Though weâve been flooded with an insane amount of The Dark Knight Rises content as of late, weâve actually got another high profile superhero pic headed our way before Christopher Nolanâs Batman takes his bow. The Spider-Man reboot that was borne out of a scrapped development on Sam Raimiâs Spider-Man 4 hits theaters this July courtesy of director Marc Webb and new Spidey Andrew Garfield. Our partners at Omelete recently sat down for a lengthy chat with producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach to discuss the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man.The duo talked about what made them realize Spider-Man was in need of a reboot, having the opportunity to put a larger focus on the disappearance of Peter Parkerâs parents, including Emma Stoneâs Gwen Stacey as an intellectual equal to Peter Parker, taking a more practical approach to the effects, the Lizard, and much more. Hit the jump to watch the interview.Hereâs the video interview (via Omelete), followed by a detailed time index with selected portions of the interview transcribed.Hereâs the time index:
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- 1:33 Tolmach talks about why Peter Parker and Spider-Man are such timeless characters.
- 3:29 Why they decided to reboot the franchise. Arad says it wasnât a time issue, they just didnât have a strong enough story and/or a good reason to make Spider-Man 4 with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire.
- 5:27 Tolmach says they started thinking about the reboot when they were trying to find a new story to tell in Spider-Man 4. They wanted to get back to telling the story of Peter Parker as a young boy who becomes a man. âWe started thinking about this while we were trying desperately to find another story to do with Sam and Tobey⦠The reason we were already toying with this [reboot idea] is I think something fundamental with Spider-Man which is⦠itâs a story about a boy trying to become a man, itâs about that time in life when weâre all struggling with who we are and what it means to have power and responsibility yet you just wanna be a kid. As you move further and further along in life and you get older, that story becomes more grey; itâs not as powerful. Thereâs nothing as potent as that time in your life when that first girl you love, you know, your heart broke and you had a stomach ache every day when you went homeâthat stuff is the stuff of Spider-Man and the stuff of Peter Parker. Without knowing it, but we knew it, we wanted to get back to telling that story.â
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- 9:05 Tolmach says when the movie begins, Parker is already a hero at heart. He gains powers but he's already in possession of heroism.
- 9:46 Tolmach says they had never delved into the issue of Parkerâs parents being gone practically or emotionally in the way that Marc Webb wanted to, so it became a defining question for the character.
- 10:22 Arad talks about Gwen Stacey being an intellectual equal to Parker. âThe Gwen story was always very unique because of the father being the head of police. All these metaphors become real life; Peter Parkerâs with a mask, the father is with a badge. The girl who understands what it is to be a daughter of a hero⦠What [are] the risks to fall in love with someone like that? How that impacts her life and her fatherâs life.â
- 11:17 Arad talks about how the reboot differs from the previous films: âYou have sort of a new Peter Parker, we have a new girl, you have a very realistic approach to the movieâ¦then you have new technology, and we tried really hard to have a lot of physical action."
- 12:14 Tolmach talks about the stunts, the reality of the film and how they tried to push for more practical effects: âThe world of this movie is real; itâs the world we all live in. So one of the things that Marc wanted to do and that we did in the movie was, not just push the boundaries of whatâs possible with visual effects and technologyâand we feel weâre doing that for sureâand shooting the movie in stereo, but doing as much practically as we could so you get the best of both worlds.â
- 13:30 Arad talks about the Lizard and Connorsâ relationship with Peter Parker. Tolmach describes Connorsâ story as a cautionary tale for Parker. Arad says the film is told from the point of view of Parker.
- 15:31 Arad talks about the filmâs approach to bullying and making the film socially relevant.