Weta FX, the New Zealand visual-effects company behind The Lord of the Rings and Avatar, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) on Friday 6 November 2026 at the opening of Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei. The partnership includes a planned investment in the Taiwanese animation and VFX studio Moonshine Studio, on which Weta FX is running due diligence, according to Screen. The amount was not disclosed.
Key facts
- Signed 6 November 2026 in Taipei by Weta FX chief executive Daniel Seah and TAICCA chair Sue Wang, with Taiwan’s culture minister Li Yuan present
- Weta FX plans to invest in Moonshine Studio, founded by Lin Chia-chi; due diligence is under way and no figure was given
- A joint platform will back Taiwanese film and TV projects and bring them to what TAICCA calls an international technical level
- A talent programme will bring young Taiwanese filmmakers to Weta FX for exchanges and internships
- TAICCA presents the deal as a step towards making Taiwan an AI hub for Asia’s content industries
Three parts to the deal
Seah, who has led Weta FX for nearly two years after 14 years running Digital Domain, described the partnership in three parts. The first is the Moonshine investment, which he said had been about six months in the making. Screen reports that Weta FX is running due diligence on a significant share of the studio, which was founded in 2012. Deadline adds that Moonshine will act as Weta FX’s outpost in Taiwan. The second is a technology platform that will invest in Taiwanese film and television projects and use Weta FX’s international reach to put them before wider audiences. Deadline reports that it will take the form of a joint-venture platform to find exceptional Taiwanese work and raise it to the technical level of leading international productions. The third is talent: Taiwanese filmmakers, particularly younger ones, will be able to come to Weta FX for exchanges and internships, and potentially to work there later.
Seah said the third part matters most to him. He was born in Malaysia and grew up in Yonghe in New Taipei, and Li summed up the day as Seah coming home and dreams coming true, a play on the Chinese name of Moonshine, which Variety says means “dream”. According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, Moonshine’s founder travelled to Wellington during the talks and met the director James Cameron.
The memorandum also commits the two sides to developing AI technology and to training people to use it in Taiwan’s content industry. “On the AI road, nobody is really far, far ahead,” Seah said. “We all have to venture into this tech-filled AI world together.” He pointed to Taiwan’s semiconductor industry as a strength to build on.
Why Taiwan and why now
Wang described Moonshine as the top-ranked Taiwanese VFX house and said the team “deserves to be put to better use, and seen by more people”. She stressed human involvement in creative work when she opened TCCF, Deadline reported, alongside the push on AI. Li said AI and cultural technology will be among the Ministry of Culture’s priorities for the next four years, and Wang thanked the National Development Fund for its support.
Seah compared the opportunity with Wellington, where he said Weta FX’s staff alone make up about 2% of the city’s population: “Over the past 30 years, Weta turned Wellington from a political capital into such an important global production base. We think Taiwan has even more of that opportunity.” That is his claim about what could happen, not a commitment on jobs or budgets, and none were announced.
What is not known
Neither side gave the size of the Moonshine stake, the capital behind the joint platform, the number of internship places or a date for completing due diligence. Executives attending alongside Seah included chief technology officer Kimball Thurston, research-lab head Andrew Moffat and VFX supervisor Sheldon Stopsack.
TCCF and the other TAICCA news
The seventh TCCF runs from 6 to 9 November at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, with pitching, market and forum sections, startup fundraising pitches, a first Spotlight Screenings strand and a Taiwan Emerging Actors Showcase with the Golden Horse Awards. TAICCA also announced a fund for independent digital game development with Lunta Ventures and a tie-up with IPis Innovation.
For more from Asia this week, see FilmBunch’s reports on Tokyo International Film Festival’s awards, Godzilla Minus Zero’s record opening in Japan and Park Hoon-jung’s Tristes Tropiques sales. More under Deals.
Our reading
This is a talent-and-capital agreement with a named investee, an investment still in due diligence and no number. For Taiwanese producers the nearest concrete benefit is the platform: a route to Weta FX’s quality bar and distribution contacts. For Moonshine, a stake from Weta FX would bring a global reference client. The tests will be the size of the investment and the first projects the platform backs, neither of which has been announced.
Sources
- Variety, Weta FX to invest in Taiwan’s Moonshine Studio under AI pact with TAICCA (6 November 2026; signing, Daniel Seah and Sue Wang quotes)
- Deadline, Weta FX and TAICCA partner to position Taiwan as an AI hub (6 November 2026; joint-venture platform, attendees)
- Deadline, TCCF opens with focus on IP, co-production and pledges of government support (6 November 2026; festival dates, other TAICCA announcements)
- Screen International, Weta FX to build AI hub in Taiwan, buy into Moonshine Studio (6 November 2026; due diligence on a significant share of Moonshine)
- Central News Agency (Taiwan), Wētā FX and TAICCA sign cooperation memorandum (6 November 2026, in Chinese; Moonshine, talent programme, Li Yuan remarks)
- TAICCA press release, as published by Mirror Media (6 November 2026, in Chinese; signing photographs, Moonshine credits)