Tom Cruise narrates a documentary on the 35-year history of George Lucas’s pioneering visual effects house Industrial Light & Magic premiering on Encore at 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Nov. 12.
The hour-long “Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible,” directed by Oscar and Emmy-nominated Leslie Iwerks, features interviews with Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, J.J. Abrams and Jon Favreau, actors Samuel L. Jackson and Robin Williams, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and John Lasseter of Disney and Pixar.
ILM, which has done work on nearly 300 films and received 15 Academy Awards for best visual effects and 25 additional nominations, originated in Van Nuys, Calif. to support production of the original “Star Wars” and was moved to San Rafael, Calif. for work on “The Empire Strikes Back” and is now headquartered at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco with a sister studio in Singapore.
The company that created the liquid metal man in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and the digital dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park” has also received 23 Scientific and Technical Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in recognition of the critical role the company’s advances in technology have played in the filmmaking process.
— By Scott Hettrick