"Across the Universe" Staff Members Exploited: Over 100 Artists Resign Early!

According to Vlture, 4 former members (already resigned) of the production team of "Spider-Man: Across the Universe" revealed that due to Phil Lord's intense management style, the production process of this $150 million animated film was exceptionally challenging, leading to the early resignation of approximately 100 artists.

These former production team members disclosed that Phil Lord failed to conceptualize the 3D animation during the early planning stages and preferred making direct modifications to fully rendered animations.

While extensive revisions are a standard procedure in animation, these changes typically occur in the early stages. However, the staff of "Across the Universe" was asked to modify approved animation segments, resulting in a backlog of work in multiple post-production departments. To compensate for wasted time, they were forced to work over 11 hours a day, 7 days a week for over a year. During the final rendering phase, some artists were compelled to make revisions up to five times.

The film was originally scheduled to premiere in theaters in April 2022 but was ultimately delayed to June 2023 due to various reasons. However, Sony executives disputed the claims about Lord's management style, stating that it was a normal "iterative process" in animation.