ILM Launches TV Unit to Serve Episodic and Streaming Content

By Peter Caranicas

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Industrial Light & Magic is expanding its offerings to the small screen.

The film visual effects and animation house founded in 1975 by George Lucas has launched TV, a unit that will serve the streaming and episodic television market.

The division’s first projects will be “The Mandalorian,” a live-action series based on the Star Wars Universe that’s being developed by Jon Favreau for the forthcoming Disney streaming service; and Superman prequel series “Krypton,” now in its second season, based on DC characters from Warner Horizon Scripted Television for Syfy.

The ILM TV team will be led by visual effects supervisors Hayden Jones and Jonathan Privett alongside executive producers Louise Hussey and Stefan Drury.

Previously, the team set up and oversaw the TV division of DNEG, the London-based visual effects and computer animation house. They won a BAFTA for Special, Visual and Graphic Effects for their work on “Black Mirror” for Channel 4 and Netflix.

ILM TV will be based in ILM’s new 47,000-square-foot London studio and supported by the company’s locations in San Francisco, Vancouver and Singapore.

“It’s not often you get to create a new division at ,” said Rob Bredow, executive creative director and head of ILM, “We are seeing a real convergence in our creative approach used on films and in our immersive entertainment division ILMxLAB, and now we’re proud to be able to offer these ILM innovations in a way that’s suitable for streaming and television work to creatives around the world.”

ILM’s legacy in television dates back to the studio’s work for “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” which brought feature film-like effects to an episodic series for the first time.

“We are extremely excited to be re-igniting ILM’s involvement in this market,” said Jones. “The television and streaming segments have grown exponentially in recent years and we are seeing substantial demand for high caliber visual effects that can be delivered on schedule and within budget.”

ILM is a unit of Lucasfilm Ltd., which is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.

(Pictured above from left: Jonathan Privett, Louise Hussey, Stefan Drury, Hayden Jones)