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LOOK Effects Produces VFX for Wes Anderson’s ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’

In the company’s fifth collaboration with the director, LOOK Effects completes VFX for Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel.

LOS ANGELES -- LOOK Effects produced visual effects for Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which opens today in the U.S. This film is the fifth film in which LOOK has collaborated with the brilliant director.

This latest film from the iconic director of Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel features Ralph Fiennes as Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars; and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting; a raging battle for an enormous family fortune; a desperate chase on motorcycles, trains, sleds, and skis; and the sweetest confection of a love affair -- all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent. The film also stars F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson and Owen Wilson.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is an American Empirical Pictures and Indian Paintbrush production and a co-production of Germany's Studio Babelsberg, which acted as the executive production company. Principal photography took place in Germany. Visual effects were produced by LOOK’s Stuttgart location. LOOK was instrumental in helping secure substantial funding for the film with a regional film-funding grant from Baden-Württemberg’s MFG.

“As always, when working with Wes, the effects work needed to be invisible,” explains Visual Effects Supervisor Gabriel Sanchez, “As in his previous films, he made extensive use of miniatures, which needed to seamlessly fit into the set design and look of the invented universe of the film. This was a challenge for us, but we were really glad to be able to contribute to this film and Wes’ vision.”

LOOK has worked with Mr. Anderson on four previous films: Moonrise Kingdom, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Life Aquatic and The Darjeerling Limited.

For over 16 years, LOOK Effects has been a leading provider of digital-effects solutions for feature film, episodic television and special venue projects. With operations in Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver and Stuttgart, Germany, LOOK offers a knowledgeable and resourceful approach in partnering with their clients to supervise and produce visual effects. In all four locations LOOK provides ideas and options for digital effects design, on-set supervision, set-extension creation, 3D animation and complex compositing that dovetail smoothly into production schedules. This combined experience and expertise has earned LOOK a high level of trust and an impressive list of clients and credits. LOOK’s effects for Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan were nominated for both VES and BAFTA awards for visual effects. Their other film credits include: Noah, Sabotage, Draft Day, Warm Bodies, Life of Pi, Moonrise Kingdom, Alex Cross, The Muppets, Underworld Awakening, Captain America, Limitless, and The King’s Speech. Television credits include: “Bones,” “Game of Thrones,” “Nashville,” “Castle,” “The Finder,” the Emmy-nominated effects for “Life After People” and all of the VES-nominated effects for the final season of “Lost.” 

Source: LOOK Effects

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.