The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance - leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr Curt Connors (Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.
"It's not the guy who gets sand kicked in his face. We don't live in that world anymore. Zuckerberg built Facebook! We tried to make another movie with Sam Raimi and that group. And Sam, as the leader of the franchise, was the very first to say, very elegantly, 'I've told my story.' And I think it is an important point that he made. The metaphor of Spider-Man - the essence of the character - is about a boy wrestling with becoming a man. That's what 'With great power comes great responsibility' means. It's about growing up, and how hard that is, and I think we had explored that fully with Sam. And so when Raimi said that, and we all agreed that it was a whole, and a piece, we were faced with the question 'Well, do we not make more Spider-Man movies?"
I strongly believe that great characters and great stories can and should be retold and reimagined for different generations. And Peter Parker is one of those characters. Marc Webb's big thing when he met with us was a version of Peter Parker that was very real and true and authentic to young people today. We still have the essence of the character from Stan Lee, but Andrew's Peter lives in our world, and it's a different interpretation of the character, interpreted for the world we live in. He's an outcast, but he's not somebody knocking on the glass, trying to get in.
The Untold Story - that was a big part of the decision. We wanted to explore the notion of 'What happened to him? What happened to his parents?' In other movies it was something you knew, but it was never explored. And it is the essence of Peter's journey - it defines him in this movie. So you take the character who's got a big hole in his heart and soul, and you extrapolate that. He's this outsider who doesn't want to be a part of anythings, but he also has this incredible sense of justice and what's right.
He's like a folk hero. And what you see in this movie is that he's a hero before he gets bitten - he just doesn't have the power. But it doesn't mean he's not going to take a punch for it. It's a very different version of him, right off the bat, and we were very clear about wanting to tell a different story, and a relevant story, to depart from what we'd done. And that's the essence of where it departs.
It's a great story and one of the things that we spend our time in Hollywood is looking for great stories and characters. It feels organic. I know what you're saying and yes, there's a cynical spin, that there's a dearth of new ideas. But how many times do Pride and Prejudice or Hamlet or Great Expectations get made? These stories get retold because the essence of them is beloved. But sometimes there's a different cultural spin, and people love it. Look, we are in the business of creating entertainment that people are drawn to.
And people love Spider-Man. I've a 5-year-old son, and for him this will be HIS Spider-Man. That's the genius of what Stan Lee created - he's all of us, he's everyman. And because of that he's very personal for people. And there's a million different ways to access that. So I think he becomes available in a way that other characters might not - to a new generation.
Ultimate Spider-Man was a part of conversation but we also went all the way back. We didn't want to be faithful to a particular run in the books but to just tell a great story. So we borrow selectively from different periods, in the best way, because it's the essence of Spider-Man.
People come to movies with different expectations. What they come to Spider-Man for it is the story of Peter. Of course we'd be letting them down if we didn't deliver mind-blowing visual effects - and we do - but when you talk to fans, what they come for is that great character in the middle of it all. And that is really the god that we served."
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The Amazing Spider-Man stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Denis Leary, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, and Sally Field, the films swings into theaters July 3, 2012 in 3D!