The company filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2013. It was then purchased by an affiliate ofPrana Studios, 34x118 Holdings, LLC, but retained the same name.
DirectorAng Lee approached Rhythm & Hues in August 2009 to discuss a planned film adaptation of the fantasy novelLife of Pi.[4][5] R&HVFX (Visual Effects) SupervisorBill Westenhofer noted that Lee "knew we had done the lion in the firstNarnia movie. He asked, 'Does a digital character look more or less real in 3D?' We looked at each other and thought that was a pretty good question."[6] He also stated that during these meetings, Lee said, "'I look forward to making art with you.' This was really for me one of the most rewarding things I've worked on and the first chance to really combine art with VFX. Every shot was artistic exploration, to make the ocean a character and make it interesting we had to strive to make it as visually stunning as possible."[7]
Rhythm & Hues spent a year onresearch and development, "building upon its already vast knowledge of CGI animation" to develop the tiger.[14] Artist Abdul Rahman in the Malaysian branch underscored the global nature of the effects process, saying that "the special thing aboutLife of Pi is that it was the first time we did something called remote rendering, where we engaged our cloud infrastructure in Taiwan called CAVE (Cloud Animation and Visual Effects)".[15]
The resulting film,Life of Pi, was released in theaters in November 2012, and was a critical and commercial success. TheBritish Film Institute'sSight & Sound magazine suggested that, "Life of Pi can be seen as the film Rhythm & Hues has been building up to all these years, by taking things they learned from each production fromCats & Dogs toYogi Bear, integrating their animals in different situations and environments, pushing them to do more, and understanding how all of this can succeed both visually and dramatically."[16]
On February 11, 2013, Rhythm & Hues Studios filed for bankruptcy underChapter 11, three months afterLife of Pi was released.[17] Around 254 people were laid off at that time.[18] This led to a demonstration of nearly 500 VFX artists who protested outside of the 2013 Academy Awards, as Rhythm & Hues was nominated for an Oscar (which it won) forLife of Pi.[19] Inside, during the Oscars, when R&H visual effects supervisorBill Westenhofer brought up R&H during his acceptance speech forLife of Pi, the microphone was cut off as the music ofJaws slowly took over.[20] This started an uproar among many visual effects industry professionals, changing profile pictures on social media such as Facebook and Twitter to show thegreen key color, in order to raise awareness of general negative trends in the effects industry.[21] In addition, directorAng Lee was heavily criticized by the community for not acknowledging their work in the effects-laden film in his acceptance speech, despite thanking many other people,[22] and for earlier having complained about the costs of visual effects.[22][23]
On March 29, 2013, an affiliate ofPrana Studios, 34x118 Holdings, LLC, won the bidding on Rhythm and Hues in a bankruptcy auction.[24] The sale was "valued at about $30 million".[25]
After the bankruptcy and sale, Rhythm and Hues continued to work on film, television, and ride-film projects, winning multiple Emmy Awards and a Visual Effects Society award for their work onGame of Thrones.
