http://www.wizarduniverse.com/movies/spi...3/001073383.cfm
SONY PANEL: ‘SPIDER-MAN 3’
Surprises abound as Raimi trots out cast and officially announces Venom as a villain
The center of the comic book universe revolved around Hall H at the San Diego Convention Center on Saturday afternoon as Sony/Columbia Pictures surprised a throng of amped-up fans by bringing out much of the cast of “Spider-Man 3” to accompany director Sam Raimi, the only guest listed in the program. Earlier, he and producer Laura Ziskin unveiled a new, unfinished trailer in the works that culminated with the first official sighting of fan-favorite Spider-Man villain, Venom, much to the delight of the capacity crowd.
“It’s great to be here with you guys,” said Raimi as he first stepped up to the podium. “You guys are great. I love this Comic-Con crowd.” He added that principal photography on the film wrapped up two weeks ago.
Raimi and Ziskin teased the audience at first by saying they didn’t have time to create something for the show, because they still have 10 months to go and the special effects were nowhere near done.
“But you know what?” toyed Raimi. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT?”
“What?” they yelled back in anticipation.
“Because you have been supportive and loyal fans–and this is something I would never do under any other circumstances–I have brought some unfinished footage to show you!” he announced. “I won’t show this to anybody else. We had hoped that this particular crowd would understand the unfinished nature of this footage. It’s just for you guys because I know you guys like comic books and Spider-Man like I do. So you’re going to see some really raw stuff and we did these really temp fixes to make it look more finished than it really is… Well, it’s a mess, damn it!”
At that, the trailer started. As imagery played of Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker standing in front of a mirror and unbuttoning the top of his shirt to reveal the symbiote-induced black suit underneath, a voiceover of Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) said, “Uncle Ben wouldn’t want us to have revenge in our hearts. It’s like a poison that can take you over and turn you into something ugly.”
Then it cuts to a scene of Topher Grace as Eddie Brock, praying in a church, imploring God to kill Peter Parker. A series of short snippets followed in quick succession: several showing black-suited Spider-Man in action; one with Peter trying to tear it from his body and letting loose a primal scream; Thomas Haden Church as Sandman fighting against the wall-crawler and New York City policemen; Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy; Harry Osborn as the new Green Goblin and the pièce de résistance, Brock looking up in the bell tower and muttering, “Parker,” just before a piece of the symbiote drips onto his hand and consumes him, turning him into Venom–complete with the gigantic eyes, ebony costume and wild, fang-like teeth.
Throughout the trailer, there was tons of unpolished animation footage, but the audience didn’t seem to mind as the footage was met with a rousing standing ovation.
After the applause died down, Raimi welcomed many of principal the cast on stage: Kirsten Dunst, Howard, Church, Grace and Maguire. James Franco was unable to attend. The crowd went into a tizzy at the sight of the assembled talent on stage, flash cameras erupting in a fantastic light show. One fan exclaimed, “Oh… my… God!” while others screamed, “I love you Tobey!”
A question-and-answer period started and here is some of what was revealed:
- When a fan asked which of Venom’s origin stories was going to be used in the film (implying if it was going to have an alien beginning), Grace replied, “I’m still not exactly sure about what we can and can’t say, but I will say what was great about playing Eddie Brock–and I had a lot to ask Sam because I was a big fan of the character, “particularly when Todd McFarlane was drawing him during the late ’80s”–was that he’s a more of a doppelganger for Peter. They’re both reporters at The Bugle, they both have the same taste in women and it’s really a case study if someone who is very similar to Peter got the same power but didn’t really have a good upbringing.”
- A lot of great ideas were pulled from original Venom artist Todd McFarlane and other writers and artists who worked on the character, said Raimi. “A lot of the classic moments that all are of you are familiar with, we tried to recognize what they were and bring them to life with as much drama and honesty while trying to keep their cosmic reality a little more balanced for our human world” he added.
- “I hadn’t played a bad guy before,” said Grace, when asked how he prepared to play Venom. “When you play an antagonist, there’s a bell that goes off when you go outside the zone of reality. But with Venom, there’s no bell going off. You can really do anything. And we took advantage of that.”
- “You’re going to see the Peter Parker that you’re familiar with but he’s going to go into some different areas that may be a little bit shocking,” said Maguire about how he prepared to play a darker role.
