Comments from Marvel head Kevin Feige might help explain why Daley and Goldstein were chosen for the coveted writing gig. Speaking with Birth.Movies.Death, Feige noted a few weeks back that:
“It’s the soap opera in high school, and those supporting characters, that are interesting. Just as we hadn’t seen a heist movie in a long time, or a shrinking movie in a long time, we haven’t seen a John Hughes movie in a long time. Not that we can make a John Hughes movie – only John Hughes could – but we’re inspired by him, and merging that with the superhero genre in a way we haven’t done before excites us.”
He further explained that the stakes for a Spider-Man movie, particularly one with Peter Parker still juggling high-school classes, don’t have to be Avengers-sized:
“What’s fun about a Spider-Man movie for us – I think you pointed this out [in an editorial], that Inside Out had the biggest stakes of any movie this summer. Stakes don’t need to be end of the world. Oftentimes, in our films, it is, and in our future films Thanos doesn’t work small. But sometimes the stakes can just be ‘Will this little girl grow up to be healthy and well put-together, or are there too many issues for her to overcome?’ That’s HUGE! That overrides a threat to reality itself. And I think Spider-Man straddles that line in a fun way in his comics. What we wanted was a movie where the stakes could be as high as ‘This bad person is going to do this bad thing, and a lot of people could die’ OR ‘You don’t get home in time and your aunt is going to figure this out, and your whole life is going to change.’
Particularly at that age, in high school, everything feels like life or death. The tests feel like life or death. Coming home from being out with your friends seemed like life or death. The stakes are high at that age, for the same reason [as they are] in Inside Out.”
Given that, maybe it makes sense that Marvel and Sony would want to focus on the more humorous side of teen existence, something Daley and Goldstein brushed up against in penning the Vacation remake. The studios obviously think a lot of them, given that their names popped up on the director shortlist, so it will be great to hear more about their take as ink hits paper.
The untitled Spider-Man reboot has been set for July 28, 2017.
