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Exclusive Interview With Producers Avi Arad And Matthew Tolmach On The Amazing Spider-Man 2

When you talk about Spider-Man these days, it's impossible not to think about the future just as much as the present. Marc Webb saw tremendous success with his 2012 reboot starring Andrew Garfield as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, so much so that producers Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach immediately pounced on the opportunity to build out an entire franchise, not just a string of films. We already know The Amazing Spider Man 3 and 4 are on the way, and they'll be getting a little help from Drew Goddard on stand-alone stories surrounding anti-hero favorite Venom and Spider-Man's most feared rivals, the Sinister Six.

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WGTC: Now you keep mentioning how this Spider-Man franchise is about building a universe around the character, but you’re both very busy producers with other projects. Avi, you have some very big titles you’re currently tied to, Uncharted and Metal Gear Solid being two notables – are these projects going to take a back seat now that Spider-Man seems to be your primary focus moving forward?

Avi Arad: Basically, Matt and I have the same kind of schedule. Matt has his movies, I have mine, we have some together – we are making, at least the movies you have mentioned, all for Sony. I’m not a one-man show, there are other people, but personally, I wake up in the morning and go to sleep around Marvel. I’ve been doing it for 40 years. Once we get going, it’s a full time job. I never thought I’d move to New York for seven months! I did, because that’s how I feel about it. There are movies where I’ll go on-set, I’ll visit the set, but this is different. For us, we’ve been doing it for 14 years together – Spider-Man is the most meaningful character. Our writers, our brilliant writers said something that I’ll never forget – they had catharsis writing Spider-Man. That’s how I feel. When we were in school with those kids the other day, we talked off the movie, not during the release, just meeting with students – it’s a profound effect on these people. Peter Parker is alive to them, and he’s alive to us. I think our first commitment will always be to Spider-Man, but there are other things. Listen, if I didn’t want to do other things, I would have stayed at Marvel, but it was time to expand and find other movies and characters that interest me. I’m a huge believer in comics to film, which turned out well thankfully, and I’m a believer that video games to film will work just as well. The first movie that will set the bar – woof! Now video game designers are starting to think of the story.

WGTC: That’s so true because Hollywood has been trying to push the video game agenda for some time with lacklustre results…

Avi Arad: They’ve just been making the wrong movies!

WGTC: Exactly! So between Metal Gear Solid and Uncharted, which story holds that “BOOM” factor you mentioned before? Which do you see having a better chance of breaking today’s trend of poor video game films?

Avi Arad: Both! Metal Gear Solid is biblical – Cain and Abel. You have to find stories that are compelling if you’ve never heard of the game, and believe it or not, when we started Spider-Man, everyone knew about how he turns via a spider bite yet retailers thought it was an old thing – that was there. It was a very hard thing to place, but if it’s good, it will work.

WGTC: OK, I of course have to jump into the Sinister Six now, because there are so many possible outcomes for your films to follow. So many of these characters are outlandish, from Rhino to Vulture, but as we’ve seen with your mechanized Rhino interpretation, there are ways of realistically grounding crazier characters. Who are you most excited to involve in your Sinister Six team, grounding their presence?

Matthew Tolmach: Ha, the costume with the horn [Rhino] – we pay homage.

Avi Arad: The Vulture would be incredible!

Matthew Tolmach: Yeah, the Vulture would be awesome. Are you talking about the literal interpretation of the costume, though?

WGTC: I think the Sinister Six as a whole group, their incarnations?

Matthew Tolmach: Well, you know we can’t tell you, although I have to give you credit for trying in a unique way!

Avi Arad: We can tell you one thing – if you’ve read the comics, let’s say someone like the Vulture. Part of his power is mumbo-jumbo 50 years ago, but today it’s not. If you take biomechanics, cell structure, all these things, the things that make science today interesting – it’s no longer science fiction. Of course, we have to bring it to the future! What’s more fun than hearing Spider-Man’s song on a cell phone?

Matthew Tolmach: Look at the Green Goblin in this movie versus the Green Goblin created in Sam Raimi’s universe. It’s a different time. What’s a constant is that the character is somebody who makes the wrong decision about how to use technology and science, whatever that is at the time. The fun that we’re going to have with these characters – the characters themselves are going to be in the spirit of who they were designed to be. The toys and the fun? That’s the future, and that’s going to be awesome – and it’s also what we tip our hat to at the end of this movie.

I’d like to thank Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach for this exclusive interview. Be sure to catch The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in theaters May 2nd!