The film's development began simultaneously with Sony announcing the cancellation of Spider-Man 4. Opting for a reboot with the same production team rather than another sequel, the studio announced a July 2012 release date for what was now titled The Amazing Spider-Man. James Vanderbilt was hired to write the script while Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves helped fine-tune the script. Pre-production involved the casting of many actors and actresses trying out the role of Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy respectively until Garfield and Stone were the clear choice. Principal photography started in December 2010 in Los Angeles before moving to New York City with the help of Red Digital Cinema Camera Company's RED Epic camera. The film entered post-production in April 2011 with the film being shot in 3D with the help of 3ality Technica and with James Horner being involved with the film score.
Premise
Teenage social outcast Peter Parker spends his days trying to unravel the mystery of his own past and winning the heart of his high school crush, Gwen Stacy. Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase belonging to his father, who abandoned him when he was a child, which leads him to his dad's former partner, Dr. Connors. The discovery of his father's secret will ultimately shape his destiny of becoming "Spider-Man" and brings him face to face with Connors' villainous alter ego, the Lizard.[4][5][6]
[edit]Cast
Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-Man[7]
A character that is depicted as trying to find his purpose in life ever since his parents disappeared 13 years ago.[4][6] Garfield described Peter Parker as somebody he can relate to while also claiming him as an important symbol to him since he was four years old.[8][9][10] He described his Peter Parker as an outsider, as someone hard to get close to because of him being dropped.[11] While being interviewed by SFX magazine. Garfield also compared his Spider-Man as a metaphor for internet trolls with the comparison of his wise-cracking humor that he will have in the film.[12] Garfield drew from his life experiences as inspiration for the role, revealing, "I was thinking of my history and thinking of the kid at school who I wasn't as strong as, who behaved badly to a lot of people – including myself – and who I constantly tried to stand up to but never had the physical prowess to".[13] In comparison with the actor who originally portrayed Spider-Man, Garfield said he respects Tobey Maguire as an actor and that when he first saw Maguire play Spider-Man he "was blown away by his interpretation."[13] Garfield confessed to The Sun and then even to Maguire when being interviewed to him in VMAN magazine that when he first watched the film Spider-Man when he was younger, he would recite Maguire's line in the mirror with his friend and the friend would joke to him that he would never be Spider-Man.[13][14] After taking the role, Garfield studied spiders' movements and tried to incorporate them as much as he could, saying Parker is "a boy/spider in terms of how he moves, and not just in the suit."[15] The actor then stated in Details magazine that he took Yoga and Pilates for the role of the film admitting that he wanted to feel more flexible than he has ever felt.[16] On taking over the role Garfield explained, "I see it as a massive challenge in many ways.... To make it authentic. To make the character live and breathe in a new way. The audience already has a relationship with many different incarnations of the character. I do, as well. I'm probably going to be the guy in the movie theater shouting abuse at myself. But I have to let that go. No turning back. And I wouldn't want to".[17] When first wearing the Spider-Man costume Garfield admitted to shedding tears and trying to imagine "a better actor in the suit".[18] While on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Garfield described the suit as "uncomfortable" and admitted to wearing nothing inside the suit because of it being skin tight.[19] When filming Garfield explained that he had four months of training and described his physical roles on stunts as terribly challenging and exhausting.[20]
Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy
A high school classmate and love interest of Peter Parker.[21] A smart, charismatic and rebellious girl and the chief Intern at Oscorp.[4][6] Stone dyed her hair blonde for the role of the character, which happens to be her natural hair color even though she is better recognized with her red hair.[22][23] Stone described her character as "a daddy's girl" who is very responsible and very protective of her family and is a lover of science. [24][25] Stone says that her character "offers Parker a world of stability, of a family unit not marred with parental loss and, beyond physical allure, the two also forge an intellectual connection over their shared love of science."[24] She explains that her character "is stuck between [her father] the Captain and Peter Parker and Spider-Man who have different ways about going about finding justice in their lives" which she felt was a fun thing to explore.[26] She felt that she had a responsibility to educate herself on Spider-Man, admitting that she did not know much about the character beyond the Raimi films and only being familiar with Bryce Dallas Howard's portrayal in the Spider-Man 3 film.[27][26] She explained, "I was so, so excited to learn about Gwen, because (I) hadn't read the comic book growing up, and my experience was with the Sam Raimi movies. . . . I always assumed that Mary Jane was his first love".[24] After her role she expressed interest in Spider-Man, the character she played and the rest of the Marvel Universe that she was going to be involved with.[27] Stone also had this to say about the fans who would be protective of Spider-Man and the character she plays: "There's a part of me that really wants to please people that love Spider-Man or Gwen Stacy and want her to be done justice. I hope they'll give me license to interpret her my way."[23]
Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors / The Lizard[28][29]
He is depicted as one of Oscorps leading scientific minds, he attempts to engineer a revolutionary regeneration serum to help re-grow limbs and human tissue. Unfortnately something goes horribly wrong and he is then transformed as the monster known as the Lizard.[4][6] Ifans described the character that he is playing not as an evil incarnated villain but as a flawed character much like Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde.[30] "Curt Connors is by no means an evil villain," Ifans stated. "He’s not like the Batman villains, like the Joker, who are the embodiment of evil. Curtis Connors is a great man who makes a bad decision. ... [T]hat's the whole magic of the Spider-Man idea. These people are the embodiment of our flaws and our desires that lead to tragedy."[31] Ifans described Curt as a force for good throughout his life: "He's a geneticist who wants to help people, like him, who are limbless. In his eagerness to advance that science, he makes a mistake and that's an occurrence we've seen throughout time, sometimes to our benefit, sometimes to our detriment. ...He is a broken man who wants to fix himself."[32] In a September, 2011 interview, Ifans claimed that his character spends the majority of the film as a human. While filming for the 9-foot tall Lizard, Ifans was required to wear a CGI suit. Initially, a large stunt-double was used as a stand-in for the role, but Ifans insisted on portraying the transformed character, to which Webb agreed. Commenting on the technology used to bring his character to life, Ifans continued "I had a green suit on, and then this cardboard head, and these big claws... Each and every time you see the Lizard, the technology is so advanced now that when the Lizard's eyes move, they're my eyes. If I frown or show any emotion, they're my emotions. That's how spectacularly advanced technology is."[33] Ifans also said that he voiced the Lizard as well explaining, "I'm sure the voice will be toyed with in the eventual edits, but when I was shooting the CGI moments, when I wasn't actually human, when I was Lizard, I looked like a crash-test dummy in a green leotard thing. There were many moments when I had to speak to Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as the Lizard."[34]
Denis Leary as Captain George Stacy
Gwen's father and a New York City Police Department captain.[35] Leary explained that he did not know much about Spider-Man in the comics explaining that he is more of a Batman guy. Not the '60s – but the really dark Batman. But he stated that his wife was a Spider-Man fan which was why he went to the Tobey Maguire ones.[36] He explained that his wife felt that Spider-Man's working class ethos, the young teenager turning into a man melodrama and his orphan back story as intriguing. As did he, once he was introduced to the series saying, "He's far from a billionaire and he’s born of this world — it’s a struggle that's easy to identify with."[37] Another thing he liked to note that before he was ever cast as George Stacy his good friend, Jeff Garlin, who happens to be a Spider-Man fan said to him, "The first time I met you, I thought you were George Stacy!"[36] Leary told the Los Angeles Times that when taking over the role of the character, Webb said that he wanted him and the rest of the cast to be ready to jump off the page and be in the moment but Leary was thinking to himself at the time "How much time are we going to have to do that on this giant action movie?" About being in that moment Leary said, "Almost every day it happened. For an actor, that's a dream."[38]
Martin Sheen as Ben Parker
Peter Parker's uncle.[39] Sheen admitted that he didn't know anything about Spider-Man other than watching Tobey Maguire's portrayal in Spider-Man 2. He also didn't know much about the character that he played except for knowing that Cliff Robertson previously played the part.[40] Martin Sheen described his character as being a surrogate father saying, "I'm dealing with this adolescent who is having problems with changes, with hormones changing and his getting out of hand. I have to give him the marching orders and so forth."[41]Webb said, "You think of Martin Sheen as President Bartlett. He has that sense of benevolent authority, but there's something else that's important, in terms of the dynamic that I wanted to explore, vis a vis Peter's relationship with his absent parents." He feels that unlike Peter being a scientist, Ben represents this blue collar guy which can create a little bit of gap between him and Peter. Webb felt that Martin was able to embody this blue collar guy.[42]
Sally Field as May Parker
Ben Parker's wife, and Peter Parker's aunt.[43][44] Webb felt that "when you cast someone like Sally, they come with a certain level of awareness and real genuine affection, which for Aunt May is an incredibly important thing to have. Webb said that "we all love Aunt May" but he wanted to create a tension between May and Peter. Webb explained that he wanted a concerned and loving character and feels that's what someone like Sally Field gives."[42]
Irrfan Khan as Dr. Ratha[4][45]
