Few films released in 2023 were as visually sophisticated, narratively complex and emotionally resonant as “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” the follow-up to 2018’s Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” Watching the movie, you can feel what a massive undertaking it must have been – wrangling dozens of Spider-characters, imagining several artistically disparate worlds and crafting a story that is as compelling to the comic book novice as it is to Spider-Man fanatics.
And that Herculean task fell to the core creative team behind “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” writer/producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller and directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. Lord, Miller, Dos Santos, Powers and Thompson spoke to TheWrap as part of TheWrap Screening Series and explained how they divvied up the workload.
“The first year, we were across all meetings. We weren’t just getting to know each other as filmmakers but we began to know each other personally,” Dos Santos said. “It was true camaraderie that came about out of that. Once things started ramping up, we developed a friendly shorthand with one another. We could get all of our ideas across because we knew each other’s sensibilities at that point. We had this Camp Spider-Verse for the first year.”
Thompson added: “We all believed in each other’s abilities and respected each other but we also really valued each other’s opinion on everything. That’s what we extended to the crew too. We were all talking the whole time, even if we had to be separate.”
Powers, who co-directed the Oscar-winning “Soul,” agreed.
“The thing to understand about this film is that it really is unique among, not just animated films, but films,” Powers said. “There were technologies that had to be developed while we were in production. And certain things weren’t sorted out until very close to the release of the film. We were tinkering with visuals, we were tinkering with the script.”
Watch the full conversation with Lord, Miller, Dos Santos, Powers and Thompson here or at the top of this post.
