COMPANY TOWN

Technology: Sony Pictures Entertainment is increasing its commitment to new technology. The budget for the company’s new-technologies division for the next fiscal year will jump from about $25 million to about $80 million, according to sources.

The funds are earmarked for the development of a virtual reality system and other entertainment projects, sources said. The division’s staff and overhead will not expand significantly. A Sony spokesperson refused to comment.

Sony’s new-technology group, which is headed by Mitchell Cannold, was formed about 18 months ago to develop and analyze new-technology opportunities for Sony’s various entertainment units. With the consolidation of Sony’s U.S. entertainment and electronics divisions last spring, the group’s purview expanded to include all of Sony Corp.’s U.S. divisions.

Last year, Cannold’s group facilitated Sony’s agreement to finance and distribute three films produced by Interfilm, in which the audience can choose plot twists and influence the ending.

As companies such as Iwerks, Showscan and Imax push the limits of the traditional movie theater experience, and as advances in interactive television and high-definition TV promise to alter entertainment in the home, all of the major studios are looking at new ways to move motion pictures into the new generation of entertainment products.