Latest news with #Blavatnik
Los Angeles Times
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The future of filmmaking? USC gets $25 million for virtual production center
Oil baron and music mogul Len Blavatnik's family foundation has made a $25 million donation to the USC School of Cinematic Arts to create a virtual production center, the university said this week. The 15,000-square-foot center will house two stages with wraparound LED walls that students and industry professionals will use to gain experience with virtual production technology, USC said. The facility will also house camera tracking, performance capture and lighting systems, as well as classrooms and labs with computers equipped with real-time 3D design software and digital asset libraries. Virtual production has emerged as a key growth area for the entertainment industry. The technology relies on advancements in gaming software that allow crews to transform a wall of LED screens into fantastical and interactive backdrops. Shows such as the 'Star Wars' series 'The Mandalorian,' sci-fi hit 'Westworld' and fantasy title 'House of the Dragon' were all shot on virtual production stages. As film and TV production in California has slowed and made work scarce for many industry professionals, the boom in virtual production has created new jobs for cinematographers, environmental artists, lighting technicians and professionals who can run the so-called LED walls. With virtual production stages, filmmakers can create the look of a desert planet without going to Tunisia, as George Lucas did for 'Star Wars,' or shoot scenes in daylight at any time of day. 'Virtual production has just become critical to our industry, and our job is to always train students for the future,' said Elizabeth Daley, dean of the School of Cinematic Arts. 'We are very concerned that they leave [the school] really able to work with these tools and with enough serious knowledge of them to be able to adjust and advance.' The center is expected to open in fall 2027, she said. Blavatnik is no stranger to the entertainment business. In addition to founding Blavatnik Family Foundation, he also started the New York-based investment firm Access Industries, which has stakes in entertainment companies including indie movie and TV studio A24 and is the majority owner of record label giant Warner Music Group. Born in Ukraine, Blavatnik acquired Warner Music Group through Access Industries in 2011 and later took the company public. The billionaire is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Britain. In an emailed statement, Blavatnik cited the importance of new technologies to the filmmaking process. 'USC's pioneering approach — building a virtual production studio for the future — makes this the right time and place to invest in our industry,' he said. USC has had a dedicated virtual production program for several years and has trained more than 400 students and alumni on the technology. The university currently has a smaller wall donated by Sony, but demand is high and students often spend time preparing and breaking down their sets. With the new facility, which will be known as the Blavatnik Center for Virtual Production, the multiple stages will allow students more time to work with the technology and less on prep work, said Habib Zargarpour, co-head of the virtual production program at USC. 'Virtual production is definitely here to stay; it's going to be a standard part of production,' he said. 'As more and more of our students and directors and artists learn about the tools, then they can contribute to the success of the technology in the industry because they know how to use it.'
Times
17-05-2025
- Business
- Times
Sir Leonard Blavatnik net worth — Sunday Times Rich List 2025
What is Sir Leonard Blavatnik's net worth? ▼ 25.725 billion£29.246 billion in 2024 Sir Leonard Blavatnik told The Sunday Times that he and the foundation that bears his name are 'determined to make a difference, whether in science, culture or the arts'. In recognition of his gift to the National Gallery, Room 34 was unveiled as the Blavatnik Family Foundation Room this month. Earlier this year, Blavatnik, 67, who has British and American citizenship, pumped a further £667 million into DAZN. Founded less than a decade ago, DAZN has already amassed a 20 million subscriber base. Yet the London-based media firm is yet to prove a financial hit, reporting a £1.1 billion loss. His streaming service has spent vast sums on buying up broadcasting rights to European football, boxing, top-tier basketball, motor racing and American football in the hope of building a 'Spotify of sport'. Blavatnik has plenty of resources to throw at DAZN. He built his fortune in Russia but sold the last of his assets there in 2013. Born in Odesa, when Ukraine was under Soviet control, he moved to a city north of Moscow as a child. At university in the Russian capital he met his former business partner and fellow Ukrainian Viktor Vekselberg, 68, who is now under western sanctions. During the 1980s they built up then offloaded large stakes in Russia's largest aluminium company and a leading oil company. Blavatnik settled in the US, where he studied at Harvard and Columbia universities. In 1986 he founded his investment operation Access Industries in New York. It has holdings worth $35 billion (£28.2 billion) in 30 countries, including a majority stake in Warner Music. Warner, which is partly listed on the New York stock market, is worth $14.4 billion. The shares have lost 20 per cent since of their value between February and the compilation of this year's Rich List — and largely explains Blavatnik's lower wealth this year. Access also owns 20.5 per cent of LyondellBasell, a publicly traded chemicals manufacturer and the world's largest producer of polypropylene, which is today worth almost $30 billion. Blavatnik's bet on Lyondell was described by Forbes as 'the greatest deal in Wall Street history'. His control of Warner Music and Access's funding of a succession of award-scooping films had made Blavatnik a fixture on the red carpet. He co-produced The Zone of Interest, which was named best international film at last year's Oscars. It focuses on the life of the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife, Hedwig, who lived with their family in a home next to the concentration camp. An adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, currently showing on Broadway — and featuring Succession star Sarah Snook — was nominated for six Tony awards. Blavatnik is planning to invest hundreds of millions of pounds buying up media businesses and producing new TV shows, films and theatre in coming years. Danny Cohen, the former director of the BBC's TV output who is now president of Access Entertainment, says the group will consider large acquisitions in Hollywood. 'We'll spend a few hundred million if we can find the right things,' Cohen recently told the Financial Times. Access recently increased its investment in A24, the production house behind the hit film Everything Everywhere All at Onceand the recent Civil War. Access is also seeking to invest more in South Korea as the media and music scene there continues to grow fast. Blavatnik, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 for his services to philanthropy, has four children with his American wife, Emily Appelson. As well as their London home, they have properties in New York worth several hundred million dollars. He also owns hotels in Hollywood and Miami Beach, and the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat on the Côte d'Azur in France, plus the Ocean Club luxury resort in the Bahamas. Blavatnik spent £45 million on acquiring the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End of London and has given money to a range of cultural causes, including £50 million to Tate Modern and £10 million to the Courtauld Institute of Art. Explore the definitive guide to the wealth of the UK's richest people
