Spider-Man 3

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Information about Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 (5 years ago) superhero movie written and directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. It is the third movie in the Spider-Man movie franchise based on the fictional Marvel (19 walls) Comics character Spider-Man. The movie stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst (63 walls), James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

The movie begins with Peter Parker basking in his success as Spider-Man, while Mary Jane Watson continues her Broadway career. Harry Osborn still seeks vengeance for his father's death, and an escaped convict, Flint Marko, falls into a particle accelerator and is transformed into a shape-shifting sand manipulator. An extraterrestrial symbiote crashes to Earth and bonds with Peter, influencing his behavior for the worse. When Parker abandons the symbiote, it finds refuge in Eddie Brock, a rival photographer, causing Peter to face his greatest challenge.

Spider-Man 3 was commercially released in multiple countries on May 1, 2007 (5 years ago), and released in the United States in both conventional and IMAX theaters on May 4, 2007 (5 years ago), by Columbia Pictures. Although the movie received generally mixed reviews from critics, in contrast to the previous two films' highly positive reviews, it stands as the most successful movie in the series worldwide, Marvel's most successful film, as well as the second highest-grossing superhero movie behind 2008's The Dark Knight.

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Plot

Peter Parker has begun to feel secure in his life and plans to propose to Mary Jane. While Peter and Mary Jane are on a date, a small meteorite crashes nearby, and an extraterrestrial symbiote attaches itself to Peter's moped. Meanwhile, escaped convict Flint Marko falls into a particle accelerator that fuses his body with the surrounding sand. The result allows him to shape shift at will, becoming the Sandman. Peter's best friend, Harry Osborn, who seeks vengeance for his father's death, which he believes Peter caused, attacks him. During the scuffle, Harry injures his head and suffers from partial amnesia, making him forget his vendetta.

Later, during a festival honoring Spider-Man for saving Gwen Stacy's life, Sandman attempts to rob an armored car, and overpowers Spider-Man. Gwen's father, police officer Captain Stacy, later informs Peter and Aunt May that Marko is the one who killed Ben Parker. A vengeful Peter waits for Marko to strike again. The symbiote bonds with his costume while he is asleep; Peter discovers that not only has his costume changed, but his powers have been enhanced as well. The black suit brings out the more vengeful, insensitive, and arrogant side of Peter's personality, exemplified by a near-lethal attack on Sandman during a battle.

The shift in Peter's personality alienates Mary Jane, whose career is floundering, and she finds solace with Harry. Harry recovers from his amnesia and, urged on by an apparition of his dead father, forces Mary Jane to break up with Peter. After Mary Jane leaves Peter, stating she is in love with another man, Harry meets him at a restaurant and claims to be the other man. Later, Peter finds him at the Osborn mansion. With the help of the black suit, Peter is victorious in a brutal fight, which leaves Harry's face disfigured. Influenced by the suit, Peter exposes and humiliates Eddie Brock, a rival freelance photographer, who has sold fake pictures (wallpaper) to The Daily Bugle supposedly showing Spider-Man to be a criminal. Meanwhile, Sandman recovers from his injuries, and swears revenge on Spider-Man.

In an effort to make Mary Jane jealous, Peter brings Gwen to the nightclub where Mary Jane works. He gets into a fight with the club's bouncers and unintentionally shoves Mary Jane to the floor. Peter realizes the symbiote-suit is changing him for the worse. He runs out of the nightclub and goes to a church bell tower to dispose of it. Initially he is unable to remove the suit, but the sound of the church bell weakens the symbiote, enabling Peter to break free. Eddie Brock is at the same church praying for Peter's death when the symbiote falls from the tower and takes over his body. The newly-empowered Eddie finds Sandman and suggests joining forces to destroy Spider-Man.

The pair put Mary Jane in a taxicab and hang it from a gigantic symbiote web. Peter approaches Harry for help, but is turned down. However, Harry learns the truth about his father's death from his butler Bernard, and arrives in time to rescue Peter; they form an alliance against the two villains. As the fight progresses, Eddie attempts to impale Peter with Harry's glider, but Harry jumps in the way and is fatally wounded. Peter recalls how the church bell's toll weakened the symbiote, and frees Eddie from it by clanging several pipes together to make sonic vibrations. Peter throws a pumpkin bomb at the symbiote just as Eddie attempts to rebond with it, causing both to be destroyed in the resulting explosion.