- Raimi hopes to work both with Christopher Young and Danny Elfman to score the film.
- Maguire read about four years’ worth of 1960s-era Spider-Man comics after he got the role of Peter Parker. “When I cast Tobey, he told me he had been a fan his whole life,” said Raimi. “You do what you have to do to get a job,” quipped Maguire as the crowd laughed.
- “In [‘Spider-Man 3’], Harry Osborn is a little upset about his father and he does want to wreak some vengeance on Peter Parker, so he uses some of his father’s technology to come after Pete,” said Raimi about Osborn’s role in this film. “He’ll neither be [the Green Goblin or Hobgloblin], but he’ll have elements that are similar.”
- New poster images were debuted of Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn as the “new” Goblin, Sandman, Venom and black-costume Spider-Man.
- Maguire didn’t want to delve into what extent they go into exploring the darkness of Spider-Man in the film, but he did say he had a lot of fun doing it.
- “Raimi was a very nurturing director,” said Church about working with Raimi. “He even offered his breast at times,” he joked. “Thank you, thank you so much,”
- “He brings a great humanity to the character of Sandman,” said Raimi on Church’s portrayal. “He makes him into a real person. He’s not a comic book villain. He’s someone with a past, a family and a story. Church has a great attention to detail. His scenes with Tobey have a great dynamic and are some of the best parts in the picture.”
- When a fan wearing a Superman S-shield T-shirt walked up to the mic to ask a question, Raimi took him to task. “What’s that on your shirt? Oh, that’s that new Spider-Man logo I’ve been seeing everywhere.”
- “More than anything, it was a tremendous responsibility,” said Howard about bringing to life Gwen Stacy, a revered character in the Spider-Man universe. “This character is so beloved and I really just wanted to do a good job for you guys. I did my best. Please like me!”
- “I’ve always been a fan of Michele Pfeiffer’s Catwoman, so I’d rather be a villain than a superheroine,” said Dunst when asked what superhero she would want to be.
- Raimi would like to start up another “Evil Dead” movie once he’s done with “Spider-Man 3,” but have a young director take it on.
- “In this movie, we will be tying up some storylines that have been open from the first couple of movies,” revealed Maguire when asked if this is the final film. “There will be some conclusions, but I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily the end. I think we’re going to leave it open-ended because we’re not quite sure what’s going to happen. If there are stories worth telling, then we’ll tell them.”
- “It took be about 45 minutes to put on the suit and four-and-a-half hours to put on the makeup, so I can’t wait to see it on screen,” said Grace about playing Venom. “I want to see it more than all of you combined.”
- A fan asked Dunst which is her favorite villain to have been captured by, since Mary Jane is always the damsel in distress in the movies. As she pondered her answer, Grace said under his breath, “Venom!” And Dunst quickly said, “You just gave something away!”
- “Venom has always been a character the fans have loved, and that’s really why he’s in this third one,” said Raimi when asked why he went with the villains that he did with this installment. “[Producer] Avi [Arad] made me aware that we can’t just do the things that are our personal favorites, we also have to listen to the fans and bring their favorites to the screen. And in learning about Venom, I really developed a great appreciation for him. I was a more ’60s and ’70s Spider-Man guy. But the moment I really fell in love with Venom was when [screenwriter] Alvin Sargent wrote him as a character and moreso finally when Topher played him because then he became a human being to me. And that’s what I had been objecting to [when I first considered Venom]: his lack of humanity. [Venom was] not at the level of the other Stan Lee characters and villains I had seen in the past. The cosmic nature of him was in defiance of what we had done. But once I saw Topher play him, I also fell in love with Venom, becoming the latest fan of the character. But because it was an exploration of Peter’s dark side, the black suit, Venom actually really started to work for me.”
- “The reason Harry is one of our potential villains is because it really came out of the movie stories, and this was the logical conclusion to tell this part of his story and his new relationship with Peter Parker,” said the director on Harry Osborn’s role. Raimi wouldn’t go into Sandman at all because he didn’t want to give away too much.
- A fan asked about the ring seen in the teaser trailer and if Peter proposes to Mary Jane in the film, and how that’s affected by the love triangle with Gwen Stacy. No one would comment.
