Blue Sky Studios, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fox Filmed Entertainment, has entered into a lease to occupy approximately 105,000 square feet of studio space in Greenwich, Connecticut, bringing more than 300 jobs to the region. The company continues to expand and is currently adding staff. The new Studio will be located at The Greenwich American Center, a more than 605,000 square foot facility set on 155 wooded acres in Greenwich.
The opportunity to re-establish the Blue Sky creative staff and crew of approximately 300 people on one contiguous floor, combined with what is one of the most competitive tax programs in the country, made the selection of Connecticut the logical choice for Blue Sky Studios.
Fox Animation president Vanessa Morrison said: “After conducting an extensive search throughout the tri-state region, Blue Sky settled on the Greenwich American Center. The available large and efficient studio space combined with the recently enacted production tax credit program introduced in January of 2007 made Connecticut the most attractive location for our new animation facility.” Under the new program, production companies are eligible for tax credits of up to thirty percent on production expenses or costs incurred within the state.
“We are very excited about the relocation of our studio and with it, the opportunity to conduct all of our operations on a single floor,” said Brian Keane, Blue Sky CFO/COO. Over the course of eight years in its former location, Blue Sky has expanded from one floor to three floors scattered throughout the building. “We’re bringing more than 300 new jobs to the state as we continue to expand our studio in Connecticut.”
ABOUT BLUE SKY STUDIOS
Blue Sky Studios has earned worldwide acclaim as one of the industry’s premier digital animation facilities. In 1998, Blue Sky won an Oscar® for its short film Bunny, which was the first film to use an advanced ambient lighting technology known as radiosity. Blue Sky’s debut feature animation effort was the blockbuster hit Ice Age, released in 2002. Blue Sky’s Robots followed in 2005, becoming another hit for the Company. Next came Ice Age: The Meltdown, a global smash that grossed over $600 million in worldwide box office and the worldwide hit Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, starring comedy giants Jim Carrey and Steve Carell. Currently, Blue Sky is in production on a third Ice Age film, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs due for release July 2009.
ABOUT FOX FILMED ENTERTAINMENT
One of the world’s largest producers and distributors of motion pictures, Fox Filmed Entertainment produces, acquires and distributes motion pictures throughout the world. These motion pictures are produced or acquired by the following units of FFE: Twentieth Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox Atomic, and Twentieth Century Fox Animation.
