VFX Vet Dennis Berardi Buys Back Mr. X Name From Technicolor (Exclusive)

Mr. X founder Dennis Berardi has got back the rights to his former company name, allowing a rebrand of his current visual effects house, Herne Hill Media, in time for the Toronto Film Festival.

That follows Technicolor in 2014 acquiring Mr. X and pairing the VFX house with Motion Picture Company, which had a global reach with offices around the world, including in Vancouver, London, L.A. and Shanghai. Mr. X credits at the time included Vikings, Penny Dreadful, Godzilla, X-Men: Day of Future Past and Maleficent.

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Berardi became global managing director of Mr. X, but later left the VFX studio in 2021 to launch Herne Hill Media. But with Technicolor shutting down operations in the U.S. and globally, Berardi recently bought back the rights to the Mr. X name and will be rebranding his company and its visual effects wizardry ahead of the Toronto Film Festival.

And Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein will be the first film released under the relaunched Mr. X banner.

Berardi, who first opened the doors to Mr. X in Toronto in 2001, in a statement said, “Mr. X was built on the belief that great visual effects are more than technology, they are storytelling at its most ambitious. This relaunch is about reclaiming our independence and putting artists back at the center of everything we do.”

With Guillermo del Toro, Berardi has done VFX on features like Crimson Peak, Nightmare Alley, the Oscar-winning The Shape of Water, as well as del Toro’s TV series The Strain and Cabinet of Curiosities. Other upcoming credits under the Mr. X banner include Wednesday Part 2 and IT: Welcome to Derry.

The rebranded Mr. X leadership team includes executive producer Dave Sauro, VFX supervisors Mark Hammond and Ben King, Brandon Schaafsma as head of production and art director Jordan Nieuwlan.

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