Visual effects and animation house DNEG has unveiled plans for a new studio in Sydney, Australia, with Oscar winner Andrew Jackson (Mad Max: Fury Road) on board as creative director.
In partnership with the New South Wales government, the new VFX and animation facility will open in Pyrmont, Sydney’s technology district, in early 2023, with an expected capacity of 500 artists. DNEG Sydney will kick off with visual effects work on director George Miller’s Mad Max prequel Furiosa, which has started production.
Miller and Doug Mitchell are producing the film that stars Anya Taylor-Joy in the titular role, alongside Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke. Furiosa is a Warner Bros. Pictures production in association with Village Roadshow Pictures and is set for a 2024 release.
The long-gestating project from Miller will be a stand-alone action-adventure feature that acts as an origin story for the powerful character Furiosa, made famous by Charlize Theron in Fury Road. The film will be without the famed Mad Max hero Max Rockatansky.
There’s no word on the plotline for Furiosa, but the VFX work is expected to portray a post-apocalyptic world where characters prevail amid violence, vehicles and gasoline. DNEG is the VFX studio behind box office performers like Inception and Interstellar as it expands its footprint in Australia.
“The opportunity to collaborate and partner with filmmakers of the caliber of George Miller, whose work I love and respect, is the driving force behind everything that we do,” DNEG CEO and chairman Namit Malhotra said in a statement on Wednesday.
Besides Furiosa, DNEG Sydney will produce VFX for film and episodic projects, while also hosting a new studio for DNEG Animation, the animation studio behind Entergalactic for Netflix. Andrew Jackson will relocate from DNEG London to lead DNEG Sydney as creative director.
He was production VFX supervisor for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, and before that received an Oscar nomination for his work on Mad Max: Fury Road. Jackson most recently completed work as production VFX supervisor for Nolan’s upcoming biopic Oppenheimer.
Other DNEG Sydney hires include VFX supervisor Dan Bethell, who joins from Rising Sun Pictures. His credits include Mad Max: Fury Road, Thor: Love and Thunder, Mortal Kombat, Extraction and Spider-Man: Homecoming.