Why Hollywood Makes Digital Magic in the U.K.

Inside an art deco building on the edge of London’s Soho district are hundreds of programmers and graphic designers working on Rogue One, the Star Wars spinoff film due out in December. As you enter, a large photograph of kids playing in Darth Vader and Stormtrooper masks is the only obvious hint that this is the London outpost of Industrial Light & Magic, the visual-effects company founded by George Lucas and now owned by Walt Disney. Based in San Francisco, ILM opened the London office at the end of 2014, hoping to tap into the city’s growing band of digital artists as it prepared to tackle effects for a new Star Wars trilogy.

The U.K. has produced three of the world’s five biggest visual-effects companies, turning London into a global hub for film production. Its status recently got an unexpected boost: The 10 percent drop in the pound after the U.K. voted to leave the European Union has made it even cheaper for Hollywood studios to outsource film production to London. “There’s a lot more interest now in moving work to the U.K.,” says Sue Lyster, the executive in charge of production at ILM London, which employs more than 300 people.