By Gill Pringle
Could you tell me a little bit about, artistically, the challenges of working on a film like this?
Well, there’s already a lot going for this film that inherently will make it so much different than the other Spider-Man movies that came before it. The fact that it’s in the Marvel Universe, that it’s in the MCU, completely changes the entire dynamic. What was so exciting about Spider-Man when he debuted in the comics is that he was the kid, he was the young kid in a world of superheroes. Like one of the first things he does is goes and tries to join the Fantastic Four in the comics, and he gets into a fight with Johnny Storm and he’s like ‘screw you guys, I don’t want to be a Fantastic Four member anyway!’ and he leaves. Just being able to place Peter Parker and Spider-Man in a world where superheroes already exist completely changes the dynamic, and opens the door for so much fun.
Amy [Pascal] talked about Cop Car being the reason that you got the job, could you talk a bit about how you came to be in the running to direct this?
I never thought I had a shot at all, initially. And I mainly went in just because I thought it would be cool to go to Marvel, and see what that would be like, just assuming that there was not a shot at all. And I had been wanting to make a high school movie, like a coming of age movie, already, and had just been watching a tonne of movies and thinking about it a lot, and writing stuff, so when I came in and found out that they wanted to bring Peter back into high school, and tell that kind of story, I was so ready to talk about high school movies, and coming of age movies, and why I like them, and my favourites, and how that could apply to Peter Parker, and I was so well prepared without knowing it, or trying to be.
It started to seem more and more like I actually might have a slight chance, and I just kept making stuff, I kept putting together visuals, I storyboarded sequences, I make pre-vis on my own, so I hadn’t read a script or anything, it was just talking in a room about what could happen, what might happen, so I just sort of made up some potential sequences, and it was just like, I just kept doing it, I was relentless. Once I found out that I had gotten it, I got a call, we’d just shown Cop Car in New York, and I knew that I was in the running but I wasn’t sure if I was going to get it or not, and I got a call in the back of a cab as I was on my way to JFK, to fly back to LA, and I couldn’t say anything, because they had me so scared of revealing secrets, like if I had revealed that I was even in the running, then I might get in trouble. You sign a thousand NDAs, right? And, so I couldn’t say anything, like I’m in a cab, so whatever this news is, I can’t really respond or say anything, and just everyone on the other end of the line was like ‘you got it!’ And I was like, great! And it was really nerve-wracking, because the cab to the airport was going faster and faster, and I was like, oh, no. I’m going to get this amazing news and then die in a car crash, this can’t be real. And honestly, for like the first many, many weeks, I was just waiting for the camera crew to come out and go, ‘just kidding, you’re not actually doing this. You really think they’re going to let you do this?’
How do you build up from Cop Car to something like this, is it just loads of tiny pieces, going to a huge scale film, or do you see it as a whole film?
My job is to just step back and try to see the whole thing. Because there’s so many tiny details that go into this whole thing, and they’re all important, but they have to be weighed on the merit of how they work with the whole film. So it’s just like a lot of little details and little moments. I forget who said it, but when you make a movie it’s like making a mosaic, like each little tile, you lay it in, but you have to know what the bigger picture is to know where they all go.
What makes this movie unique in terms of comparing it with the other Spider-Man movies?
Well, the big thing first of all, is that it’s in a world where superheroes already exist, which is great because he’s not the only superhero in the world, in fact he’s trying to find his identity in a world where superheroes do exist. And Tom [Holland] has a completely different take on Peter Parker than what we’ve seen in the other movies – and the fact that we’re playing him as a sophomore in high school, the other movies only ever spent the first act in high school. But we’re spending a lot more time there, so that’s really fun.
When you were a kid, did Spider-Man mean something to you?
Yes, a lot. I had this Spider-Man, it was like a ‘learn how to draw Spider-Man’ Marvel book, and it taught you how comics were made, like you would do a pencil sketch, and then some stuff was already pencil sketched so you could ink that, and then some stuff was already inked and then you’d paint that, it sort of like taught you the whole process, and I just finished the whole thing, just drawing those webs, drawing those webs on his face over and over again and filling them in. I loved Spider-Man. I think when you’re a little kid, you like Spider-Man. It’s one of the first characters that you really can relate to, and really, something about his face, and those big eyes. There’s this video of a little kid, I don’t know where he is, but it’s his birthday party, and they gave him a Spider-Man piñata, and they give him the bat, and he’s supposed to hit the Spider-Man, and they do one, and then he puts the bat down, and he goes over and hugs it. And that’s how you feel about Spider-Man when you’re a little kid, he’s just a kid, he’s just a kid like me, but he can also do cool stuff like shoot webs and swing around.
And how do you feel about the Vulture? Was one of these villains that in the beginning, when you’re a kid, that he, wow, he really caught your attention?
Ah, no. he’s the first real supervillain in the comics, he’s in the second issue, the Vulture and the Terrible Tinkerer. In the comics, he’s an old bald guy with a feathery suit, he always is a little, like, a little sillier, than some of the other villains. But we were able to, and so much of the credit goes to Ryan Meinerding, who’s the visual development guy at Marvel, for figuring out a way to take that and reimagine it in the modern world, and in the Marvel world, and coming up with this more tech based look. Because the things that made the Vulture the Vulture was that he had this big cowl, and wings, and he was bald, but we tried to make it all practical, and it all make sense, and it all has a reason, and comes from a place that makes sense with the character and is grounded in the world.
Was it scary for you to have a big budget after coming from a low budget?
I don’t think about it. On Cop Car, like, my mom made us food, and my sister was our location scout, and my other sister was our medic, and my brother-in-law built the ramp that the car goes up on, so to have an amazing crew, I mean, just look at these illustrations, like, it’s insane, our production designer and the whole visual team is incredible, like, it’s great, you just feel really supported, and that you can do whatever, like the craziest thing you can think of.
Do they ever say no?
There’s always sort of trade-offs that you have to make. I mean you always want more time, and you can’t get it, and you want to shoot in New York more, and we have what we can afford, so there’s always trade-offs. Of course, they do say no, but never if it’s going to actually compromise the project.
Was Tom attached before you?
Yeah, Tom got it right before I got it.
And Michael as well?
No. Michael was all mine.
You didn’t say why you like so much the high school and coming of age moves, why?
Because when you’re in high school, everything feels like the most important thing in the world. And it’s all at the same level. You haven’t learned how to give different problems different values, like for Peter, fighting a supervillain is at the same level of intensity as getting up the nerve to talk to a girl he has a crush on, which is as potentially world ending as getting a zit, or doing homework. So the idea that everything is at an eleven, I think is really, everything is life or death when you’re in high school. And for Peter, it literally is.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is in cinemas July 6, 2017
