That sinking feeling: Titanic effects creator files for bankruptcy

Screenshot from Titanic movie

The creator of the state-of-the-art visual effects for the movies Titanic and The Fifth Element, Digital Domain Media Group has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Last month Digital Domain, the winner of Academy Awards for visual effects in films like Titanic, What Dreams May Come and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, hired Wells Fargo Securities LLC as financial adviser in an attempt to turn the company around.

Its shares have fallen to their lowest level since being listed on the New York Stock Exchange in November. A company statement says it has broken terms of some loans and may need bankruptcy protection to survive.

"As a result of negative working capital, the company failed to meet the liquidity covenants and was running out of cash," Chief Restructuring Officer Michael Katzenstein said in court documents.

On September 6 the company’s CEO John Textor resigned leaving the responsibility to deal with the crisis to the board of directors. “Although I will no longer be a member of the Board, I intend to stay actively involved as a shareholder of the Company,” he said in his resignation letter.

Digital Domain was founded by filmmaker James Cameron, visual effects supervisor Stan Winston and a digital media executive Scott Ross. The company working on visual effects for feature films, television advertising, video game and other digital media industries is based in Florida, the US.

The company, specializing in creating lifelike computer-generated characters, worked on the visual effects for more than 90 films including Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Transformers, Apollo 13, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Armageddon, Star Trek, The Day After Tomorrow and many more.

Screenshot from Transformers movie screenshot

- Rt.com