AlRIGHT; after Tobey Maguire, it is time to listen to Sam Raimi, the brilliant director. What is unusual about this movie is that for the first time in
Here is the interview:
Were you reticent about having so many characters to deal with, especially the villains?
Well, I had, there's so many fears I have in the making of the movies, that that’s just one of them, so I don't want to make it seem overblown in my vast array of things I'm terrified of that people won't like. But I had worked on the story with my brother Ivan, and primarily it was a story that featured the Sandman. It was really about Peter, Mary Jane, Harry, and that new character. But when we were done, Avi Arad, my partner and the former president of Marvel at the time, said to me, Sam, you're so, you're not paying attention to the fans enough. You need to think about them. You've made two movies now with your favorite villains, and now you're about to make another one with your favorite villains. The fans love Venom, he is the fan favorite. All Spiderman readers love Venom, and even though you came from 70s Spiderman, this is what the kids are thinking about. Please incorporate Venom, listen to the fans now. And so that's really where I, I realized okay, maybe I don't have the whole Spiderman universe in my head, I need to learn a little bit more about Spiderman and maybe incorporate this villain to make some of the real diehard fans of Spiderman finally happy.
Does it concern you that you become a slave at times to expectations of the fans?
Well, no. I've made choices that I thought were true to the spirit of the character and sacrificing the detail of what's in the comic book, and I have fallen under, sometimes, criticism, and I can't say that it isn't justly deserved. The fans like myself, I'm one of them, have a right to love everything about the comic book. Everything from the web shooters to a particular incident that happens in issue 121, you know, one hundred-twenty one. But as a filmmaker realistically, to stay true to the spirit of the character, which I think is the most important, at least in my mind, that's my choice, I can't be true to all the details. It's just--translation process has to take place. To be true to the spirit, for instance, of Spiderman, Peter Parker, as a regular human being, someone I can really identify with, I can't also make him a rocket scientist who can make the mechanical web shooters and a formula of adhesive that is air drying that even 3M couldn't make at this time. So, I choose certain choices to be true to Stan Lee's spirit. I understand they have a right to be upset, because I don't have a right to change it, but I have to as the director. Any time anyone makes a comic book into a movie, in some way, I think they have to kill the comic book.
I want to apologize for asking the Spiderman 4 question, but what would it take to bring you back for a 4th film? You've said great story, obviously. But it feels like this 3rd film really wraps it up, a nice neat trilogy, so what would it take to bring you back?
Well, we really did try and wrap up a lot of the story elements that we had in the first and second picture, but I look at it more like the end of a chapter, because if you've read the Spiderman comic books, you know there's so many more villains and so many more stories that can be told, that have already been told, that are very exciting and vivid, but it's true. I, for me to come back, I'd have to, when I'm done with all of this, have a breather and then look at the character and say where does he next have to grow to? Where can he now develop in a meaningful way? And if I could recognize, honestly, a real deficit that he, and we could fashion a story then where the characters, where this young man could learn his next life lesson in a meaningful way, and that we could make good story out of it, then I would die to direct the picture.
New Line has also rumored to approach you to do The Hobbit. Have they approached you to do The Hobbit? Are the rumors, fact, fiction?
Well, the truth is I just don't know what I'm going to do next, that's the most honest answer I can give you. And I can't honestly say, even though I have spoken to Bob Shay, that--I don't know that I could honestly say that anything's been offered to me until some time in the future, because, it just wouldn't be exactly right. Or true.
Would you like to go back and do another film that's a lot smaller, where this pressure doesn't exist? Going back to your roots?
Well, I don't mind. I don't look at it as any pressure. I feel like I've been offered a fantastic opportunity to make these Spiderman films, because I love the character so much and I feel like I understand him very well. And that's what empowers me as a director. If I understand the character, I really believe I can make the picture, and understand what they want and where they have to go to. That's why understanding his deficit is so important to me. I honestly don't think I could do a good job unless I understood that about Peter for the 4th one. That's why I can't actually answer that question either. But these movies don't leave me with a desire now to go make my little art picture or my little character drama or my love story, because I've somehow been given the creative freedom to make all those when I make the Spiderman pictures. I'm allowed to do my character drama, the exploration of the dark side of any man. I'm allowed to tell my love story. They really satisfy me in so many ways, I can make a little bit of a horror movie, it's fun, I can do some action scenes if I want to. They allow me a tremendous range of possibilities so I feel very satisfied.
When you say you've had conversations with Bob Shay, what kind of conversations have you had about The Hobbit?
Well, I spoke to him once, so it's a little more overblown I think. That's why I don't want to pretend that it's bigger than it is. I had one conversation about the possibility of it, and that's really where it's at.
Both Sam and Tobey wanted to bring in Sandman as the villain of this movie. Sam did not like the villain Venom, but after shooting the movie, he likes the character.
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