Geeks are running the world, anyone who's seen The Social Network knows the dynamic has shifted, but what I think is iconic and timeless about Peter Parker is that he's an outsider, on the outside looking in, and that was something I thought was very important to protect.

Marc Webb

Categorized in : Thinking Running Important

When you dont inherit an identity you have to define it on your o... by Marc Webb

When you dont inherit an identity you have to define it on your own.

identity

I just like that dynamic in relationships in movies where they're kind of lovers as rivals, you know?

rivals lovers kind

Earnestness can ferment into sentimentality. by Marc Webb

Earnestness can ferment into sentimentality.

sentimentality earnestness

I think it's really important, when you're redefining a character [ Spider-Man], for the audience to experience things that they haven't experienced, from the ground up. I wanted to build a character. I feel like point of view is a really crucial thing in the story, and that you need to build up the emotional building blocks, so that you can experience all the other emotions in a very specific way, rather than just experiencing it in an intellectual way.

block emotional character

I was a Marvel guy. I started reading comics when I was a kid. by Marc Webb

I was a Marvel guy. I started reading comics when I was a kid.

guy reading kids

I always remembered that when I saw people get married they got on a rocketship and went to Planet Happiness, Population: Them.

population saws people

One of my life philosophies is that you have a choice to make when you're doing something creative. You can be cheesy... or you can be lame.

choices creative philosophy

I think that Spider-Man is a part of our culture. He's a perennial character. He's something that's constantly reexamined and there are so many versions of him in the comics that it was something that I thought that we could do cinematically. He belongs on the big screen.

character men thinking

There's a bigger universe at hand. by Marc Webb

There's a bigger universe at hand.

bigger universe hands

Nerds are running the world. Andrew Garfield made a movie [called “The Social Network”] about it. Nerds are no longer pariahs and knowing how to write computer code is longer a [mocked] quality. What was important in those early comics was this notion that Peter Parker is an outsider and how we define that in a contemporary context. That, I think, was one of the challenges for us — getting Peter Parker’s outsider status to be current.

writing running thinking

Sundance is a really special place. They're very protective of movies, especially lower-budget movies.

protective budgets special

Working with the actors, working with production designers, working with the creative people who surround the process is really fun, it's really inspiring and I take great pleasure in working with them. That's what's most fun about directing.

creative fun people

There's a punk rock quality to Peter Parker, that I identified with when I read the comics [Spider-Man], and that I really liked. He has this chip on his shoulder.

rocks quality men

When you have to react to a lizard that's a tennis ball, it's a really, really difficult, tricky piece of craft.

tennis balls pieces

For me, there were a few things in the Spider-Man comics that I thought were really interesting. There's this story about Peter's parents and where he came from, and I thought that it was really interesting to explore the emotional consequence of someone whose parents had left them, at a very young age.

emotional men interesting

We're creating a different universe with different rules and a different tone and different villains. We were very careful to honor the iconography of Spider-Man, but we wanted to tell it in a new and different way [in the film].

different-universes creating men

It's really hard to find just a simple character-driven drama, outside of a genre, that was available to direct, except for on TV.

simple character drama

I think that the dramas that you find in TV are actually a lot more interesting, typically, than what you find in cinema.

drama interesting thinking

I think one of the things about Peter Parker that is so great, and what has made him and Spider-Man last so long is he is a kid that we all feel connected to, he's not an alien, he's not a millionaire, he's just this kid that has trouble asking girls out.

girl men kids

Audiences can tell when you're being fake and they will eat you alive. But if you're doing something authentic they will connect to it and that can lead to commercial success.

audience fake alive