together. That\u2019s why, while investing in Taiwan, we\u2019re investing in technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe third part, and the one Seah said he values most, is talent. A program will allow Taiwanese filmmakers, particularly young ones, to come to Weta FX for exchanges and internships, and potentially to work there in future.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeah has spent close to 16 years as a VFX CEO. That includes 14 years running Digital Domain, the company co-founded by James Cameron. He moved to Peter Jackson\u2019s Weta FX nearly two years ago. Li noted that Seah was born in Malaysia and grew up in New Taipei\u2019s Yonghe district before working in China and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeta FX\u2019s staff alone, Seah said, make up around 2% of the population of Wellington, New Zealand\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOver the past 30 years, Weta turned Wellington from a political capital into such an important global production base,\u201d Seah said. \u201cWe think Taiwan has even more of that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWang said Moonshine\u2019s team ranked first among Taiwan\u2019s VFX houses. \u201cEvery time we met the Moonshine team, my only worry was: Can you make money like this? How long can you keep going?\u201d she said. Wang added that the team \u201cdeserves to be put to better use, and seen by more people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWang also thanked Taiwan\u2019s National Development Fund for its support.<\/p>\n

\n\tLi summed up the day in an eight-character Chinese phrase, \u201cDaniel Seah comes home, dreams come true.\u201d The phrase plays on Moonshine\u2019s Chinese name, which means \u201cdream.\u201d He said AI and cultural technology will be among the Ministry of Culture\u2019s priorities for the next four years.<\/p>\n

\n\tLi joined Wang Film Productions at 37 hoping to make original animation, and gave up two to three years later. \u201cI thought maybe this dream would take 20 or 30 years to come true,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect that after waiting so long, I would at least see it come true with my own eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso on hand were TAICCA president Erica Wang and three Weta FX executives: chief technology officer Kimball Thurston, VFX supervisor Sheldon Stopsack and R&D head Andrew Moffat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weta FX, the New Zealand visual effects company behind \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d and \u201cAvatar,\u201d is partnering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,73687,270,286541,286542,86599],"class_list":["post-676454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-movies","tag-taicca","tag-taiwan-creative-content-fest","tag-weta-fx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}