After the battle, Marko recovers and tells Peter that he had no intention of killing Ben Parker, and that it was an accident born out of a desperate attempt to save his daughter's life. Peter forgives Marko, who dissipates and floats away to his daughter. Peter and Harry forgive each other before Harry dies with Mary Jane and Peter at his side. After Harry's funeral, Peter and Mary Jane begin to mend their relationship.

Cast

Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: A superhero, a brilliant physics student at Columbia University, and photographer for the Daily Bugle. As he grows arrogant with the city starting to embrace him for the first time in his career, an alien symbiote attaches itself to Peter's costume and influences his behavior for the worse. Maguire said he relished the opportunity to play a less timid Peter in this film.
Kirsten Dunst (63 walls) as Mary Jane Watson: Peter Parker's girlfriend and a Broadway actress, whom he has loved since childhood. Mary Jane has a string of bad luck in the film, reminiscent of Peter's misfortune in Spider-Man 2, losing her job because of bad reviews and losing her boyfriend when the symbiote takes him over.
James Franco as Harry Osborn / New Goblin: The son of Norman Osborn and Peter Parker's best friend, who believes Spider-Man murdered his father. After learning Peter is Spider-Man and that Norman was the Green Goblin, Harry becomes the New Goblin to battle his former friend directly.
Rosemary Harris as May Parker: The aunt of Peter Parker and the widow of Ben Parker, Peter's uncle. She gives Peter her engagement ring so he can propose to Mary Jane, and gives him lessons in forgiveness.
J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson: The aggressive chief of The Daily Bugle. He has particular dislike towards Spider-Man, whom he considers a criminal.
Dylan Baker as Dr. Curt Connors: A college physics professor under whom Peter Parker studies. He examines a piece of the symbiote and tells Peter it "amplifies characteristics of its host... especially aggression."
Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin: The hallucination of Harry Osborn's late wicked father returns to encourage his son to destroy Spider-Man.
Cliff Robertson as Ben Parker: Peter Parker's deceased uncle.
Bill Nunn as Joseph "Robbie" Robertson: A longtime employee at The Daily Bugle.
Michael Papajohn as Dennis Carradine: The carjacker who was believed to have murdered Uncle Ben.
Elizabeth Banks (7 walls) as Betty Brant: Receptionist at The Daily Bugle for J. Jonah Jameson.
Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko / Sandman: A small-time thug who has a wife and sick daughter, for whom he steals money to help get the treatment to cure her. He transforms into the Sandman following a freak accident, and incurs Peter's wrath when Peter learns he was his Uncle Ben's true killer. Church was approached for Sandman because of his award-winning performance in the movie Sideways, and accepted the role despite the lack of a script at the time. The film's Sandman possesses sympathy similarly exhibited by Lon Chaney in his portrayals of misunderstood creatures, as well as Frankenstein's monster, the Golem, and Andy Serkis's portrayals of Gollum and King Kong. Church worked out for sixteen months to improve his physique for the role, gaining 28 pounds of muscle and losing ten pounds of fat.
Topher Grace as Eddie Brock, Jr. / Venom: Peter's rival at the Daily Bugle. He is exposed by Peter for creating a fake incriminating image (wallpaper) of Spider-Man, and leaps at the opportunity to exact his revenge when he bonds with the symbiote. Grace had impressed the producers with his performance in the movie In Good Company. A big comic book fan who read the first Venom stories as a boy, Grace spent six months working out to prepare for the role, gaining twenty-four pounds of muscle. He approached the character as someone under the influence, similar to an alcoholic or drug addict, and interpreted him as having a bad childhood, which is the key difference between him and Peter. Grace found his costume unpleasant, as it had to be constantly smeared to give a liquid-like feel. The costume took an hour to put on, though prosthetics took four hours to apply. Grace also wore fangs, which bruised his gums.
Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy: Peter's lab partner. He asks her out to embarrass Mary Jane when possessed by the symbiote. Howard said the challenge of playing the role was in reminding many fans of the good-natured character who was Peter's first love in the comics, yet was "the other woman" in the film. Howard strived to create a sense that Gwen could potentially be a future girlfriend for him, and that, "I was not acting like some kind of man-stealing tart." Howard performed many of her stunts, unaware of the fact she was several months pregnant.
James Cromwell as Captain George Stacy: Gwen's father and a New York City Police Captain.

Production

Development

"The most important thing Peter right now has to learn is that this whole concept of him as the avenger or him as the hero, he wears this red and blue outfit, with each criminal he brings to justice he's trying to pay down this debt of guilt he feels about the death of Uncle Ben. He considers himself a hero and a sinless person versus these villains that he nabs. We felt it would be a great thing for him to learn a little less Black and White (4 walls) view of life and that he's not above these people."

