Legendary filmmakers such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy, Rian Johnson, Michael Bay, Ron Howard, Guillermo del Toro, Gore Verbinski, Colin Trevorrow, Duncan Jones and ILM president Lynwen Brennan all gathered for a special photo to pay tribute to the visual effects house Industrial Light and Magic's 40th Anniversary. The photo also includes some of these filmmakers creations that happened right at ILM, including Yoda from Star Wars, one of the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Bumblebee from Transformers and even BB-8 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Wired has put together a thorough oral history, which includes interviews from the aforementioned filmmakers and others from ILM, such as Research and Development Supervisor Cary Phillips, who recounted the three times he "almost soiled himself" when looking at an upcoming project.

"There were three times in my 20 years here that I've almost soiled myself looking at a challenge we were going to take on. The first was the concept art for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. The second time was Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The third time I almost soiled myself was seeing the concept art for the film we're working on now, Warcraft; it's the most amazing work we've done in the 20 years I've been here."

Speaking of Warcraft, director Duncan Jones spoke about the massive undertaking that is the post-production process, revealing they now have less than 1,000 shots left to go before Warcraft is fully ready.

"I think we recently rang the bell on having less than a thousand shots to go. That was a good thing to hear."

Colin Trevorrow, whose new film Jurassic World hits theaters next month, also spoke about working with ILM on his action-adventure sequel.

"Harsh top light has often not flattered the dinosaurs, but in Jurassic World they're very naked and out in the open-it took that encouragement from Dennis for us to be willing to let these dinosaurs have sunlight hit their skin and not add any additional effects to mask them. It helps the movie feel intensely real."

Star Wars: Episode VIII director Rian Johnson shared an amusing story about how an ILM book lead to him nearly destroying his childhood home.

"When I was in high school, somebody gave me a copy of this ILM coffee table book called The Art of Special Effects. I almost burned my house down because of that book. My friends were doing a Back to The Future parody, and I decided I was going to re-create the tire trails behind the DeLorean. Genius that I am, I soaked strips of paper towel in gasoline and laid them out in a line behind this big model car of the DeLorean that I'd built in my parents' garage. I don't remember how I got the fire out, but I almost destroyed my family's house. And now I'm doing Star Wars. That's how you do it."

In addition, ILM has also released a brief video that shows just a handful of the iconic visual effects shots the company has worked on over the past 40 years. CLICK HERE to read the full article at Wired, which thoroughly details the history of this famed visual effects house. Check out the video and 40th Anniversary photo below.

Industrial Light and Magic 40th Anniversary Photo