Namit Malhotra: Last News

Selena Kuznikov Visual effects house DNEG has acquired the exclusive license to Ziva from Unity. The company will also onboard a significant proportion of the Ziva team.

EXCLUSIVE: You might not be familiar with Namit Malhotra’s name, but the world certainly knows his work. Malhotra founded Indian production services company Prime Focus Technologies in 1997, and is currently CEO of VFX company DNEG, which has won seven Academy Awards for films such Inception,Interstellar, Blade Runner 2049, and Dune. Hailing from a filmmaking family in India’s Mumbai, Malhotra holds immense influence in both Hollywood and Bollywood, where he is currently in production on Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana. The hotly-anticipated feature will feature a score collaboration between A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) and Hans Zimmer (Lion King, Dune). Malhotra, a services exec by trade, is also upping his producer game. He produced the recent Garfield movie, which crossed $200M at the box office this month, was an exec on Hindi-language film Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva and has exec producer credits on Peacock’s upcoming Rome epic Those About to Die, Legendary’s animation/live-action hybrid Animal Friends and The Angry Birds Movie 3. Here, he chats to Deadline about his cross-continental journey, the impact of the pandemic, layoffs at his company, and future projects in the pipeline. 

EXCLUSIVE: Joaquim De Almeida has joined the cast of Legendary‘s Animal Friends, the live-action and animated hybrid pic from writing duo Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider. Peter Atencio directed the R-rated Road trip adventure.

EXCLUSIVE: Legendary has cast Ellie Bamber in Animal Friends, a star-studded feature combining live-action and animated characters from writing duo Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider. Peter Atencio is set to direct.

Naman Ramachandran Indian actor-producer Yash‘s Monster Mind Creations and producer Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios have partnered on an adaptation of Indian epic “Ramayana” for global audiences. The film will be directed by Nitesh Tiwari, whose “Dangal” is the highest Indian grosser of all time.

EXCLUSIVE: Addison Rae is set to join the ensemble cast of Legendary’s live-action hybrid, Animal Friends, which already stars Ryan Reynolds, Jason Momoa, Vince Vaughn and Aubrey Plaza. Emmy-winning director Peter Atencio is set to direct the R-rated road trip adventure from writing duo Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider. The logline is currently being kept under wraps but sources add Rae would be one of the main live-action players.

Visual effects firm DNEG, which has worked on projects like Stranger Things and Knives Out as well as launching an animation division, and merger partner Sports Ventures Acquisition Corp. have bailed on their plans to come together.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorDNEG, a U.K.-based visual effects and animation house whose customers include Netflix and major Hollywood film studios, has called off plans to go public amid the broad global slump in financial markets.In January, DNEG had announced plans to merge with Sports Ventures Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a deal valuing the company at $1.7 billion. The duo had previously expected that to close in the first half of 2022.On Thursday, the companies announced the termination of the agreement as a result of “current unfavorable SPAC market conditions” and other factors.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorDNEG, the visual effects and animation company whose credits include work on films “Dune,” “No Time to Die” and “Tenet,” plans to go public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The proposed deal implies a combined company enterprise value of $1.7 billion.According to DNEG, the pact will make it the only pure-play publicly traded VFX/animation company.DNEG announced Tuesday an agreement to merge with Sports Ventures Acquisition Corp., a so-called “blank check” company set up for the purposes of combining with another entity to become a public company.London-based DNEG expects to receive about $400 million in gross funds from the SPAC deal, including a “fully committed” $168 million common stock private investment in public equity (PIPE) from investors including affiliates of Sports Ventures, Novator Capital, affiliates of Fairfax Financial and Arbor Financial.

DNEG, the visual effects and animation company behind Dune and many other high-profile productions, is merging with a SPAC called Sports Ventures Acquisition Corp. in a deal that aims to take the group public with a stock listing on the Nasdaq (symbol DNEG).