Speaking to Movies.ie primarily about returning to Ireland to film Stella Days,actor Martin Sheen discussed a number of topics including his experience filming The Amazing Spider-Man. Here's what Sheen had to say about Marc Webb's reboot and his Uncle Ben role.
QUESTION: How does it feel to be involved with The Amazing Spider-Man?
MARTIN SHEEN:
"Oh, that! [laughs] It has really come down to, and not just me but for a lot of guys my age who have been around as long as I have, you either get offered small parts in big pictures or big parts in small pictures. I love playing the big parts in small pictures because it is about what we do for a living, but you get paid far more to play a small part in a big picture [laughs] so Spider-Man permitted me the luxury of doing Stella Days because it was such a big pay day. I loved it, it is very rare these days that I am on a set where there are so many people fussing over so many things. There are like, 200 people on the set and they are all very engaged. I had very little to do, but it was great working with Sally Fields, she is one of my favourite people in the whole world."
QUESTION: What was it like filming in 3D?
MARTIN SHEEN:
"They had a camera... I have never seen the likes of this camera before; it looked like a big box, with a lot of electronic equipment attached to it. They would play the scenes back on the set and put on the glasses and they are looking at it in 3D right there!! It's amazing! I had never seen anything like it! They are all so skilled; there are so many skilled positions that were not there before. When I was in the business, if there was a crowd scene there were a lot of people there. Now it is projected on green screen and they replicate it. I am not used to that, but it is such a luxury to do those films, to be fussed over [laughs]."
Now the ultimate fate of Uncle Ben is no huge spoiler but in looking at Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man film, Uncle Ben and Aunt May were very important and had a significant amount of screen time. Marc Webb's reboot is trying to hammer home in it's marketing, that this is "The Untold Story" so does that mean we'll quickly move to Uncle Ben's death in The Amazing Spider-Man? Sheen could possibly be signifying such a progression with his statement that
"he had very little to do."
Running Time: Unknown
Release Date: July 3, 2012 (USA)
MPAA Rating: Unknown
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Rhys Ifans, Emma Stone, Sally Field and Martin Sheen.
Directed by: Marc Webb
Written by: James Vanderbilt (initial screenplay),Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves (revised draft)
Click
here to read a rundown of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN spoilers for 2011.
The Amazing Spider-Man is an upcoming American superhero film directed by Marc Webb, based on the comic book of the same name and starring Andrew Garfield as the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It is the fourth Columbia Pictures film that portrays Spider-Man in film and is a reboot of the film series that stars the superhero. The cast includes Garfield as Peter Parker and his alter ego, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors. The film will portray Parker as his super powers are evolving in high school.
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. Filming started in December 2010 in Los Angeles before moving to New York City with the help of RED Epic camera. The film entered post-production in April 2011.
Sony Entertainment has focused its marketing campaign with a promotional website with released images, 2 theatrical trailers, a prologue screening in certain cities and a video game tie-in being developed by Beenox among other products. The Amazing Spider-Man is scheduled to be released in 3D and IMAX 3D on July 3, 2012. A sequel of the film is being planned for release in 2014 with James Vanderbilt hired to again write the screenplay.