Immediately after Spider-Man 2's release, Ivan Raimi wrote a treatment over two months, with Sam Raimi deciding to use the movie to explore Peter learning that he is not a sinless vigilante, and that there also can be humanity in those he considers criminals. Harry Osborn was brought back as Raimi wanted to conclude his storyline. Raimi felt that Harry would not follow his father's legacy, but be instead "somewhere between." Sandman was introduced as an antagonist, as Raimi found him a visually fascinating character. While Sandman is a petty criminal in the comics, the screenwriters created a background of the character being Uncle Ben's killer to increase Peter's guilt over his death and challenge his simplistic perception of the event. Overall, Raimi described the movie as being about Peter, Mary Jane, Harry, and the Sandman, with Peter's journey being one of forgiveness.

Raimi wanted another villain, and Ben Kingsley was involved in negotiations to play the Vulture before the character was cut. Producer Avi Arad convinced Raimi to include Venom, a character whose perceived "lack of humanity" had initially been criticized by Sam Raimi. Venom's alter-ego, Eddie Brock, already had a minor role in the script. Arad told the director that Venom had a strong fan base, so Raimi included the character to please them, and even began to appreciate the character himself. The film's version of the character is an amalgamation of Venom stories. Eddie Brock, Jr., the human part of Venom, serves as a mirror to Peter Parker, with both characters having similar jobs and romantic interests. Brock's actions as a journalist in Spider-Man 3 also represent contemporary themes of paparazzi and tabloid journalism. The producers also suggested adding rival love interest Gwen Stacy, filling in an "other girl" type that Raimi already created. With so many additions, Sargent soon found his script so complex that he considered splitting it into two films, but abandoned the idea when he could not create a very successful intermediate climax.

Filming

Camera crews spent ten days from Nov. 5, 2005 (7 years ago) to Nov. 18, 2005 (7 years ago), to movie sequences that would involve intense visual effects so Sony pictures (wallpaper) Imageworks could begin work on the shots early in the project. The same steps had been taken for Spider-Man 2 to begin producing visual effects early for sequences involving the villain Doctor Octopus.

Principal photography for Spider-Man 3 began on Jan. 16, 2006 (6 years ago) and wrapped in Jul. 2006 (6 years ago) after over a hundred days of filming. The team filmed in Los Angeles until May 19, 2006 (6 years ago). In spring 2006 (6 years ago), movie location manager Peter Martorano brought camera crews to Cleveland, due to the Cleveland movie Commission offering production space at the city's convention center at no cost. In Cleveland, they shot the battle between Spider-Man and Sandman in the armored car. Afterwards, the team moved to Manhattan, where filming took place from May 26, 2006 (6 years ago) until Jul. 1, 2006 (6 years ago). Shooting placed a strain on Raimi, who often had to move between several units to complete the picture. Shooting was also difficult for cinematographer Bill Pope, as the symbiote Spider-Man, Venom, and the New Goblin were costumed in black during fight scenes taking place at night.

After August, pick-ups were conducted as Raimi sought to movie more action scenes. The movie then wrapped in October, although in the following month, additional special effects shots were taken to finalize the production. At the start of 2007 (5 years ago), there were further pick-up shots regarding the resolution of Sandman's story, amounting to four different versions.

Effects

Amputee boxer Baxter Humby, as Spider-Man, throws a computer-generated punch through the chest of Sandman, portrayed by Thomas Haden Church.John Dykstra, who won the Academy Award for Visual Effects for his work on Spider-Man 2, declined to work on the third movie as visual effects supervisor. Dykstra's colleague, Scott Stokdyk, took his place as supervisor, leading two hundred programmers at Sony pictures (wallpaper) Imageworks. This group designed specific computer programs that did not exist when Spider-Man 3 began production, creating nine hundred visual effects shots.

In addition to the innovative visual effects for the film, Stokdyk created a miniature of a skyscraper section at 1:16 scale with New Deal Studios' Ian Hunter and David Sanger. Stokdyk chose to design the miniature instead of using computer-generated imagery so damage done to the building could be portrayed realistically and timely without guesswork involving computer models. In addition, to Sony Imageworks, CafeFX provided visual effects for the crane disaster scene when Spider-Man rescues Gwen Stacy, as well as shots in the climactic battle. To understand the effects of sand for the Sandman, experiments were done with twelve types of sand, such as splashing, launching it at stuntmen, and pouring it over ledges. The results were mimicked on the computer to create the visual effects for Sandman. For scenes involving visual effects, Thomas Haden Church was super-imposed onto the screen, where computer-generated imagery was then applied. With sand as a possible hazard in scenes that buried actors, ground-up corncobs were used as a substitute instead. Because of its resemblance to the substance, sand from Arizona was used as the model for the CG sand. In a fight where Spider-Man punches through Sandman's chest, amputee martial arts expert Baxter Humby took Tobey Maguire's place in filming the scene. Humby, whose right hand was amputated at birth, helped deliver the intended effect of punching through Sandman's chest.

