Producer Matt Tolmach on The Lizard's lab coat or rather the lack of The Lizard's lab coat:
TOLMACH: “Choosing the villain is always a huge conversation,” shares Tolmach. “The cool thing about Spider-Man villains is that they’re not just villains – they usually play a bigger dramatic role. In this case Peter has a very powerful relationship with [Curt] Connors [the alter-ego of the Lizard]. There’s a connection between Connors and Peter’s past. There’s something there that you’ve never seen before, and there’s also a sense in which there are two paths you can go down – the path of the hero or the path of the weaker man.
“We made a real concerted effort to tell a different story. And this is a villain that serves the story we’re telling about, ‘Who am I? Where did I come from?’ There are thematic reasons why Curt Connors is the right villain for this movie. Sometimes a movie is made or broken by its villain, and a great villain is somebody who is as inextricably tied into the story as the lead. They are often the personification of the thing that the lead is trying to overcome. And that’s what this is.”
Purists may be irked that the movie sheds the Lizard’s iconic croc-in-a-lab-coat visual. “Look, this is the big screen interpretation of it,” argues Tolmach, keen to defuse any potential fanboy ire. “You have to think about it – on the one hand we’re making a decision to tell a story that lives very much in the real world. That was a big part of the conversation – to ground it in our world, a world where there’s gravity, where the laws of physics apply. There’s a tangible explanation for how things are done.
“And in that world there has to be a Lizard. So how do you do that? You have to make the Lizard something that could come from this world. And that’s where you depart – literally – from the pages of the comic book.”
Andrew Garfield compares Spider-Man to an internet troll:
GARFIELD: “You feel the power of it, the power of not being seen, the power of the mask. Peter becomes witty when he’s got that protective layer. It’s like he’s on a message board. He’s got the anonymity of the Internet within that suit, and he can say whatever the hell he likes, and he can get away with anything. He can f**k with people and there’s no consequences because nobody knows who the hell he is. We all know how powerful and potentially dangerous that anonymity is.”
The latest issue of SFX (#221) will go on sale Wednesday, April 4th.
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)
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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.