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cost an am zing $200 million to produce, according to one estimate, putting it in the ballpark of the previous film's $200$230 million. How does a director scale up after a more than decade-long career of music-videos,TV commercials and a $7.5 million romance comedy-drama, even one that did earn fi60.7 million? And add

to this that Spider-Man is a critical franchise for Columbia Pictures, which otherwise in that regard has onlyThe Smurfs and a limited stake in the MGM-produced
James Bond movies. Ervrvrn SroNe FRoM Tnn

"You know, it's really very simple on

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the surface,"Webb maintains. "You're addressing the same issues on a big movie as you are on a small one. Movies are a social experience for the audience-you want to create a feeling, and it's just the situations that are different." Having been an avid student of film since childhood, going to movie theatres at least once a
week, he says,

"I think I

have an intuitive

understanding of how things work that I can lean on.I also did music-videos and
commercials for fover] ten years, so
a

had

foundation. But even with a small movie, there was a lot of figuring things out and experimenting and using different equipment. So, really, (500) Days of Surnmerwas a sort of film school for me,"says Webb, who, after graduating from Colorado College

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with

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.,.

did attend a semester of film school at NewYork University.

7h e A rn

studio's

azin g Spi d r- M an 2-the fifth movie starring the arachnid

e

following Sam Raimi's highly trilogy and Webb's 20!2 reboot-picks up with Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) and his girlfriend Gwen
superhero, successful 2002-2007

Stacy (Emma Stone) graduating from high school and going into separate lives. As.Spider-Man, Peter later finds himself confronting Max Dillon (Jamie Folor), an employee at the shady multinational firm Oscorp, who through a genetics project involving electric eels has becomes a trauma6zed, blue-skinned conduit of electricity, able both to absorb it and to fire offpowerful bolts. In the comics het called Electro, and while comic-book movies sometimes do and sometimes dont use the occasionally silly-sounding names of superhero and supervillain characters, Webb says only that "the word 'Electro'is out there" in the film. Spider-Man also faces offagainst a surly Russian (Paul Giamatti) trying to steal an armored truck carrying valuable and dangerous scientific cylinders, and who later returns in an armored suit as an antagonist who in the comics is called The Rhino. (Is the name used in the film? "Eventually"is all Webb will say.) We additionally learn Oscorp appears devoted to introducing animal DNA to human beings-just like frankenfoods, except, y'know, frankenhumans-including wings a la the Spider-Man supervillain The Vulture. Since Columbia has committed to two more Spider-Man films, for 2016 and 20L8, and plans spinofls including one featuring the loose conglomeration ofvillains called the Sinister Six, this all makes cohesive sense in the fashion of Marvel Studios'unified Marvel Cinematic Universe over at Disney. And just as those films place as much a premium on character development and relationships as on visual spectacle, so too does this franchise in general and this installment in particular,Webb promises. "In this movie, Peter Parker is going to realize why he has to keep his identity secret-why it's so important.Just from a narrative standpoint, this movie is about choices: In the first movie, Peter asks whether or not he can be Spider-Man.In this movie, SpiderMan is wondering whether or not he can afford to be Peter Parker-he has to negotiate with the possibility of Peter Parker." Given preview scenes showing Gwen falling from some high structure and being caught by Spider-Man, it's impossible to ignore the possibility the film is revisiting one of the comics'most famed or perhaps infamous stories: "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" (The Amazing Spider-Man #727, cover-dated June 1"973), in which the Green Goblin throws her from the Brooklyn Bridge and Spider-Man, rescuing her with his adhesive webbing, inadvertently snaps her neck. (Other hypotheses about her cause ofdeath have been floated, but as

r0

www.FrLMrouRNAL.CoM

MAY 2OI4

Webb also is h"ppy about having taken

a more hands-on approach this time

with

some of the fight scenes. "In a very real way, fight scenes aredt far offfrom dance
scenes, which I did a lot of when I was doing music-videos," he notes. "You have a fight coordinator or you have a choreographer. At this point I understand that process pretfy well. Like with the plane," he says, referring to an opening flashback in which Peter's father, Richard Parker (Campbell Scott), fights an assassin (Bill Heck) on a doomed private jet. "From the beginning I knew it was going to be an incredibly small space and I knew it had to have a certain velocity and realism to it.I knew I wanted to use handheld cameras and my stunt coordinator, Andy Armstrong, worked with Campbell and Bill for a week. With the first movie because I didnt have that much experience with fight scenes,I would often sub in stuntmen. This time I wanted the actors doing as much as possible, and the plane scene is the best example of it. Richard Parker has to get [a computer file] out

()

