I was inspired by Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire’s wonderful work and wanted to honour them.”
– MARC WEBB
His forte always had been romantic genre movies, is what he says! He had very little knowledge that very soon he might be directing a reboot film in the Spider-man series “THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN”. Marc Webb when was approached by the producers of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN with a proposal to direct it, prompt came his reply, “I don’t make movies like that!” But the producers were super confident about their choice.
Marc Webb who entered the Hollywood’s glamour world initially directed the music videos and later made his debut in the film-world with the movie “(500) Days of Summer”. His potentials became pristine as soon as the movie found itself a place in the hearts of the audience. Webb once again weaves a magical web of love with the story of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Recalling the time when he was first approached to sign as the director for the film, Webb says he was shocked and thought it to be an absurd idea. There was pressure that he felt from the comic book fan community and the wonderful work done by Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire. But how did he overcome it? “I was also inspired by that and wanted to honour that and make something that makes a different interpretation. Whether it is Gwen Stacy, or Peter Parker’s parents, or Dr Curt Connors — there’s so much stuff that we haven’t seen before that’s interesting. That inspired me,” says Webb.
Considering his surname Webb sure seems like a right guy to direct the movie but over the choice of Andrew Garfield starring as the lead for the movie, Webb says, “He was just the right guy. In his screen-test, he killed it. It was one of those things – we did the screen-test and that night I was cutting it together and I couldn’t stop watching it. He moved like a kid, his elbows were flying all over the place, and even though he’s a little bit older, he had the humour, the awkwardness but also an ability to go deep in a way that very few actors can do. He’s a highly-trained actor, he’s very thoughtful about that and that grabbed me. The editors we’re working with, they didn’t know he was British!”
The previous series of the Spider-man showed Mary Jane as the love interest of Peter Parker but Webb’s reboot film will showcase Gwen Stacy instead of Mary Jane. “In the comics, Gwen Stacy is Peter Parker’s first love. I thought about bringing Gwen is because the dynamics of the romantic chemistry between a powerful smart girl and a powerful smart guy intrigued me.”
The movie has retained the important iconic elements of the comics like the way Peter becomes Spider-Man, the character of Uncle Ben and the webshooters etc. but the addition to the story will be the character of Dr Ratha, played by Irfan. “Irfan plays boss to Dr Curt Connors, the big gun himself. Dr Curt is a smart man, so I needed somebody with a level of intellectual sophistication as Rhys. Irfan has a very strong presence. He is so sophisticated and has such dignity and splendour onscreen. I love his subtlety. He is in the film for only 4-5 scenes, but those have a powerful impact. I just wanted to be able to work with Irfan and the first chance I got I persuaded him to do this role. Thankfully he decided to do the film. I am so inspired by his craft, work ethic and wonderful humanity.”
The Sony Pictures movie which releases all over India on 29th June, week ahead of USA will be in 3D. Talking about using 3D technology Marc says, “There is something about the experiential quality of Spider-man that I thought was great to render in 3D.We wanted to put audience in the shoes of Spider-man. I wanted the audience to feel that connection and thats what we tried to do. And at the end of the day it’s just the way of storytelling!”
