Maguire faced physical challenges as 'Spiderman'
| • | Dunst helps mold 'Super-Man' role |
| • | Competition a spin-off of 'Spidey' film |
By Scott Bowles
USA Today
 |
| In "Spider-Man 2," opening nationwide Wednesday, the villain is Doc Ock, played by Alfred Molina. As the former good-hearted Dr. Otto Octavius, he befriends Peter Parker ... until something goes horribly wrong in an experiment.
Photos courtesy of Columbia Picture |
A similar scenario was playing offscreen as well. As director Sam Raimi prepared to shoot the sequel in April 2003, star Tobey Maguire wavered on the film, citing back problems from his horseback riding in "Seabiscuit." He asked if the film could be rescheduled, prompting rumors that he was in a money squabble with distributor Sony Pictures. Sony and Raimi lined up Jake Gyllenhaal as a possible replacement.
In the end, as in all good comic books, the hero prevailed. A little older, a little wiser and a good bit richer. (His salary leapt from an $8 million package for the original to $17 million for the sequel.) Maguire agreed to do the third installment, due in May 2006. Maguire spoke with USA Today about one of summer's most anticipated films.
Q. You sneaked into a press screening to see the movie. What did you think of it?
A. I knew it was a step up from the first movie. The script is better. The story is better. And Sam is just in the zone. Not only is the movie better than the first movie, this is Sam's best film. I appreciate him as a filmmaker, so that's saying a lot.
Q. What is your favorite scene?
A. When Doc Ock is in the hospital. A woman is screaming and digging her nails in the floor, and, oh my God, I could barely watch. I just love Alfred (Molina) as the villain. The way Alfred plays him, he's a layered villain. You still care about him. But he's sinister, and he's funny, and he delivers those good one-liners.
Q. How do you top the first "Spider-Man"?
A. Actually, it's going to be hard to top this one. I don't know if we can make a better third movie. I knew we were going to make a better second movie. This is like the second act of three acts, and it has so much meat to it. The movie ends, and you're wondering, "Where are they going to go with this?' I love that.
Q. The first film took in more than $820 million worldwide. How do you see this one doing?
A. I think it will do well. Will it outgross the first movie? That's tough. I don't know. It would have to do really, really well.
 |
| Tobey Maguire returns as the web-slinging hero in "Spider-Man 2." |
A. I did have a real concern. It looked like I was going to have to do everything in the movie and do things that seemed impossible for me to do. Acrobatic stuff that even the stuntmen couldn't do. My back was the worst it had been in 3 1/2 years. I felt like it was my responsibility to disclose this to the studio and the insurance company and Sam. The insurance goes, "OK, is this a greater risk for us?" The studio goes, "That's a big risk for us." Sam goes, "Can I make the movie I want to make?' They got really concerned, kind of more concerned than I was.
Q. What convinced you to take the role? And how is your back now?
A. I said, "Well, let's work this out and work with the stunt guys and make sure I'm in good shape." I worked with the stunt guys two or three days, and I was fine. My back kept getting better and better. ... But I definitely was concerned.
Q. There has been talk of as many six "Spider-Man" installments. Are you prepared to do all six?
A. I can't even look to tomorrow, so there's no way I can look that far into the future.
Q. In what way are you most like Peter Parker?
A. Hmmm, I don't really know what Peter Parker is like, or what I'm like. They're both too close to me.
Q. Who would you play as a favorite superhero?
A. I grew up watching "Superman" movies. And that was kind of cool. But I don't think I really fit for Superman. I don't think I can imagine beyond this. I'm Spider-Man. That's it.
• • •
Dunst helps mold 'Super-Man' role
 |
| Kirsten Dunst is Mary Jane, the love interest of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) in "Spider-Man 2." Parker actually is Spider-Man. |
She comes here with her girlfriends and hangs out by the pool. "It feels like a little vacation," says Dunst, from the side of her mouth. She's chewing fiercely on the straw of her iced coffee. Her milk-fed blondness, which she's exploited for both comedy and pathos, seems more irregular and slightly impish now that she's freed from the dictates of costume and makeup.
