MANILA, Philippines - As the marketing campaign of Columbia Pictures’ The Amazing Spider-Man 2 kicks into high gear, director Marc Webb (who also helmed the first) has decided to let the fans in on previously-guarded plot details regarding the highly-awaited sequel. Let the revelations begin.
What do you want people to know about The Amazing Spider-Man 2?
“Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) is in for the greatest battle of his life. We begin the film with Spider-Man loving being Spider-Man — he’s smooth, having fun and the best crime fighter the world has ever seen. But soon, Peter will have to face a foe more powerful than he can imagine. In a tragic twist of fate, Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) transforms from Spider-Man’s biggest fan to his biggest foe.â€
What is Spider-Man facing in this film?
“Peter Parker loves being Spider-Man. He wouldn’t change it for anything. But he’s always faced the challenge of how to be the hero without letting it take over his life. Can you be Spider-Man and stop the bad guys and also have another life — a girlfriend and a home life? And this time, that conflict is more important and treacherous than ever.â€
What’s new?
“We’ve got the biggest, most dangerous villain Spider-Man has ever faced: Electro. You know, by now, Spider-Man is really good at being Spider-Man and I wanted a foe worthy of his skills. With Electro, nature comes alive. Electricity surges from his hands in bolts that instantly fry anything in their path. As he gains access to more power the city’s prospects dim. He is light. He is darkness.â€
Tell us more about Electro.
“Max Dillon represents the shadow side of admiration. A once-beaten down outsider, Electro’s rage has built up after years of rejection and loneliness and transforms into terror itself. His adoration of Spider-Man is obsessive — a sweetness that covers up a psychotic break. That psychosis is at the heart of what will become a deep and abiding hatred for Spider-Man.â€
What’s going on with Peter and Gwen (Emma Stone)?
“Peter and Gwen love each other, but they will both have to make choices and figure out their own paths. Gwen’s brilliant in her own right and she is starting to get offers that could shape her entire life.â€
It seems like you had a lot of fun making this movie.
“Oh yeah. All of us did. We had a ball shooting this movie on location in New York — the first Spider-Man movie shot entirely in New York. We really made it a bigger film by shooting on location and you feel it on screen. For all of us, we remember being kids, eight or nine or 10 years old, that fell in love with Spider-Man when we were growing up. We remember those feelings of wonder and awe and excitement; they’re a very big part of the foundation of Spider-Man and what gives him his appeal.â€
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is directed by Marc Webb from a screen story and screenplay by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinkner based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, is produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach. It opens in April 2014.