Tye Sheridan’s banner year included back-to-back features Voyagers for Neil Burger, The Card Counter for Paul Schrader and the latest, The Tender Bar for George Clooney. But he closed out last year by snagging headlines for off-screen work, too.
Sheridan is co-founder of Wonder Dynamics alongside VFX expert Nikola Todorovic and in December, the startup confirmed it had raised $9 million in Series A funding from investors including Epic Games and Samsung. The influx of cash will help propel the development of Wonder’s AI-driven production platform that is designed to democratize VFX for content creators.
At Tender Bar’s December premiere, Sheridan detailed the company’s philosophy to THR by saying, “We’re agnostic when it comes to what type of production, but we really envision a future where we’re helping to empower artists and anyone from anywhere with any knowledge make something that they dream of even if they don’t have the budget for it,” he said. “Film, TV, video games, anything and everything involving effects for visual mediums. We’re trying to solve the inability for us to tell stories that we want to tell and the inability to capture our visions because of the limitations around how much it costs to produce those effects.”
If he sounds like a filmmaker, that’s not a coincidence. “Since I was 17, I knew that I wanted to make my own films. I’m a storyteller first and foremost and in whatever way I can participate in telling a great story, I am happy to be a part of it, whether that’s acting, producing, writing or directing. I’m interested in it all.”
This story first appeared in the Jan. 5 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
Source: HollyWood
