Sony Pictures Imageworks Expands Canadian Outpost

12:22 PM PST 2/3/2012 by Etan Vlessing

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The worldwide success of "The Smurfs," whose animation was largely done in Vancouver, has the Culver City-based studio doubling its production presence on the west coast.

TORONTO – Sony Pictures is not only shooting The Smurfs 2 in Montreal to take advantage of generous tax breaks and digital media incentives.

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The success of the original The Smurfs, whose animation was largely done at Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Vancouver studio facility, has the Hollywood studio doubling its FX and CGI animation production presence in the city's Yaletown district.

Sony Pictures Imageworks, which is based in Culver City, on Friday said it will open in March another 16,000 square foot facility in downtown Vancouver to handle work on Men in Black 3, The Amazing Spider Man and Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania.

Imageworks opened its first studio facility in Vancouver in 2010 as an off-shore extension of the Culver Studio studio.