Digital Domain has hired a trio of top senior execs from Industrial Light & Magic as it attempts to re-emerge as a vfx powerhouse. Mark Miller, a 22-year vet of ILM, most recently vp and senior exec in charge of production and marketing, has been named president of Digital Domain, reporting to ceo Carl Stork. Cliff Plumer will retain his cto title at Digital Domain and will lead the company’s planned expansion of its technological resources and in the convergence of film and videogames. Kim Libreri, a vfx supervisor at ILM (POSEIDON), will join Digital Domain as vp, advanced strategy. He was the architect behind ESC Ent. and a key force behind all three MATRIX movies.

"Mark, Cliff and Kim have distinguished careers in the visual effects industry and we are delighted that they share Digital Domain's vision and will join forces with our talented artists and technologists," said Stork. "Whether it's developing photorealistic computer-generated humans or exploring digital technology pipelines capable of producing commercials, videogames and feature films, Mark, Cliff and Kim will play key roles in ensuring Digital Domain's industry leadership for many years to come.

"We believe our photorealistic computer-generated technology, with the assistance of Mark, Cliff and Kim, will revolutionize the entertainment industry and will change the way we think about live-action and will even allow directors to bring back personalities of the past to `perform' new material.”

John Textor, Digital Domain co-chairman, noted that as well as being a testament to Digital Domain's leadership position in the industry, the addition of the three executives will help the company execute on the growth strategy laid out when Textor and his partners acquired Digital Domain earlier this year.

"When we acquired the company earlier this year, we clearly communicated our goal to build on the company's continuing success in the creation of visual effects in both feature films and commercials, while also establishing a first-of-its-kind digital production studio for the world's leading filmmakers. The addition of these three distinguished industry leaders will have a profoundly positive impact on these efforts," Textor said. "The talented team at Digital Domain is now well positioned to take advantage of rapidly evolving digital visual effects technologies and games technologies to allow the most forward-thinking filmmakers to tell even more compelling and visually stunning stories in the future."

"ILM has been a true pioneer in visual effects and really the best place for us to have established ourselves within this industry. Cliff, Kim and I had the pleasure to work with great people in an environment that was responsible for the creation of so many visual effects standards and breakthroughs," Miller said. "Since its founding, Digital Domain has also remained at the forefront of the visual special effects business and, for us, represents an opportunity to try some new things in an entrepreneurial environment that will contribute greatly to the continued innovation of our craft while continuing to be focused on the needs of filmmakers. Digital Domain has a team with a reputation for high quality, cutting-edge work and the ability to deliver stunning visual imagery through commercials and feature films. We're all pleased to be joining Digital Domain at the beginning of what we believe will be an exciting growth phase for the company, especially given the new technology in the pipeline, as well as for the visual effects industry. Our vision is to help directors and artists bring creativity to life on screens of all sizes."

Miller, Plumer and Libreri will join Digital Domain's executive leadership team alongside Stork, Ed Ulbrich, who heads the company's industry leading advertising business unit and oversees select feature films and alternative media projects, and Jeff Stringer, who leads the digital studio group.