Designing and building cool stuff for over 30 years
Inside our Wellington facility exists the capability to execute almost any creative brief, to the highest quality, and deliver just about anywhere in the world.
Over more than 30 years, we’ve designed and built specialty suits, mixed reality experiences, and sculptures of monumental proportions. High-tech weapons and vehicles that move. Entire worlds with rich cultures, histories, and ecosystems. From film, TV, and gaming to themed attractions, collectibles, exhibitions, public art — even children’s playgrounds. We love projects that capture our imaginations.
We do intimate. We do epic. Whether it’s a small-scale charity project or a blockbuster film of epic scope, we pour the same passion, creativity and craftsmanship into everything we do.
Our design studio and manufacturing departments collaborate to achieve our best for our clients.
We design cool stuff
From the lush forests of Pandora to the sweeping landscapes of Middle-earth. With good design, a fictional world will live with audiences long after the doors open and the lights come on.
Working across the world’s creative industries, we specialize in conceptualising cool stuff that connects with audiences the world over.
Our approach is cinematic. We dive deep into the story or idea, working collaboratively with clients to establish a unique look and feel for their vision. We’ve helped conceptualise new worlds and societies for Avatar and District 9; bring established worlds such as Middle-earth and Narnia to life in vivid detail; designed (and then built) the iconic robots from projects such as I Am Mother, Chappie, and Elysium; and developed immersive mixed reality games in partnership with Florida tech startup Magic Leap.
Our 40 designers, art directors, and production staff collaborate to give our clients something they’ve never seen before.
Just two steps away from our design studio is our manufacturing floor, ready to turn concept into creation.
We build cool stuff
Part workshop, part creative labyrinth. Our manufacturing floor is a hive of activity, with 17 departments collaborating under one roof. Our capabilities span traditional artisan skills such as sword-making and leatherwork, to the high-tech world of precision machining, robotics, and 3D printing.
Combining new technologies with traditional handcraft, our crew of artists and technicians apply the same level of creativity and craftsmanship to every project.
We’ve gone epic, equipping armies with hundreds upon thousands of weapons for films like The Lord of the Rings and The Great Wall. We’ve gone intimate, building bespoke, one-off suits for I Am Mother, The Amazing Spiderman 2, and more. We build exhibition centrepieces of monumental scale, and intricate models that become beautiful collectibles.
Wētā Workshop CEO Richard Taylor is on the workshop floor each day, bringing over thirty years of experience to each creative challenge.
We love genre
Horror
Our roots are planted in cult horror classics like Braindead (Dead Alive) and The Frighteners. Horror is how we got our start, and we still love it to this day.
Fantasy
From Middle-earth to Narnia, Wētā Workshop has played a defining role in some of the most important and critically acclaimed fantasy films of the past two decades.
Science Fiction
Our team are passionate about science fiction and we do it well. From building cities to whole universes, the scope and wild imagination of films like District 9 and Blade Runner 2049 are what we live for.
Recent Work
Testimonials
One of the major thrills of directing was that it afforded me even more time and access to engage and collaborate with the masters of Wētā Workshop…
When it comes to imagining and actualizing visions of immense scope – worlds, cultures, histories – Wētā Workshop and the wider Wētā Group of Companies are the best in the business.
There were as many people excited about doing the robot practically as there were people who were nervous. The way to calm those nerves – and to actually get an amazing robot suit – is to work with the folks at Wētā Workshop.
Get in touch
If you’re looking for a company that designs and builds cool stuff, we’d love to chat.
- 17+ creative departments
- Over 30 years’ experience
- Highly awarded
- Design to manufacture
- Innovation and creativity
- Government incentives may apply