Creative studio Luma, known for its visual effects work, has hired Ben Hibon to serve as head creative director.
A career as an artist and animation director has taken Hibon from television commercials to branded content to video game creation for clients like Disney, Microsoft, Sony, and Riot Games. He has lent his design skills to feature films such as Snow White and the Huntsman and The Last Witch Hunter. Most notably he was at the helm of the Academy Award-nominated The Tale of Three Brothers animated sequence from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
VFX house Luma is expanding into the realm of original content. Luma’s Santa Monica and Melbourne studios will continue their exclusive service model while developing partnerships that enable the company to be active in creative as well. Hibon will be working with the heads of Luma’s animated and live action content, and new content and media arms, helping to shape and guide the new branches toward varied forms of storytelling.
Founded by Payam Shohadai, Luma Pictures debuted in 2002 with visual effects for Charlie’s Angels and has gone on to contribute visual effects for such films as Deadpool, Captain America: Civil War, and Doctor Strange.
Blake Lively Is Sued By Crisis Specialist In Latest “It Ends With Us” Litigation
A Texas crisis communications specialist has sued Blake Lively for defamation after the actor pulled him into her legal fight with co-star and director Justin Baldoni over their film, "It Ends With Us."
Jed Wallace and his company, Street Relations, filed the $7 million lawsuit in federal court in Texas on Tuesday. It says he had nothing to do with any campaign to harm Lively's reputation as she alleged in a court filing.
Wallace is not among the defendants in Lively's federal lawsuit against Baldoni, his production company and publicists, in which she alleges sexual and other harassment during the production and a campaign to smear her after it. The crisis specialist is named in the court papers and the New York Times story published on the day the series of legal battles began in December when Lively filed a complaint.
Lively's lawyers said in a statement that Wallace's lawsuit "is not just a publicity stunt."
"It is transparent retaliation in response to allegations contained within a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint that Ms. Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department," the statement said. "While this lawsuit will be dismissed, we are pleased that Mr. Wallace has finally emerged from the shadows, and that he too will be held accountable in federal court."
In a filing last week in Hays County, Texas, that seeks a deposition from Wallace, Lively alleges he was used by publicists working with Baldoni to weaponize "a digital army around the country, including in New York and Los Angeles, to create, seed, manipulate, and advance disparaging content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums."
Wallace's lawsuit says neither he nor his company "had anything to do... Read More