A magical celebration

A final trailer dropped to celebrate the global release of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, which is on big screens worldwide right now. Featuring some magical VFX from our LDN, MTL and MUM teams, led by overall VFX Supe Christian Manz, we solemnly swear it’s not to be missed.

Paw-fection

Downton Abbey treated us to a practically paw-fect new poster for the sequel A New Era, which makes its cinematic debut from April 29 in the UK and May 20 globally.

Welcome to a new ride

Congratulations to the Rides team on the opening of Jumanji: The Adventure at Italy’s Gardaland last weekend! The ride is the first of several planned Jumanji-themed attractions at Merlin theme parks worldwide.

Press

British Arrows

In conversation with… Mike McGee and Steph Bruning! The two caught up with the British Arrows last week to chat about how we adapted to a flexible working pattern and what exciting projects we have in store. Read the full piece here.

Staff Awards

The Staff Award polls are still OPEN. Please take some time to consider who would make worthy winners this quarter. As usual, go to the Intranet to cast your x3 votes (note that those who have received an award in the last twelve months are ineligible this time around). The polls will close on Monday 18th April and remember that you must be on the network or VPN to vote: http://staffawards/#/vote.

[FRAMED]

Meet Benoit Lefebvre, Head of Layout (MTL) who is a certified dad jokes expert, guilty of eating too much sugar (we know the struggle) and loves to climb.

In other news

Roar-some work

NY VFX Supe Thomas Montminy Brodeur spoke to the students of VFX school Gnomon as part of their special guest series. In addition to sharing his experience and insights into rising through the ranks of the VFX industry, he also gave students an insiders look into one of the team’s most recent projects – creating a menacing, photo real tiger for the FX show, Snowfall.

Les bêtes fantastiques

We’re late to the table with this news, but the MTL team who worked on Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore attended a special cast and crew screening of the film on April 2 at the Scotia Bank Theatre. Bet those manticores looked incredible up there on the big screen!

Brews and bites

Last week, our LA team met up at the Santa Monica Brew Works Brewery for a get together. This looks like so much fun and we hope you all had a memorable evening!

That’s it for this week! Remember that some of our offices will be closed for Good Friday and Easter Monday. We wish everyone a lovely break and a Happy New Year to our colleagues in Mumbai!