When originally revealed as part of the cast, the websites initially reported Khan to play the comic book character, Van Adder.[45][46] Khan described his role as a "pivotal role". Khan also said that he got his role after appearing in the drama tv series In Treatment. He said that Marc Webb has seen his work and approaching him saying he wants to work with Khan.[47][48] Khan admitted though that he wasn't really interested in the project at first but that both of his sons were excited about it and insisted that he go.[49]
Chris Zylka as Flash Thompson
Zylka first tweeted that he was involved with the film.[50] On November 2010, he was revealed to be playing Flash Thompson, a nemesis of Peter Parker in school who picks on Parker.[51] Of playing Flash Thompson he said, "You just try to focus. As an artist or as an actor, you just try to focus and stay in that world and block it all out."[52]
Campbell Scott and Julianne Nicholson were originally reported to play Peter's parents, Richard and Mary Parker, respectively.[46] Embeth Davidtz later replaced Nicholson in the role.[53] Annie Parisse was reported to play "the villain's wife".[46] C. Thomas Howell portrays Ray, a construction worker whose son is saved by Spider-Man.[54] Hannah Marks portrays Missy Kallenback, an unpopular girl who has a crush on Peter Parker.[55] Miles Elliot portrays Billy Connors, the son of Dr. Connors.[29] Kelsey Chow has a small role as Sally Avril, a girl who goes to Peter Parker's high school.[56] Unlike the original films it was reported that J. Jonah Jameson would not appear in this film.[57] Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee has a cameo appearance, as he did in the previous films, which will involve him in an action scene and which he referred to as his "best, most unusual one yet!"[58] At the 2011 Dallas Comic Con, Lee enthusiastically talked about his cameo. He will play a librarian listening to music on his headphones while stamping books and dancing at the same time, despite the on-going fight between Spider-Man and the Lizard.
Effects
The company 3ality Technica of Burbank, California was involved with shooting the equipment for the 3D for the film.[99][100] The film is reported to be the first to be lensed in 3D using 3ality Digital's TS-5 wireless and handheld beamsplitter mirror rig.[101] 3ality technology helped make it possible for the film not to be post-converted to 3D.[99] About 3D Webb explained that he wanted to create a new 3D experience for Spider-Man: "Because we're shooting in 3D, I wanted to conceive of certain things very specifically for 3D. There's an experimental component to 3D that's fascinating and we're experimenting with generating that point of view – so you feel what Peter Parker feels, you feel what Spider-Man feels when he's jumping over buildings and over the streets.[94] He felt that if there ever should be a 3D film it should be about Spider-Man."[102] Webb elaborated that he shot the film in stereo so it was native 3D while nothing was ever converted. Webb felt that when you get that scope, the film will gradually expand.[102] Webb stated that he and the crew "started making the movie around the time Avatar came out" which made every studio in the world want 3D. He admitted that he hadn't worked with it before and he didn't want it forced upon the movie because he has seen bad conversions and it scared him that it hasn't been used it properly. He wanted to figure out how to give the audience an experience "that's worthy of a Spider-Man film".[67] Webb also said while James Cameron liked to play 3D as depth, Webb wanted to push it a little bit further. He wanted it so that it would come out of you with films such as Creature from the Black Lagoon and House of Wax that he remembered when he was a kid as an inspiration for him to exploit that.[42]
About the creation of the Lizard, Webb explained that there was an entire staff of people dedicated to make the Lizard look lifelike. They started by thinking about a lizard's biology and how his muscles would work.[103] When shooting sequences of the Lizard, the crew actually shot an actual big human guy that was referred to as Big John, who did a lot of the interactive stuff.[42]Once the interaction of the Lizard was done, then the computer-generated lizard would replace him.[42] Ifans would do the motion capture of the Lizard with Webb feeling that he should try to incorporate his performance into The Lizard and keep Ifan's performance in that creature. Webb described that as taking enormous amount of time and tricky.[42] Webb also explained a lot of motion capture was used to the point that every moment was rendered from that input. It took a massive quantity of work just to find the nuances, the eyebrow moves, the lip curls. And when they were trying to create a character that speaks, they had to create a mouth armature and a biologically working palate that can actually create words.[84] When computer generating the Lizard, Webb wanted to create emotion within the character that are essentially computer animated just like Pixar movies which he felt does it very well.[42]
In February 2012, the film was reported to be getting a digital touch up in Vancouver by Sony Pictures Imageworks.[104]
[edit]Music
James Horner is reported to be involved with the score of the film.[3]When hearing Horner's first musical cue Webb described it as being "spectacular". Webb said he wanted to find a composer to understand both grandeur and intimacy and he felt that James was a genius at that. "I wanted to to create a score that felt massive and huge but also intimate and small." Webb told Collider at the Wondercon in Anaheim, California.[105] The score album will be released under the Sony Classical banner.