General Manager of Lucasfilm explains why The Perfect Storm with George Clooney is such an important film

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of Lucasfilm, became a major player in the visual effects industry in 1975. If you’ve seen an effects-heavy blockbuster from the last several decades, there’s a decent chance that ILM worked on it in some form.

From the first three Star Wars movies to Jurassic Park, ILM worked on a lot of blockbusters. In her view, the George Clooney-led The Perfect Storm was a movie that was not just significant for Lucasfilm, but also for VFX history.

Lynwen Brennan spoke with me at the press event for Disney+’s docuseries Light & Magic, which explores ILM’s origins and impact on the film industry, and is now available for streaming. During our conversation, I asked Brennan what she considered ILM’s greatest technical achievement, whether it was a character, creature, ship, or just a general effect.

According to her, she began by saying: According to some, The Perfect Storm (a movie George Clooney might consider his best) was inspired by the real-life story of Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing ship that disappeared at sea in 1991.

Since such conditions cannot be replicated in real life, it was up to the minds at Lucasfilm to bring that violent water to life in a digital setting and to make it work with Wolfgang Peterson’s footage. Aside from George Clooney, The Perfect Storm featured Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Dian Lane, and William Fichtner.

ILM worked on six films in 2000, including Mission to Mars, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Space Cowboys, and Pollock and Pay It Forward. It’s still impressive to Lynwen Brennan that the digital water turned out so well in The Perfect Storm, but that’s not the only thing she recalls about ILM’s achievements. Continuing, she said:

It was developed for the Star Wars series The Mandalorian and has since been used on productions across the globe, including Marvel movies like Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and DC movies like The Batman and the upcoming Black Adam.

Known as “volumes,” these facilities have made waves (to borrow from The Perfect Storm) in the visual effects industry, and even knowing how StageCraft came together, Lynwen Brennan still continues to be blown away by its capabilities.

Coming up next on Lucasfilm’s roster is Andor, and upcoming movies featuring ILM’s work include Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way for Water. On CinemaBlend, you’ll find all the latest developments in film and television. There is strong support for all Future PLC brands from their audiences. If you purchase through a link on our site, we may receive an affiliate commission.

Robert Poirrer

Robert Poirrer is a contributing author who covers Hollywood latest movie releases and web series for the MovieThop website. He has a decade of experience in writing movies based articles for numerous renowned media outlets. He is excellent at creating unique content based on emerging trends in a variety of categories especially entertainment, movies and lifestyle. When not writing articles you could find Robert enjoying mountain biking trips with his friends. He graduated in English Literature from North Carolina State University.