How we helped make Idris Elba fight a lion

Baltasar Kormákur’s Beast tells the story of a father (played by Idris Elba) and his two daughters who visit an old friend (Sharlto Copley) in South Africa, but then quickly come up against a vicious lion seeking revenge.

All the lions in the film are CG, crafted by Framestore, under visual effects supervisor Enrik Pavdeja. In addition to various build challenges on the digital lions, Framestore also had to deal with extensive lion/human interaction–at one point Copley’s character hugs a pride of lions, and later Elba fights ‘Beast’. Plus, director Kormákur sought to represent several lion scenes as lengthy oners.

Read the full article here.