The characters and mystery of The Amazing Spider-Man unveiled
Posted by dailypop on December 16, 2011
Fans have been anxious to obtain details behind the story of the hotly anticipated reboot of the Spider-Man films from director Marc Webb. Today, it’s like the floodgates have opened. This is no doubt a move to compete with the Dark Knight Rises footage that will premiere with the Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol film tonight.
If you were unclear on just how different this film will be from the Sam Raimi trilogy… read below and discover the mystery of Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man.
Like most teenagers his age, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. In his journey, to put the pieces of his past together he uncovers a secret that his father held… a secret that will ultimately shape his destiny as Spider-Man. This is the first in a series of movies that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story. On July 3rd, 2012, the untold story begins.
Peter Parker- Ever since Peter's parents disappeared 13 years ago, her has struggled to find his purpose in life. Now, on the brink of unlocking the mystery about what happened to them, he must face the ultimate challenge - one that has been created within the laboratories of Oscorp.
Gwen Stacy - Smart, charismatic and rebellious, Gwen is the chief intern at Oscorp, a position she takes very seriously. But her life takes a complicated turn as she watches both her boyfriend, Peter, and her mentor, Dr. Connors, undergo radical transformations.
Captain Stacy An esteemed police officer for over twenty years, Captain Stacy is the public face of the NYPD who leads the department’s investigation into Spider-Man’s vigilantism. The only thing Captain Stacy vows to protect more than the city is his family – and particularly his only daughter, Gwen.
Dr. Curt Connors One of the leading scientific minds, Dr. Connors attempts to engineer a revolutionary regeneration serum to help re-grow limbs and human tissue. His motivations are unclear as to why he elects to be the first human test subject – but what becomes evident is that something goes horribly wrong.
Lots more at the official Amazing Spider-Man Website.
Bonus: Images from Entertainment Weekly:
Update:
Further details from Marc Webb in his Empire Magazine interview:
“I don’t have a problem saying that word,” says director Marc Webb. “It’s not a remake, we’re not making Sam’s movie again. It’s a different universe and a different story with different characters. There are certain mythological obligations people have in any story, but it’s so radically different in terms of tone and what Peter Parker experiences that I’m very comfortable with the movie occupying a different space.”
“I wanted to start from a place where it felt like, if you walked into the theatre, that it was the same universe you lived in,” says the director. “Which is difficult when you have a giant lizard running down the street…”
“He’s the literal embodiment of the theme of the movie, which is we all have a missing piece,” says Webb. “He has no arm. Peter has no parents, and he fills that void with Spider-Man. Curt is not as strong as Spider-Man on the inside, but he wants to get back his arm and fill that void, and essentially he becomes a big bully.”
Enough tell, Webb decides. It’s time for some show, and so he asks Bell to cue up some scenes from his early, very rough, very unfinished cut. “The movie starts off pretty small and gradually merges into something that’s more fantastic and vibrant and filled with scope,” he says, and by way of illustration, runs three scenes in which we see Spider-Man swing. The first is entirely practical, with Garfield – in Parker duds – swinging around inside a disused warehouse, with the giant wired rig to which the whooping actor is attached yet to be deleted via CGI.
The second, from a little later in the film, is the only sequence Empire sees that is even somewhat redolent of Raimi-vision, as Spider-Man swings giddily along a bridge in pursuit of something, even running briefly on the side of a passing truck.
The third one, though, shows that Webb hasn’t abandoned CG. Far from it. The sequence – which is from the third act so we’ll be sure to tread carefully – features Spider-Man in pursuit of The Lizard (here seen just once, in very rough animatic form, from a distance as he scales a building), while being pursued himself by cops. Following an excellently staged fight with the cops, and an emotionally charged confrontation with, erm, A Major Character, the sequence follows a wounded Spider-Man as he tries desperately to swing across New York in order to save the day.
One thing’s for sure – Twilight it ain’t. “I haven’t seen a Twilight movie, so i don’t know how to comment on that,” says Webb. “People may assume because it’s me doing Spider-Man, it’s more intimate. And it is, but one of the reasons I wanted to do it was to [frick]ing blow shit up, swing through the air and kick some ass.”
Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man will plant Peter firmly in his teenage years. He doesn’t have a job (the Daily Bugle is mentioned, but won’t be seen until the inevitable sequel), he likes to skateboard, he has uncontrollable hair, he’s a kid searching for the truth about his parent’s disappearance.
Hal said
Hmm, a secret from his past to do with his parents, this isn’t The Amazing Harry Potterman is it? Perhaps this is a mislead but my spider-sense is tingling. I wonder why they feel the need to tie everything together? I suspect it’s because they think the prospective audience is thick! What makes Spider-Man work particularly well as modern myth is that it’s an accident that Peter becomes super-powered, there’s no need to connect his origin to Oscorp or anything else (it certainly isn’t necessary to state that it was “fated” as in the JMS revision) because that *isn’t* what the story is about. It’s really about how Peter reacts originally when he gets powers because of the things that have happened to him in his life and how he seeks to atone after his uncle’s death. We’ll have to wait and see, but I fear it may go in a emo Harry Potter direction which makes no sense as Spider-Man has its own mythology. Yes, my logic and passion for individuality spoils the party again, right-on brutha
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dailypop said
Yeah, I hear you. The potential to take the franchise into a Harry Potter-ish direction is there. I just hope that isn’t the case. I agree, by the way, that the real story is not one of Peter Parker’s pre-determined destiny but of what he decided to do with his powers.
The recent Dan Slott run on Amazing Spider-Man seems to embrace Parker’s inventive genius and courage moreso than we have seen in the past where his place in the grand plot of the cosmos was what drove him forward. Hopefully the film will take a hint from that.