|
 Forty
years ago, a geeky science nerd named Peter Parker was bitten by a
genetically altered spider and had his life changed forever. Now, Peter
Parker, Mary Jane Watson, Uncle Ben, the Green Goblin and the rest of
the Spidey gang will finally make their long-awaited feature film debuts
in Columbia Pictures' 'Spider-Man,' one of the most anticipated and
heavily-hyped films of the year. But before audiences sit down to
experience what has been dubbed as "the ultimate spin," one has to give
credit where it’s due and acknowledge one of the visionary masterminds
behind 'Spider-Man,' director Sam Raimi. A fan of the Spider-Man comics
since he was a child, Raimi was eager to bring Peter Parker's story to
life on the big-screen. He went to Columbia Pictures and, while pitching
himself as the high profile project's director, explained his love for
the character. Although Raimi was more known for directing such recent
films as 'The Gift,' 'For the Love of the Game' and 'A Simple Plan,' the
Michigan State graduate originally got his start in filmmaking alongside
longtime friend Bruce Campbell, writing and directing the cult classic
'Evil Dead.'
Raimi's popular filmmaking style and offbeat sense of humor
helped him evolve from campy, cult classics like 'Army of Darkness' and
'Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn' to mainstream and critically-acclaimed
independent movies with some of Hollywood's most recognizable stars. He
executive produced the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicles 'Hard Target' and
'Timecop,' wrote and directed the fantasy thriller 'Darkman' with Liam
Neeson and Frances McDormand, directed the Russell Crowe/Leonardo
DiCaprio/Sharon Stone western 'The Quick and the Dead' and even helped
pen the Coen brothers' 'The Hudsucker Proxy.' Raimi's work soon branched
off into television as well, and before he knew it he was executive
producing hit syndicated series like 'Xena: Warrior Princess' and
'Hercules: Legendary Journeys.' With such an extensive career— detailing
everything from visual action-sequences to compelling, complex stories—
Columbia knew that Raimi was just the man to bring Spider-Man to life.
Nevertheless, Raimi admits that one of the biggest challenges he's faced
as a filmmaker was attempting to make Spider-Man fans feel that the
40-years it took for their beloved comic hero's live-screen adaptation
was worth the wait.
UPBEAT Well, congratulations Mr. Raimi. It looks as though you have a
hit on your hands already.
Sam Raimi "(laughs) Great! I hope it
does well for Sony. They've been good to me."
UPBEAT Is it true that you're already working on Spiderman 2?
Sam Raimi "Well, Sony has asked
me to direct number two and I've signed on to do it, but I'm not
technically working on it yet. Avi Arad, the head of Marvel, and one of
the producers has put a page of ideas in front of me, but I honestly
haven't read it through."
UPBEAT 'Spider-Man' is one of those stories that deal a lot with
transition— the transition of Peter Parker to Spider-Man and of Norman
Osborn to the Green Goblin, for example. Do you tend to like a story
more if it deals with transition? I know 'Darkman' dealt a lot with that
theme as well.
Sam Raimi "People go through
transitions. 'Darkman' is kind of based on comic books that I've always
read, although it's an original story in the model of these Marvel comic
books. It's only cause I couldn't get the rights to a comic book that I
had to write my own comic book. So 'Darkman' is patterned after the
comic books and 'Darkman' is one of those original comic books. But I
don't know if I am interested in the story of transformation so much as
I just love stories of particular characters that happen to go through
these transformations."
UPBEAT When you first got the script to 'Spider-Man,' what went
through your mind when you realized you would have to create believable,
live-action sequences of Spider-Man swinging through the city?
Sam Raimi "Yes, that was a
tremendous question. How were we going to get the images of Spider-Man
soaring through the air? I had no idea. I was terrified. I was like
Spider-Man in that I was filled with self-doubt but without any of the
good looks or the superhero thing going. I had no idea how we were going
to pull that off, and I ran a lot of bad ideas through my idea board.
Fortunately I had John Dykstra, who's this genius of visual effects.
John Dykstra is the visual effects designer on this picture and he also
did the original 'Star Wars.' He was one of the first fellas to come up
with the idea of a computerized camera system. He can think inside and
outside of the box. He's really a brilliant fellow and an interesting
human being. John said, 'Sam, I think that we can do this with full CGI.
The whole Spider-Man character' and I thought maybe in the wide, little
pieces but not during everything. He just said, 'Yes, we can. Let's
start our tests to prove to ourselves that we can do it.' "
 UPBEAT
Let's talk about the casting of the film. Obviously a lot of actors
auditioned for the role of Peter Parker. What made you decide to go with
Tobey Maguire, who up until now has shown little range as an action
star?
