TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2007
SPIDER-MAN 3: SAM RAIMI
LOS ANGELES -- The Continuum today continues its series of interviews from the recent Spider-Man 3 junket with director Sam Raimi.
Following is an edited transcription:
Question: Were you reticent about having so many characters to deal with, particularly the villains?
Raimi: 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 former president of Marvel at the time, said to me, "Sam, 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 Spider-Man readers love Venom, and even though you came from '70s Spider-Man, this is what the kids are thinking about. Please incorporate Venom, listen to the fans now."
And so that's really where I realized, "OKy, maybe I don't have the whole Spider-Man universe in my head, I need to learn a little bit more about Spider-Man and maybe incorporate this villain to make some of the real diehard fans of Spider-Man finally happy."
Question: Does it concern you that you become a slave at times to expectations of the fans?
Raimi: 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.
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. A translation process has to take place. To be true to the spirit, for instance, of Spider-Man, Peter Parker, as the 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.
Question: I want to apologize for asking the Spider-Man 4 question, but what would it take to bring you back for a fourth film? You've said great story, obviously. But it feels like this third film really wraps it up, a nice neat trilogy. So what would it take to bring you back?
Raimi: 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 Spider-Man 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 very vivid. But it's true. 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, 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.
Question: New Line has also rumored to approach you to do The Hobbit. Have they approached you to do The Hobbit?
Raimi: 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. Exactly true.
Question: 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, basically.
Raimi: 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 Spider-Man 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 actually don't think I could do a good job unless I understood that about Peter for the fourth 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 Spider-Man 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.
Question: When you say you've had conversations with Bob Shay, what kind of conversations have you had about The Hobbit?
Raimi: 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.
Question: I have a question though: in the back of your mind you have to be thinking, The Hobbit -- Peter Jackson did such a great job with the trilogy. Is there any fear in your mind about that the fans are so attached to Peter Jackson's vision, how would they take me coming on to the project, and if you did go to the project, is there any thought about taking some of the actors?
Raimi: I haven't had any of those thoughts yet, because I think it's still Peter Jackson's project. It would be so premature. I'm so overwhelmed with my own insecurities, I can't take his on just yet.
Question: Still?
Raimi: Yeah. I have to burn through all my fears first. And then I'd have to know that he wasn't making the movie, and then it would have to officially be offered to me, and then (with) all those, I will be the first one to take on all those fears if all of those things were to come to pass.
Question: So you wouldn't take it on unless Peter Jackson said it was OK?
Raimi: I'd have to know that he was OK with it. It's really his picture and Bob Shay's picture.
I don't want to put him in--I hate to say that, I don't want to put him in some position where, I don't even want to put him in a position where he's forced to respond to me, and I'm not even in the position where I want him, to ask him that. I guess I should say no comment.
Question: There's a lot of powers associated with Spider-Man, but you don't touch on his Spider-Sense in this movie.
Raimi: Well the truth is, in the previous pictures, he's always had Spider-Sense and still we take him by surprise often. And I started to realize, you know it's really turning out to be a device that I use when I want and I pretend it doesn't exist when I don't want it, not to, and I felt that there was so much in the picture already.
And in addition, in the comics he is immune to Venom, as far as his Spider-Sense does not work with Venom. So I thought I'll have to not only cheat at times and show it, but I'll have to say that it doesn't work with Venom and I thought, "Where is this all leading?" There's too many elements in the picture already. We know he's got Spider-Sense, I think I may not focus on that in this particular story.
Question: I know it's a bit early, but have you already started thinking about the DVD? And were there any sequences that you had to cut out of the film?
Raimi: Well, there were a lot of things that we wrote of and didn't shoot, or things that we shot that we didn't think finally were appropriate. We put something in the picture and realized, that's already obvious from the visuals, we don't have to say that, it's better with a look. So like any film, you lose lines and bits, and usually exposition that may not be necessary. Although some of it adds character, it's always a balancing act.
So, yes, there were things that were cut out of the picture, and yes, I've begun thinking about the DVD, because only in the crudest sense I've got to plot time after the promotion to work on the color timing. And make sure all of these extra pieces are properly--
Question: What kind of extra pieces are you talking about?
Raimi: I don't develop what they are. I just look at them and say, "You guys have already used that shot, can we take that out?" I'm more like a very distant editor on it.
Question: But you approve the DVD extras?
Raimi: Yes, I do.
Question: How many minutes about were cut out of the film that we may expect on the DVD?
Raimi: I have no idea about that. I don't know if they're going to include extra minutes or if we're going to include extra minutes of the film or not.
Question: Recently Spider-Man 2.1 came out on DVD with eight additional minutes. Were you involved in that?
Raimi: Yes, that I supervised. And Sony came to me and said, "We want to make a 2.1 that gives fans more of the movie." I said, "But well, the problem is, I want to be good to you Sony, but the problem is you gave me my director's cut with the main picture, and I don't want to punish you now, but that, I really liked, that was the movie I wanted to make and you let me make it and I'm thankful for it." They said well, "Don't you have things we could still put in that the fans may want to see?" I said, OK, we won't call it the director's cut, but there's some additional insights into the character, there's a few lines, there's a few little action bits that were, maybe were unnecessary to make the point that they said the fans would want to see, so that's what 2.1 is.
