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
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The Amazing Spider-Man looks fantastic! Can’t wait, plus it comes out on my birthday! For once I will be able to say that my birthday is NOT over-shadowed by the forth-coming celebration of independence day because it takes place on the release date of the new Spider-Man movie!
Sorry a little over the top, but it’s how I feel.
Stone and Garfield are both fine and charismatic actors. I hope this movie’s good.
Don’t worry 72 inches, it will be! It can’t suck as much as Spidey 3, right? Besides, Stone IS Gwen Stacy.
Over on the HUNGER GAMES thread I made a statement about Whether or not I should say “fortunately” or “unfortunately” in concerns to me having not read these books remains to be seen…but either way…I am actually psyched about this movie.
I’ve been a Spidey fan since threes year after my birth waaaaaaaaaaay back in 1971. Thats a long time to become old as dirt & cranky as hell…so you’ll hafta scuze me when I say…
This looks like crap.
Hope not…but I aint holding my breath.
I hate how happy and attractive they look in the picture at the top of the article.
I couldnt listen to more than 5 minutes of them speaking japanease that fast and for that long at a time. I couldnt imagine being their for an hour having to hear that crap…sorry but its the truth.
idk about stone being stacy still; total missed opportunity with mary jane if you ask me.
Not being a fan of the Raimi Trilogy, too many downs, only a few ups, I am looking forward to this. To me it looks better on every level
Yup, coz every super-introverted nerd I know walks around the school with a skateboard strapped to their back, skinny jeans and cool looking shoes.. and this guy invented web-slingers?!?!?
Completely agreed. This does not look like Peter Parker. The emo, alt-rock, Twi-hard version of Peter maybe. Going to wait until after the first weekend reviews come out before I decide to go.
Actually, Raimi made it a priority (at least in 1 and 2) to use practical effects whenever they could, so that does not separate this from the raimi trilogy…ya dumby. Plus, from the trailer, it looks like there is a lot of CGI, with that long POV sequence at the end that was far inferior to the CGI raimi used.
If raimi’s movies were him making practical effects a priority then he sucks at prioritizing. In order to find movies with inferior effects to his you have to delve into Syfy originals.
Uh, you must be forgetting the horrible POV CGI sequence in S-M1. That looked like a video game cut scene.
Those effects we’re sub-par, i always knew when it was fake
I’m just offended that it’s premiering in Japan before it premieres here. Why is all-American Spider-Man appearing in Japan before he does here? Oh wait. He’s British.
You fanboys sure are a fickle bunch. I remember when Raimi was a God and his Spiderman films were THE BEST EVARRR!!! Now he’s a horrible hack because of one bad entry into the trilogy that likely was more the fault of the studio’s demands (and come on, it wasn’t even THAT bad). You’ll probably be badmouthing Nolan when the Batman reboot rolls around, too. What a disloyal bunch. No wonder George Lucas doesn’t care if he pisses you off.
Agreed. When I was a kid we dreamed of being able to see our favorite comic book characters brought to life on screen, let alone at the budget and quality level we see these days with regularity. Suck it up people. Or would you rather prefer a return to Schumacher Batman, Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, 90s Captain America, etc. I don’t know if The Amazing Spiderman will be truly amazing or not, but he’s already got the shit I was subjected to as a kid beat by a country mile.
I still Love Raimi’s SM Movies very Much,So i will only look into this if its good….
Biscotti, you speak the truth. Fanboys whine far more than Anakin, Luke, Ben, Kol, and Cade COMBINED. They deserved to have their childhoods raped.
So much nitpicking about little details from armchair critics makes me wonder if they could ever appreciate, or be surprised by, anything.
Hey Peter Parker is a hipster doofus skater dude. Worst idea in the history of ideas, coming out the same summer as the Avengers and Dark Knight… good luck!
Seriously, I agree with Biscotti. The first 2 spidey movies were great… And Spidey 2 in my opinion is on par with The Empire Strikes Back in middle trilogy excellence. And just like Star Wars, the 3rd one wasn’t great. I too Remember when fanboys were all loving Raimi. Having said that, I am looking forward to this movie too. But, please, let’s give Raimi the respect he deserves.
Emma with red hair looks EXACTLY as you would want Mary Jane Watson to look like. So hot. Hey, I just had a genius idea. You know what would be cool? If they had Emma dyed blond as Gwen Stacy, and she could add some unique idiosycratic touches to make her character more “GWEN”. Then they should kill off the GWEN character. But next movie (or late in the movie) they bring Emma back, this time with natural red hair as character MARY JANE. Different character, different idiosyncracies, red hair. PETER falls for her instantly because.. SHE REMINDS HIM OF GWEN. I’m awesome.
Stone is a natural blonde.
Raimi’s three films (yes the 3rd one too) will be hard to beat in my mind since I’m old school like that. But I do really like Andrew Garfield’s casting of Pete and it’s kinda funny they got a natural red-head, Emma Stone to play blond love interest, Gwen Stacy. I predict solid 30 million opening weekend, with 50 percent drop in sales the coming week. (market is saturated!)
30 million?? really?? after the first spidey went off for the biggest movie opening in history at the time, and the second one and third one went off for being the best as well, until of course nolans batman crushed everyone and the harry potters and twilights went beserk. the first spiderman held its spot as the top opening weekend for 4 years when movies such as xmen, the matrix sequels, shreks, and the new star wars sequels. spiderman held its spot because of the interest from the comic books and cartoons and endless epsiodes of tv series. and now, this movie is going to come out after 3 live action spiderman movies of a couple years ago. people are going to see this movie both because they either love spiderman in general or love the other spiderman they want to see how it compares. my opinion, the dark knight rises overtakes the last harry potter for biggest opening weekend ever, while the amazing spiderman fits nicely into the top 5, beating its predecessor.
FYI: Emma stone is natural blonde.
And people who think this Peter looks emo, hipster, or twilight either live in a world of stereotypes, are immature or just plain ignorant.
No, he looks emo and hipster.
This is the first Spidey film I’m not excited about. Everything about it just looks bad. Sony should have given Raimi more time with Spidey 4. He was going to make that film great. Blame the producers for Spidey 3 not Raimi.
Gwen Stacy was his first love but only MJ was his “True Love”.
beware the false spider-man.
Anyone know where I could watch the footage released at this press conference?
Mary Jane is Peter’s soulmate, not Gwen. Peter and Mary Jane get married and have a kid…