Rhythm & Hues sold to Prana Studios

A company associated with Prana Studio has won the bid to acquire Rhythm & Hues Studios. The R&H studio earlier had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy after winning award for Best Visual effects for Life of Pi.

A court hearing to confirm the winning bidder is scheduled at 10 a.m on the Friday morning. Prana Studio is an animation studio based in Los Angeles and Mumbai. It is currently working on Disney’s upcoming release “Planes”.

On Thursday morning South Korean based JS Communication filed an objection in connection with the auction. JS Communication had earlier pulled out of auction after they missed the deadline to submit the bid.

Rhythm and Hues, the company behind the vfx of majority of award winning movies had continued to operate thanks to $20 million infusion from Fox and Universal studios. The studio was working on Universal’s R.I.P.D and Fox’s Percy Jackson: Sea of monsters. The movies are scheduled to release on July 19 and August 16 respectively.

Last year in 2012 , Digital domain was acquired by Reliance Mediaworks and China’s Galloping Horse for $30.2 millions. VFX houses , Asylum, Cafe FX and the Orphanage has closed down in recent years due to financial crunch.