“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” the Oscar-winning 2018 animated film, shattered conventional wisdom around how animated movies could or should be made. But the groundbreaking comic book film was far from the first bold effort from Sony Pictures Animation. It wasn’t even Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s first risky film for the studio.
30 years ago, Sony Pictures Imageworks, a visual effects studio originally housed in the old TriStar building on the Sony lot, was formed. Their first assignment was doing pre-viz for the long-forgotten Bruce Willis-drives-a-police-boat thriller “Striking Distance” but 10 years later, Sony Pictures Animation was created, and SPA was given a purpose beyond visual effects for major live-action features.