Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Boy Hired after Recreating the Trailer Shot-for-Shot in LEGO Style

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’–Boy Hired after Recreating the Trailer Shot-for-Shot in LEGO Style

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, (aka SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE PART ONE), Spider-Man/Miles Morales (voice: Shameik Moore), 2023. © Sony Pictures Releasing / © Marvel Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection
©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Anyone who has contributed to the $235 million box office haul for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has seen Preston Mutanga’s work on the big screen.

Mutanga, 14, from Toronto, Canada, who landed a role as animator on “Across the Spider-Verse” after he recreated the film’s trailer shot-for-shot in the style of LEGO blocks and left producers Chris Lord and Phil Miller dazzled (via The New York Times).

Mutanga uploaded his LEGO remake of the “Across the Spider-Verse” trailer to Twitter on Jan. 2 (see the post below). Lord and Miller, both active Twitter users, caught wind of the clip and were impressed — the directors know a thing or two about crafting LEGO-inspired sequences as the directors of 2014’s “The LEGO Movie.” When the team decided they wanted a scene in “Across the Spider-Verse” set in a LEGO universe, they decided to reach out to Mutanga.

Mutanga said he began animating as a kid after his father showed him “this 3-D software called Blender and I instantly got hooked on it.” The teenager added, “I watched a lot of YouTube videos to teach myself certain stuff.”

Remotely from Toronto, Mutanga spent several weeks animating a LEGO sequence for “Across the Spider-Verse.” As reported by The Times: “Every other week, he would meet via video with Miller, who would check on his progress and provide detailed input.”

“One new thing I learned was definitely the feedback aspect of it, like how much stuff actually gets changed from the beginning to the final product,” Mutanga said.

“‘The LEGO Movie’ is inspired by people making films with Lego bricks at home,” added Lord. “That’s what made us want to make the movie. Then the idea in ‘Spider Verse’ is that a hero can come from anywhere. And here comes this heroic young person who’s inspired by the movie that was inspired by people like him.”

Mutanga is still in high school, but he’s now one step closer to achieving his career goal of becoming a full-time animator. He said, “I adored the first movie and was so hyped for the second one, so getting to work with the people who actually made this masterpiece was honestly like a dream

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now playing in theaters from Sony Pictures.

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