For The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb, the sequel to 2011’s The Amazing Spider-Man allowed him to bring some personality aspects to the dual lead characters of Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Namely, Webb wanted him to have fun, while still playing up his cerebral nature.
“There’s a level of virtuosity in his physical capability and we really had fun playing around with it. There was a foundation of playfulness in this movie. There were hints of it in the first one, but this… he had him having fun. Fun is crucial,” Webb said to Movie Fanatic recently.
“The first movie had a lot of obligations. It was a little darker. But this one from the outset has that level of play that I loved in Spider-Man growing up. There were a lot of things we did, like for example the physical comedy. We have all these scenes where Peter Parker is having fun being Spider-Man. I think physical comedy is something of a lost art.”
For inspiration, Webb and Andrew Garfield sought influence from Hollywood’s past. “We all went back and looked at Buster Keaton movies, Harold Lloyd, and you look at these incredibly gifted artists and engineers back there and how difficult the physical tasks of comedy like that was,” Webb admitted
“It was something that we wanted to mess with. There were a few scenes where he had to do long takes that were incredibly difficult for Andrew, but intensely pleasurable for a filmmaker.”
For Webb, heading into filming the sequel, there was also another factor to figure into filming The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Before one frame was shot of the sequel, two other films had been green lit. Luckily for him, this is not a world that is unknown. Spider-Man does not exist in a vacuum.
“The universe that we conceived of before we started filming the first movie, there were plants and seeds that were going to develop all around us. The primary focus was just making this movie the best we all could,” Webb said.
He promises this film will feel even more epic than the first, especially when it comes to its expanded cast. “This is operatic. There is a hugeness of scale to this movie."
Joining the webbed wonder fray this time around is Jamie Foxx as Electro, Paul Giamatti is Rhino, Dane DeHaan is Harry Osborn and Chris Cooper is his father, Norman. As told to us in our producer Matt Tolmach exclusive interview, Cooper is thrilled to be Norman as he was offered the role for the first time by Sam Raimi.
“The ensemble is pretty extraordinary, but it is cohesive and direct. There is a simple, unifying theme that is at the heart of the film that will be impactful. But, it was fun. I loved being able to tease characters. If you pay attention in this movie, you’ll see other things that will be in store for us in the future.”
Speaking of Electro, Webb admitted getting his wicked look (seen in this Electro still) was one that had been seriously brainstormed. “There are a lot of incarnations of Electro in the comics. I tried to think how to do it with a yellow and green suit, and I just couldn’t,” Webb said. He reported that he was inspired by weather patterns in his home state.
“There are certain elements of his look that I want to protect. I grew up in Wisconsin and I remember seeing these terrifying storms coming over the plains. The electricity inside them would explode with these flashes of light and that is a cue that we used to develop the internal workings of Electro.”
As a filmmaker, Webb believes that he has learned an immense amount. “I’ve had many life lessons. That was a wonderful thing. You learn that when people feel a sense of ownership, you get a level of commitment that is much deeper than if you’re servicing something else,” he said. “You learn the power of surrender.”