Director Marc Webb Discusses The Amazing Spider-Man's Villain, Choosing Gwen Stacy, and Peter Parker's "Trickster" Humor
Posted 02.06.12 by Ryan
The Amazing Spider-Man will open in theaters this July, and already Sony is getting ready to spread the word. The first order of business is to separate the Spider-Man reboot from the previous trilogy, something the studio has done by starting to promote the movie as the "untold story that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story," as revealed in the recent official synopsis.
Director Marc Webb is continuing Sony's effort, admitting in a recent interview that the "untold story" aspect of The Amazing Spider-Man is what will differentiate it from the other Spider-Man movies. "It’s really important for us to be able to communicate that this isn’t a remake of Sam Raimi's movie," Webb said in a Comic-Con annual magazine (transcribed via Latino Review). "There's a new territory, there's a new villain, it's a different Peter Parker."
For The Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield takes over as Peter Parker, the high school student who gets superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. However, instead of Mary Jane Parker as a love interest, The Amazing Spider-Man stays closer to the character's comic book origins, adding Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) as Parker's first love. Webb explained the reasoning behind choosing Gwen over Mary Jane.
We've seen Mary Jane. I also think that Gwen Stacy is a young scientifically minded woman who's super smart, maybe even a little bit smarter than Peter at times. I like that dynamic, that there was a rivalry between the two of them in some way. And I think Emma and Andrew's chemistry really describes that in a fun, very intimate way.
Spider-Man's adversary in the reboot is Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), who was seen in the original trilogy briefly, but never as his alter ego of the Lizard. Using a new villain is another way that Amazing Spider-Man differs from the trilogy, and Webb says that Ifans adds a "a surly sophistication" to a character that turns during the story.
Curt Connors is a friend of Peter Parker. He is an ally who evolves into an adversary, but Peter always cares deeply for Dr. Connors. Rhys has two sides to his personality. He has a wonderful kindness and warmth, and he has this surly rock 'n' roll part of his personality and you really sense both of those in this movie.
While the posters and trailer have indicated that the reboot will have a darker tone than the original trilogy, Webb insists that The Amazing Spider-Man will have plenty of the character's signature sense of humor.
There's this trickster quality we were very keen on exploring, with that humor and that fun and that wisecracking stuff. We wanted to keep that alive, but we wanted it to be realistic. We wanted that humor to come from a real place. My aim was to create a world where you could feel all those emotions. There are certainly darker, more intense feelings in this movie. There is betrayal, there is tragedy, but there's also humor and romance. So it's a very complex bouquet of emotions, but what you have to tread on is what feels authentic and what feels real, and you have to earn those different emotions. There are moments of furiousness and gravity, absolutely. But are there moments of humor and levity and whimsy? Absolutely. Andrew was really great. He used this term to describe Peter Parker in Spider-Man and Spider-Man in particular: he's a trickster. He was like, "How would Spider-Man web this guy? He'd give him a wedgy or he'd do some awful graffiti." There's a punk rock quality to Peter Parker that's really irreverent and fun and that's something that Andrew embodies in a way that we haven't seen before. Certainly the materials that have come out have a darker sentiment or there's a darker projection, but we're very keen on staying loyal to the humor of Spider-Man.
Based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, The Amazing Spider-Man was written by James Vanderbilt. The cast includes Denis Leary as Capt. George Stacy, Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz as Richard and Mary Parker, Irrfan Khan as Van Atter, C. Thomas Howell as Ray, Chris Zylka as Flash Thompson, Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben, and Sally Field as Aunt May.
Next Showing: The Amazing Spider-Man opens July 3rd