By Andrew Webb
Journal Staff Writer
Hollywood visual effects firm Sony Pictures Imageworks Wednesday confirmed plans to open a branch in Albuquerque.
The Culver City, Calif., company will initially employ 100 here in a new 100,000-square-foot building adjacent to Albuquerque Studios, a massive film studio complex south of the Albuquerque International Sunport.
The facility will be designed to house up to 300, depending on film production requirements, Don Levy, a senior vice president of marketing for Sony Pictures Imageworks, told the Journal Wednesday night.
Sony Pictures Imageworks creates computer-generated special effects and animation. Its film credits include the "Spider-Man" series, "Superman Returns," and the soon-to-be-released "Surf's Up."
For the last few years, the state has created an arsenal of incentives, including tax breaks and interest-free loans, to court film and television production.
"New Mexico offers a combination of quality of life plus economic advantages that will help us as a company to manage both our cost and expand our capacity," Imageworks President Tim Sarnoff said in a statement.
Gov. Bill Richardson, in a release, said it was "a tremendous day for entertainment production in New Mexico."
"This announcement means there's now no better place for movie and television production than New Mexico," he said.
The agreement is one of several inked between film industry suppliers and Albuquerque Studios, a nearly complete, $74 million complex of soundstages and other filmmaking facilities at master-planned community Mesa del Sol. Under the agreement, Albuquerque Studios will lease the space to Imageworks.
Imageworks will also add the University of New Mexico to its Imageworks Professional Academic Excellence program. The IPAX program, which involves other universities and colleges around the country, aims to foster future generations of digital animation talent.
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