SUBMITTED BY Kit-Kat

March 8, 2006 — Weta Digital's Joe Letteri, who was a member of the Academy Award(C)-wining Weta Digital teams that created the visual effects for "King Kong," "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" will serve as the visual effects supervisor on the upcoming Walden Media, Beacon Pictures and Revolution Studios co-production "The Water Horse." Most recently Letteri, along with Weta Digital colleagues Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers and Richard Taylor, won the Oscar(C) for Achievement in Visual Effects for the groundbreaking work on "King Kong" at the 78th Annual Academy Awards on March 5th.

"The Water Horse" will be brought to the screen by director Jay Russell ("Ladder 49," "My Dog Skip"), with screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs ("The Shipping News," "Chocolat") adapting King-Smith's ("Babe, The Gallant Pig") book. The film will be produced by Robert Bernstein ("Charlotte Gray," "Mrs. Brown"), Douglas Rae ("Charlotte Gray," "Mrs. Brown"), Barrie Osborne ("The Lord of the Rings" trilogy) and Charlie Lyons ("Firewall"). The film is expected to begin production in May, 2006 in Scotland and New Zealand.

Based on Dick King Smith's acclaimed story, "The Water Horse" tells the magical story of a lonely boy in Scotland who finds a mysterious egg on the shore of a loch. When the egg hatches, what emerges is a "water horse," a mythical sea monster of Scottish legend. But as the rapidly growing beast becomes harder to conceal from those who see it as a threat, the boy must find new ways to protect the misunderstood creature.

Letteri joined Weta Digital in 2001 as Visual Effects Supervisor for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King." Prior to joining Weta, Letteri was a Visual Effects Supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic. Weta was formed in 1993 by several New Zealand filmmakers, including Peter Jackson.