Sony Pictures boss Tony Vinciquerrara recently confirmed the studio plans to increase the usage of AI in movies and TV shows. He believes it will help them produce those in "more efficient ways," a.k.a. saving money.
Last year, DreamWorks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg suggested AI has the potential to cut the costs of making an animated movie by as much as 90%, with only 50 artists needed to create them in place of 500. While that's an exciting prospect for bean counters, it's left film fans concerned.
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is currently undated due to what a long time the groundbreaking animated franchise takes to create. Now, producer/writer Christopher Miller has promised fans AI will not be used on his watch.
"There is no generative AI in Beyond the Spider-Verse and there never will be," he stated. "One of the main goals of the films is to create new visual styles that have never been seen in a studio CG film, not steal the generic plagiarized average of other artists' work."
It's clear that, if studios like Sony do intend to increase AI usage, they'll lose many of the filmmakers who make truly great stories for the screen.
Last year's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse made just shy of $700 million at the worldwide box office and was a critical hit. Its predecessor, 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, won the "Best Animated Feature" Oscar.
"What I can tell you about Beyond the Spider-Verse is that it's gonna be better than Into and Across the Spider-Verse, and that I will be in it. That's all I can tell you," Miles Morales actor Shameik Moore previously said of the threequel. "The second movie is taking us to the third movie."
"Action...you can expect Miles and Gwen. You can expect everything [laughs] you're expecting the continuation from the second one," Moore teased. "You can expect to see The Spot; you can expect some action-packed energy and some dilemmas and problems to solve."
As noted, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse still doesn't have a confirmed release date. Check out Miller's comments in full below.