Whereas the symbiote suit worn in the comics by Spider-Man was a plain black affair with a large white spider on the front and back, the design was changed for the movie to become a black version of Spider-Man's traditional costume, complete with webbing motif. As a consequence of this, the suit Topher Grace wore as Venom also bore the webbing motif; as producer Grant Curtis noted, "it�s the Spider-Man suit, but twisted and mangled in its own right." Additionally, the motif gave a sense of life to the symbiote, giving it the appearance of gripping onto the character's body. When animating the symbiote, Raimi did not want it to resemble a spider or an octopus, and to give it a sense of character. The CG model is made of many separate strands. When animating Venom himself, animators observed footage of big cats such as lions and cheetahs for the character's agile movements.

Music

Originally, Danny Elfman, the composer for the previous installments, did not plan to return for the third installment of Spider-Man because of difficulties with director Sam Raimi. Elfman said that he had a "miserable experience" working with Raimi on Spider-Man 2 and could not comfortably adapt his music. Christopher Young was then announced to score Spider-Man 3 in Elfman's absence. In dec. 2006 (6 years ago), however, producer Grant Curtis announced that Elfman had begun collaborating with Christopher Young on the music for Spider-Man 3.

Young, who had composed some of the score for the second film, kept the themes for Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, and he composed new themes for Sandman, Venom, and the love story. Sandman's theme uses "two contrabass saxophones, two contrabass clarinets, two contrabass bassoons and eight very low French horns" to sound "low, aggressive and heavy". Young described Venom's theme as "Vicious, my instructions on that one were that he�s the devil personified. His theme is much more demonic sounding." Venom's theme uses eight French horns. Raimi approved the new themes during their first performance, but rejected the initial music to the birth of Sandman, finding it too monstrous and not tragic enough. Young had to recompose much of his score at a later stage, as the producers felt there weren't enough themes from the previous films. Ultimately, new themes for the love story, Aunt May, and Mary Jane were dropped.

Reception

Spider-Man 3 had its world premiere in Tokyo on Apr. 16, 2007 (5 years ago), which garnered positive reaction from Japanese viewers. The movie held its UK premiere on Apr. 23, 2007 (5 years ago) at the Odeon Leicester Square, and the U.S. premiere took place at the Tribeca movie Festival in Queens on Apr. 30, 2007 (5 years ago).

Spider-Man 3 was commercially released in sixteen territories on May 1, 2007 (5 years ago). The movie was released in Japan on May 1, 2007 (5 years ago), three days prior to the American commercial release, to coincide with Japan's Golden Week. Spider-Man 3 was also released in China on May 3, 2007 (5 years ago) to circumvent market growth of pirated copies of the film. The studio's release of a movie in China before its domestic release was a first for Sony pictures (wallpaper) Releasing International. By May 6, 2007 (5 years ago), Spider-Man 3 opened in 107 countries around the world.

The movie was commercially released in the United States on May 4, 2007 (5 years ago) in a North American record total of 4,253 theaters, including fifty-three IMAX theaters. The record number of theaters was later beaten by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (27 walls), which was released in 4,362 theaters in the United States�109 more than Spider-Man 3. Tracking data a month before the U.S. release reflected over 90% awareness and over 20% first choice among moviegoers, statistics that estimated an opening weekend of over $100 million for Spider-Man 3. Online tickets for Spider-Man 3 were reported on Apr. 23, 2007 (5 years ago) to have been purchased at a faster rate�three times at Movietickets.com and four times at Fandango�than online ticket sales for Spider-Man 2. On May 2, 2007 (5 years ago), Fandango reported the sales rate as six times greater than the rate for Spider-Man 2. The strong ticket sales caused theaters to add 3:00 AM showings following the May 4, 2007 (5 years ago) midnight showing to accommodate the demand.

The FX channel signed a five-year deal for the TV rights to Spider-Man 3, which they began airing in 2009 (3 years ago). The price was based on the film's box office performance, with an option for three opportunities for Sony to sell the rights to one or more other broadcast networks.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

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