Working on Spider-Verse Was 'Hell' | Why 'Beyond the Spider-Verse' Will Be Delayed

David Chen discusses a recent piece at Vulture about the working conditions for 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' and why 'Beyond the Spider-Verse' will probably be delayed.

[thisisspartacus]

Hey Dave I worked on that movie for four months and didn’t even get a screen credit. Producers and supervisors got wise at the end and kept as many people away from Phil as possible but I still had a couple meetings where I could hear his notes and tenor and he was insufferable. I had multiple friends in positions of leadership and they were barely holding themselves together. Good movie, great art, didn’t need to be that difficult to make it. Zero chance part two comes out next year.

[trackstarz]

Man, that’s a bummer. Was hoping everyone involved would be celebrating right now. Didn’t even imagine the people responsible for bringing it to life would be feeling like this.

[trainwreckintime]

If anyone that worked on the series sees this i wanna let you know that you guys did one hell of a job, and nothing makes me as happy as i am when i saw these 2 films. You guys did really good with all the pressure and ty for at least staying as long as you did as a guy thats studying art and inspired by animations id put spiderverse at the top. Nothing compares to this masterpice

[moonaleaf]

I get the “ keep working on it until it’s right” I’m an animation student, and it’s super important that everything makes sense and looks the part. HOWEVER. You do those major changes before the animation, vfx and so on.
Crazy how inhumane producers can be, artists poured their souls and life into something that was just thrown away like nothing.

[JuanGomez-bsue]

It's sad to see that a movie that made me so happy and excited had a bad work environment and that artists and workers were almost "suffering" to make the movie.

[kaushikkannan]

Fr tho. If animators/artists complain about bad working conditions, more often than not it is 100% true. Pascal's response to this was absolutely ridiculous.
So the age old movie making process is to blame and not the incompetent management? How convenient lmao.
My heart goes out to all the artists on this project. The world thinks your hard work shines through this film. :)

[GandalfDaBrown]

So disappointing. Makes me wonder if this was the way Lord and Miller made Lego Movie 1 and 2. These guys are brilliant but it sounds like working for them is demoralizing. It’ll be hard to watch these movies again without thinking about that.

[qwertyuiopgarth]

If people were working 5 to 7 hours a day, 4 to 5 days a week, (while making a 'better than living wage') I would have no problem with Ms. Pascal's "Welcome to making a movie" attitude.

[TheWisestWizards]

This is a shame hearing this because whatever they're doing is clearly working as far as the final product goes. But is it worth it if you're making people miserable?

[jennymcelligott]

Man this is disappointing. I’m an Animator and VFX artist and this makes me happy I didn’t pursue film or even video games hearing stories like this. That’s no way to have a happy staff.

[geraldvogelsang]

Curious if Phil Lord is malicious or if he's just that ignorant to the animation process

While neither is good for someone that powerful in that position

If it is ignorance. I hope this is a wake up call, and he respects the animators and treats them better for the next one

[marvelmolly]

I really hope that the artists get better conditions. Who cares if it comes out in 2025 or 2050. I will still go see it, but not if it was the result of many physically and mentally burnt out artists

[Tawnyaise]

I've watched these movies like 12 times until now. And when you talk about working conditions, I kinda get that part too. I'm a writer.
Whenever something great is being made, there are going to be multiple editing and cut of scenes and then being rebuilt so that it's good, then better and then even better. That's what makes the movie so great. I'm sure Phil must also be in a lot of pressure of changing scenes and doing his stuff. Everyone has it hard. You chose this life for yourself when you become an animator. And I'm not saying that your exhaustion is nothing or that you don't deserve to have time for yourself. I understand that you are human too. But sometimes, our job can be so hard that we 'have' to give extra time and effort. That's what makes the end product so valuable.
Even for spiderman(even if he is fictional), in the comics, it's shown how Miles doesn't even get proper sleep because of his job, it must be exausting for him too.. Ok, spiderman isn't real, but police are, they do the same.
The day you become an animator, you chose this hard life for yourself, so please don't blame your higher ups, they are also having a hard time with their jobs, they aren't enjoying while you are working your butt off.

With love,
- A perspective fan

[adamsteinbacher]

Welp. Glass shattered. What a shitty, privileged, typically dismissive and toxic comment from Pascal. I know this is probably typical abuse most animators endure on different levels, but still absolutely awful to hear. Unions man, vital!

[drteletubby]

That is extremely disheartening to hear. Folks who put any effort into shaping the film should've received credit. I suppose they achieved some form of perfection with this mindset as the film was absolutely incredible, but you definitely need to ask if it's worth it when it is burning through an entire pool of talent like a raging wildfire. Personally, I am excited for the 3rd film and hope the conditions producing it are better, but the reality is that they're probably worse now that this film was such a wild success. Nobody on the leadership team is going to accept anything short of perfection on the 3rd film, and the people putting in the leg work are likely going to feel it.

[ianxninja]

It’s sad to hear that I hope the people recover from all that hard work

[AllInTheGame]

How much longer can VFX Artists go on for without forming their own Union?!

[coreyhoward]

Isn't this why they weren't chosen for Star Wars? I mean, considering their background, behavior makes sense.

[thomasyip]

Well this is going to be a disgrace from Disney as they warned them if delaying it will have to pay a refund

[v]

If the videogame industry is any model for Sony movies, the film will come out on-time (through crunch alone) wildly incomplete, be disappointing, then get a Cats-style second-release after it blew its chance.