Based in Wellington, New Zealand; WETA
is the brainchild of The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. Established in 1993 for the movie Heavenly Creatures, the company specializes in CG for giant apes and alien worlds with blue people, as well as practical effects, props and recently, statues based upon Doctor Who.
In November 2021, the people behind Unity would purchase the company, rebranding it to WetaFX.
Not to be confused with the Washington, D.C. PBS station.
Projects WETA has worked on:
- 30 Days of Night
- The A-Team
- The Adventures of Tintin
- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
- Alita: Battle Angel
- Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
- Avatar
- The BFG
- Blade Runner 2049
- Bridge to Terabithia
- BrainDeadnote
- Central Intelligence
- Chappie
- Cocaine Bear
- Contact
- The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)
- Daybreakers
- DC Extended Universe
- Deadpool
- The Disney Vanity Plate since 2006.
- District 9 (Mothership and weapons only, the aliens were handled by Vancouver-based company Image Engine)note
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Elysium
- Enchanted
- Eragon
- Fantastic Four (2015)
- Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
- The Frighteners
- Furious 7
- Game of Thrones (Seasons 7 & 8)
- Ghost in the Shell (2017)
- Girls und Panzer (Cooperation for the movie)
- MonsterVerse:
- Godzilla (2014)
- Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
- Grey Goo
- Gullivers Travels (2010)
- Heavenly Creatures
- Heavenly Sword
- Hellboy (2004)
- Hercules (2014)
- The Host (2006) (Creature design, CG provided by defunct ILM offshoot The Orphanage)
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
- Hunt for the Wilderpeople
- I, Robot
- Independence Day: Resurgence
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Jackass (Motion capture for the tie-in video game)
- Jane and the Dragon (Co-production with Nelvana)
- John Carter
- Jumper
- The Jungle Book (2016)
- Justice League (2017)
- King Kong (2005)
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Knight and Day
- Krampus
- The Last of Us (2023)
- The Lord of the Rings: The franchise where everyone sat up and took notice of them.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
- The Lovely Bones
- M3GAN
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- The Maze Runner Series:
- Meet the Feeblesnote
- Mortal Engines
- The Muppet Shownote
- Night at the Museum
- Pete's Dragon
- Power Rangers (2017)
- Predators
- Prometheus
- Rampage
- Rebel Moon
- Red Cliff (Film Recording)
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- Spectral
- Team Fortress 2note
- Thunderbirds Are Go (Miniatures, with CGCG Inc)
- The Tomorrow War
- Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
- Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
- Van Helsing
- The Umbrella Academy
- Warcraft
- The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
- The WotWots!
- X-Men Film Series:
- Young Hercules
Tropes Associated with WETA:
- Development Hell: The Neon Genesis Evangelion movie WETA were to co-produce with Studio Gainax and ADV Films falls right into this.
- Improvisational Ingenuity: How WETA first originated. Starting life out as a small, home-based operation with it's practical effects achieved on a shoestring budget through trial and error and no small amount of MacGyvering.
- Live-Action Adaptation: Lord of The Rings and Bridge to Terabithia. Evangelion and Halo were also meant to have these as well.
- Meaningful Name/Theme Naming: They're named after a bug native to New Zealand (which is where they're located).
- Serkis Folk: Many of their films feature motion-capture characters, ranging from the robots in I, Robot through the Na'vi in Avatar to the orcs in Warcraft. King Kong, Gollum and Caesar were all played by the Trope Namer, Andy Serkis himself.
- Starring Special Effects: All of their movies.
- What Could Have Been: The Halo movie. What was left of the budget was put into District 9.