Sam Raimi "I had been
interviewing a lot of different actors for the role of Peter Parker. All
the kids in America grew up reading 'Spider-Man' so a lot of the young
kids were interested— all the young actors you could think of. The
studio had been sending me tapes starring all these young actors, and
'Cider House Rules' was one of them. My wife saw it and said, 'You've
got to see this guy— he's brilliant.' So I saw it and I thought he was
brilliant— very real, very powerful in that performance. I thought,
'this guy is just great' and it looked like he could play 17 years old,
which, that in itself— that first criteria— limits the available actors
we are all aware of down to 5% of what you might think. Cause even if
they are a young guy, if you really sit down and think about it you may
say, 'He couldn't really play someone younger than 21. He couldn't play
17— that would be very tough.' So I then met with Tobey and he seemed
very personable, intelligent, had a charisma and we could communicate
very well. I really liked him— he had a sense of humor, which told me a
lot about that we could work together. So that's when, in answer to your
question, I felt that it was it. Watching his performance in the movie
was most of it, but knowing that he was intelligent and communicative
was the rest of it."
UPBEAT Obviously Maguire had to go through some sort of routine to
get in shape for a role that's this physically demanding. How did he
change physically during the making of the film?
Sam Raimi "Physically, he could
answer this question better, but we got him a trainer for his body to
keep him slim but make him tight— we didn't want a muscle man. We wanted
a live body of an acrobat. I had my stunt coordinator work with him on a
daily basis on wire training, to get familiar with these harnesses that
he'd be flying in quite a bit. We also got him a dance trainer to work
on his rhythm and movement cause Spider-Man is really a dancer of the
skies. Tobey would know the rest better, but he got himself in shape."
UPBEAT Was it harder to direct Maguire when he was playing the
superhero, given the fans' obsession with what Spider-Man should look
and act like?
Sam Raimi "No. For me Spider-Man
doesn't even exist— it's always Peter Parker. And I always try to direct
the scenes like Peter Parker is in the scene, just with more freedom
since he's wearing a mask and losing his sense of identity just a bit. I
actually only tried to direct Spider-Man as though he was Peter— keep
that character alive— because that's what's so different about Stanley
and Steve Ditko's creation of Spider-Man in my opinion. That is that in
the early '60s they had the intelligence and the creativity to make a
super hero that was a human being first and foremost. When you think
about Superman, he only pretends to be that bumbling Clark Kent— Clark
Kent doesn't even exist. They took the opposite approach so I just
directed everything I had toward that approach. Let's make Peter Parker
a real character. Let's make Spider-Man not some invincible icon, but a
flawed human being wearing this pretty colored outfit, doing the best
that he can and just doing the right thing. And once he does the right
thing, let him worry if he did the right thing or not. Superman is never
caught awake in bed one night wondering, 'Hmm... should I have done
something different?' He's always so certain that what he's done is
right and I'm never that way. Except when I was a bus boy. When I was a
bus boy I knew— in fact, I prided myself on doing the best I could at
these tables— that no one could ever be a better bus boy than me. I had
done my job perfectly and I would sleep perfectly at night. But that
time passed. Everything else in my life is filled with questions and
self-doubt, and that's why I like Spider-Man. He addresses that— he's
one of us. He questions the morality of his actions often."
 UPBEAT
Spider-Man has a history of fighting off a lot of great comic book
villains— so why the Green Goblin?
Sam Raimi "I wanted to go with
the Green Goblin. They had Electro and Dr. Octopus, which are great
villains— I'm sorry, I think they had Electro and Sandman originally—
but I wanted the Green Goblin because, from the comic books, I always
thought that the best dynamic was with a villain that could effect Peter
Parker's life. Norman Osborn happened to be the father of Peter's best
friend, Harry. And Norman Osborn could become in our movie, I felt, sort
of a surrogate father to Peter even at the expense of his own son's
love. So there could be a certain dynamic— a dramatic dynamic— that
could be interesting there. Therefore, once the Green Goblin, who is
fighting Spider-Man by night, finds out that Spider-Man is in fact Peter
Parker, this young boy who he's given so much to emotionally for a guy
like him— at the expense of his own son's love— he feels a great sense
of personal betrayal and anger at this kid and is justified in wanting
to strike out. Those are the reasons why I went with Goblin."
UPBEAT Did Marvel Comic legend Stan Lee help write or contribute any
advice to the making of 'Spider-Man?'
Sam Raimi "Stan wasn't involved
in the writing of this particular piece. However, everything is based on
the 40 years of Stan Lee comic books that he wrote along with many other
great Marvel writers. A lot of the contributions of those comic books
also came from the artists. There is no question he was integral to this
picture and it's his character. But what really happened was James
Cameron did the treatment, David Koepp did a draft based on that and
then we dramatically changed that draft— swapping off storylines,
characters and villains. But two or more of Cameron's ideas stayed and
Koepp did a number of drafts. A lot of ideas came from the visual effect
department I worked with, my storyboard artists, myself, my producers,
the actors— everyone contributed. Then Alvin Sargent did some writing on
the picture— and he helped me out quite a bit— and that's how the script
came into being. So it wasn't really Lee."
UPBEAT Finally, you have a close relationship with the Coen brothers
and you guys have a history of working on one another's films. Did they
direct any scenes in 'Spider-Man' fans should be aware of?
Sam Raimi "Not this one, no.
I've worked on their scripts and they've worked on mine, and I worked as
a second unit director once on a movie for them— 'The Hudsucker Proxy.'
Joel visited the 'Spider-Man' set one day, though. He could have
directed a scene— that would have been fun."
UB
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