‘The Lord of the Rings’ visual effects studios sells for $1.6 billion

“The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson is all set to sell most of his visual effects studio Weta Digital to Unity. The cash-and-stock deal will witness the American platform, which makes development software for video games, acquire Weta Digital’s “tools, pipeline, technology, and engineering talent,” the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.

The deal between Weta Digital and Unity is happening for $1.6 billion.

“This acquisition is designed to put Weta’s incredibly exclusive and sophisticated visual effects tools into the hands of millions of creators and artists around the world,” the statement said.

Weta Digital has six Academy Awards and six BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards under its belt. The firm has built characters and worlds for many movies, including “Avatar”, “Black Widow” and “Lord of the Rings.”

As for Unity, a software development platform, it is famous in the gaming world. Its development software is used by studios to creates hits like “Fall Guys,” “Pokémon Go” and “Call of Duty: Mobile.”

“Together, Unity and Weta Digital can create a pathway for any artist, from any industry, to be able to leverage these incredibly creative and powerful tools,” Jackson said in the statement, CNN reported.

“Offering aspiring creatives access to Weta Digital’s technology will be nothing short of game-changing and Unity is just the company to bring this vision to life,” Jackson further added in a statement.

However, it is to be noted that Weta Digital’s visual effects teams, known as WetaFX, will continue to remain as a standalone entity under Jackson’s majority ownership, the statement added.

The acquisition is expected to close during Unity’s fourth quarter of 2021.

In the statement, the companies added that they intend to shape metaverse’s future. Metaverse was recently introduced by the social networking website Facebook. The Mark Zuckerberg company had last month said that the company would rebrand itself to focus on virtual reality and augmented reality.