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RoyThomas, Marvel's editor at the time, wrote in the letters page of issue #725,"It saddens us to have to say that the whiplash effect she underwent when Spidey's webbing stopped her so suddenly was, in fact, what killed her... [I]f he had done nothing, she still would certainly have perished. There was no way out.") Webb is understandably mum on Gwen's movie fate. He's more voluble speaking about the logistics of production, which took place completely in NewYork State, mostly in and around NewYork City. "We built a
massive version ofTimes Square in Long Island, in a parking lot," he says, for a major set-piece featuring Spider-Man and Dillon. He shot on stages at Grumman Studios, in Bethpage, and, as well, "We shot in Brooklyn, [and] we shot fPeter's friend] Harry Osborn's (Dane DeHaan) house down on Wall Street-we converted a bank. Part

EvENT AT Corvrtc

CoN.

of a car chase we shot in Rochester." The production made one much-publicized, only-in-New-York concession when it adjusted its schedule so as not to film in the heavily OrthodoxJewish neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, during the eight-day Passover religious holiday, in order to avoid the prosaic issue of hogging parking spaces during that busy time. "I reaily wasnt involved in that as much as the line producer and the studio," remembers Webb. "In New York you're in a thriving metropolis and a lot of times you're dealing with people who just dont
give a shit. They're not impressed by you, and you have to be really respectful of those communities. And it's hard-sometimes conflicts emerge, but we were certainly trying to be as respectful as we could of that situation," as local politicians at the time indeed said they were.

fvia a satellite link]. Everything else is an obstacle that prevents him from doing that. And, of course, there's an emotional agenda we're trying to project as well. The other stuffis technical: It just takes time and planning. Once you have the idea of it, the emotional underpinnings of it, clear in your head, the rest of it isn't that hard." Thatt actually a pretty modest thing to say, but it goes along with the 39-year-old Webb's boyish Midwestern mien.Take this emblematic exchange, with some background first: Dillon in this film is plagued by what seems like schizophrenic-or possibly external-voices feeding his paranoia. At the end of the previous film, an imprisoned Curt Connors speaks to a man who may or may not really be there, and is listed in the credits only as "Man in the Shadows."Might the voices and the man
be connected?
says,

It

seems logical.

"Wow.That is a good question,"Webb

genuinely surprised at the thoughtand then across his face, an endearingly mischievous grin takes over. "No," he finally says, still smiling. "I want so desperately to say yes now! That's is such great ^ idea! Maybe the third movie," he ponders-seeming now for all the world less the captain of a franchise than an ordinary film-kid who's been given great power. And then it hits you: Marc Webb zi Peter Parker. We should have known-'TVebb"is (MarcDsuch an obvious clue. Dont worry your secret's safe with us. *

t2

vvvvw.FTLMJOURNAL.COM

MAY 2OI4

FnUJcURNAL
INTERNAIIOl{At
MAY

ON THE COYER:

Seth Rogen and Zac Efron in Nerghbors, a Universal release.

DEPARTMENTS
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Elecrno-rvrNc
MarcWebb ups the ante in Spider-Man 2, withJamie Foorjoining the cast as Electro, pg. 8. Fnar vs Famw
Nicholas Stoller's comedyNeighbors pits dad Seth Rogen against frat dude ZacBfton,pg.74.

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THe Belle or BnrraNruln G.go Mbatha-Raw stars as Dido Elizabeth Belle, mixed-race daughter of a British admiral raised in a privileged world, pg. 18.
ONe ls

Andrew Garfield swings back into action in

TheAnazing
SpiderMan 2,

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Frangois Ozonintroduces Marine Vacth in Young U Beautifud a mediation on desire, pg.22.

Visit wwwfi lmjou rnal.com for breaking industry news, Screener blog and reviews.

Like us on Facebook
www.facebook.com/

lNAnornen Leacur
Austin-based movie-fi ning concept moves east to NewYork, pg.26.

filmjournal international

CtNeyaCoNTecu
Immersive experiences, laser projection, audio enhancements, satellite delivery and rockirt' seats are amongthe trends atNATO show, pg.30. CJ CGV: Class Launeare

SCREEN ADVERTISING

& ALTERNATIVE CONTENT

GatnrNc MomeNrum CAC pitches big screens for advertisers, pg. 50.

REVIEWS
as

perfect date

AlRru PanrnrDGE.

profiling new cinemas in the "Class of 2013r" pg.36.

series

Part4in FJI's ongoing

Blue Rurru.
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FfI's annual overview of new
technologies from leading rrrovie ticketing cornpanies, pgs 40-43.
ENrrcrNc rse AuoreNce Marketers drive demand for moviegoing, pg.44.

cinema advertising's appeal, pg. 54.

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Steve Ochs of

NCM talks about the

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"water cooler" effect of moviegoing, pg 57 .

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Joe.

Spotlight Cinema Networks focus on

upscale exhibitors, pg 58.

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Dan Borsdrke enters Concession Spodight, pg.48.

Arrennanrve CoNrrNr Tares CeNren Srace Lessons in success from those who've made it work, pg 60.

2.

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Sxow,Telr- & Grvr Mid-Atlantic NATO's Doug Murdoch

the tenets of the regional conference

shares

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in alternative content, pg64.

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