Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and producers Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach held a press conference in Tokyo yesterday in part to announce that The Amazing Spider-Man will premiere in Japan on June 30, a few days before the July 3 North American release date. The press conference was nearly an hour long, so the group had a lot more to share. For instance, when asked what sets the new Marc Webb-directed film apart from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, Arad responded:
"In our movie, [Peter] finds his true love. Gwen Stacy was always the true love of Peter Parker... We found a very, very good story about what makes a human being. About what sets their destiny."
Hit the jump for the full press conference video, plus a few more choice quotes.
Given the length of the video, thanks to SHH for the quotes. Arad elaborated on the Peter/Gwen relationship, specifically how Dr. Connors (aka The Lizard) factors in:
"We introduce our villain, Dr. Connors, and in the great tradition of Marvel, Dr. Connors is going to be connected to Peter Parker and, in our case even more interesting, to Gwen Stacy. Right there, the challenge of having to deal with a villain who is a mentor and the only one who you can look at and say, 'So what really happened to my dad?' That's a very hard person to fight."
The Japanese press reportedly got a sneak peek at some of the footage that highlights Webb's reliance on practical effects. Garfield explains:
"As you can see, a lot of the stunts are practical and grounded in reality. That was something that Marc, the director, really wanted to make sure happened in this movie to set it apart from previous ones... I would exhaust myself every day and get into near-death experiences every hour on the hour... I collaborated with [the stunt team] not only on the big stunt set-pieces but also on what happens to Peter’s body when he gets bitten. What happens to his DNA and how that effects the way he moves and the way he interacts with objects. The idea that he has spider DNA running in his system. What that will do to his sense of space. What that will do to the sensitivity of his skin. To have an opportunity to play in that forum with creative and talented people was a real opportunity and gift."
In the current CGI climate of big budget filmmaking, a movie about a high school kid infused with spider DNA can only be so grounded. But I always appreciate the effort to do as much as possible on set. It is especially important with Spider-Man for exactly the reasons Garfield cites, that "sense of space." Good for them.
Following up on the theme of the day, How We Are Different, Stone was asked if the reboot would include a memorable kiss on par with the upside down makeout session in the first film. Stone did hint at a "nice first kiss," but manage your expectations:
"You don't want to know! You want to watch the movie and find out. Plus, it would be weird if we were like, 'There's something iconic coming up!' You've got to decide if it's iconic or not. But there is a nice first kiss and it's different than the upside down one. And we liked it."
Here's the video. I haven't watched the whole thing, so if you hear something else noteworthy, let us know in the comments