Question: So Spider-Man 3 is completely your director's cut then?
Raimi: Yes, we've had a very good relationship like that throughout all the pictures. There are discussions and there's compromises that you make in any relationship, but I'm very happy with the picture.
Question: You didn't test it?
Raimi: No.
Question: The producers said an interesting thing, that because of the special effects you found yourself directing the film three months after you had wrapped. Can you talk about finding new character stuff in the film even after you had wrapped prinicpal photography?
Raimi: I don't know about finding new character pieces, because those I discover through the actors' performances and discussions with the actors or with the screenwriter Alvin Sargent or my brother Ivan, or our producers Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad and Grant Curtis.
But the directing never stops on a modern picture with a lot of CGI because, even though I've done a storyboard and submitted it and shot the plate for the animation to take place in -- and have even provided an animated guide within the plate, it's a crude guide. And as the animation director takes over, he adds his own interpretation or improves it, or tries to understand what it was the the animator I was working with couldn't provide me and tries to take it to the next step.
Performances where the main characters are CG continues to evolve. But more in a very physical place, not so much as a spiritual or a mental performance?
Question: Why are these actors so willing to take a leap of faith to sign on something that is not yet completely finished in script form? What is it about this project?
Raimi: Well, I'm very happy that they did, because I needed their talents to create these characters. I think it's just the nature of the Spider-Man films, and maybe modern-day films that are heavy in effects, which is basically...at the end of Spider-Man 2, I'm told when the release date is for Spider-Man 3, and it simply is going to be on the screen on May 4th.
"But, but, but, I don't have it worked out yet." So we have to be working it out and writing the script as we're casting, as we're shooting, as we're working on the effects. It's just, the demands, we don't have enough time to do it all in the proper sequence. Ideally, we would write the script, and rewrite the script and finish it, and only then begin the casting process. And only then start storyboarding the piece after rehearsals, and then begin figuring out the effects. But I had to start the effects before I had written a script and cast it before I'd written a script. Unfortunately, on these big pictures that's how it works, a simultaneous coming together process. It's like building a house without a blueprint.
Question: I talked to Dylan Baker and he said you've kicked around ideas about a bigger part for another film. Is that just out of the love for these classic characters and is there a chance if you do another, we might see something green (the Lizard)?
Question: Yes, I think it's the same with Captain Stacy and Doctor Connors and all the other periphery characters in the Spider-Man universe. The more films we make, the more the producers and myself -- and I think in Doctor Connors' case, it might have been Avi who suggested him in the first one, "Hey if you're going, why don't you mention Doctor Connors?" Then when it was a real logical thing when Peter was in class to have it be Doctor Connors. It's a desire to incorporate, slowly but surely, all the Spider-Man family for the films to come so that we've been true to the comic books and so that they're to draw upon for future stories.
Question: How far along the film process did you decide to bring Gwen in?
Raimi: Well, my brother and I had written in the story about another woman that recognized Peter and knew he was at this dinner. And that Mary Jane got jealous of. Laura Ziskin, my producer, said, "Let's make it Gwen." And I said, "I don't think I should because really Gwen was introduced before Mary Jane in the comics books. And now I'm introducing her later." And she's not even in high school any more; she's in college. And I was afraid if I introduce Gwen, all the fans are going to have all these expectations that are not delivered in this picture. And she said, "The fans would rather have Gwen make an introduction now and you can do what they need to do in fourth picture, and they would appreciate that."
And, after much soul-searching, I thought, "Maybe, it's true. I've already screwed up in the order. I've already started with Mary Jane first and whenever she's introduced, it will be in the wrong order. I might as well give the fans the introduction to Gwen."
So I took her advice and named her Gwen Stacy and therefore connected her to a policeman who had been in the periphery of the scenes, made it a little stronger relationship in the scenes. Not much, but just enough to true to she was his daughter.
Question: Is there a release date for Spider-Man 4?
Raimi: They haven't told me.
Question: If you were to sign on to do another Spider-Man 4 film, or even possible few films, with the pressure you were under to deliver Spider-Man 3 by a certain date, would you be more firm with the next one?
Raimi: No, I mean, that's a Sony decision. I'd have to ask myself can I get it together, the quality picture I need in and find the right story and the right character arc and Tobey was interested, then I'd have to see when Sony wanted the picture and make sure I could make a picture within that period of time.
Question: If Tobey said no to a fourth film, would you be more reticent to do Spider-Man 4?
Raimi: For me, yeah, because I've made all these three with him, he's like my partner, and part of it for me would be a real specific experience of continuing the depth of that character he portrayed. It would be another story working with someone else on the character.
Question: What about Kirsten?
Raimi: I love Kirsten, she's great, but what about her?
Question: Same thing. If she said no?
Raimi: It would be very difficult without her also.
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