She's wearing faded blue shorts and a loose white T-shirt, her black-rooted hair twirled about in an odd hairdo, a transitional growing-out coif that comes with lots of hairpins and a tiny sprite of a ponytail.
Vacation is something Dunst speaks of longingly as she rides the "Spider-Man 2" marketing juggernaut, a whirl of activity that will encompass many countries on many continents, multiple magazine covers, a multiday Mario Testino "Vogue" shoot ("All of his assistants are gorgeous. It's so intimidating to be around, being photographed and being watched by these gorgeous guys") and a stint on "Oprah." "I did it once before, and that lighting is not geared to me. That's for sure," she says with a giggle. "I look so funny. Little squinty eyes and this huge lug of hair."
Dunst doesn't have the perma-press emotionality of someone who's been in the Hollywood spin cycle too long, with every feeling processed and reprocessed and trotted out for public consumption. It's a small miracle, given that she's been working since age 3, appearing in 70-odd commercials before graduating to such films as "Interview With the Vampire," "Bring It On" and the recent "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."
She admits she can get too candid. "I have to write 'I'm sorry' letters," she says.
Today she mostly uses her eyes for effect — opening them wide in a wacky, conspiratorial way when she wants to suggest, without actually saying, that a certain movie isn't all it's cracked up to be. "Spider-Man 2," opening Wednesday, isn't one of the movies that gets the eye treatment — in part because she's had a hand in shaping her screen alter ego, Mary Jane Watson.
Dunst anchors "Spider-Man" in a world of murky emotion, playing an object of adoration that somehow transcends that status.
"I'm sick of playing stupid girlfriend roles, and I'm not going to do that anymore," she says, adding that Mary Jane is not just a girlfriend part.
"Mary Jane is a vital role. The love story is the most important part of 'Spider-Man,' and in this movie it even affects his powers and everything he does even more," she explains.
At the end of the first film, Mary Jane declares her love to the boy-man Peter Parker/Spider-Man, who can't reciprocate. The second one picks up on this dilemma. "Mary Jane has grown up a lot, but Pete has stayed pretty juvenile in his social relationships with Mary Jane. He's not there for her at all because he has this other thing." Magic powers and stuff.
Dunst says making the second film felt very different — mostly because she felt different. "All the hoopla around (the movie business) I used to buy into a lot more. I used to be excited about hanging out on the set. I like my life better than hanging out on the set. I love what I do, but I just want to go to work and come home to my life and not have it cross over in any way." Having a life outside of the business seems to be a big theme for Dunst.
"What I have a problem with is that all the things in my life were for a lot of years geared toward work," she explains.
She looks back on all those years when her artist mother dragged her to commercial auditions in New York City with more cockeyed wonder than resentment. "I was just playing and having fun. I was making my mom happy. When a kid makes other people happy, you think it's love. Everything is so great. I liked performing for people." Her tone begins to change. "Probably it's not really good that a young kid likes performing for everybody. They just want love and attention somewhere. It's kind of weird."
Up next, she stars in Richard Loncraine's "Wimbledon," a kind of "A Star Is Born" set in the tennis world, and soon will be playing a flight attendant in the Cameron Crowe romantic comedy "Elizabethtown."
She also lives in her own brand-new house, with actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
As she becomes a superstar, she's keenly aware that there are more and more people eager to protect her. "I grew up in a lot of ways really early, but didn't at all in a lot of other ways," she says. "Now it's worse. You say you have a bloody nose, and 12 people get you a tissue," she says. She rolls her eyes for effect, then adopts the cadences of a self-deprecating Valley girl, if such an oxymoron were possible. " 'I just have a bloody nose, guys.' "
— Rachel Abramowitz, Los Angeles Times
• • •
Competition a spin-off of 'Spidey' film
 |
| Brett Joubert runs The Last Sanctuary, a comics and collectibles store, where a cartoon/comic competition will be held July 3.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser 'Spider-Man 2' comic contest 11 a.m.-2 p.m. July 3 The Last Sanctuary, 1485 Kapi'olani Blvd. Pre-registration preferred; call 955-2440 Free |
In Hawai'i, "Spidey" also means a cartoon/comic competition, where teams of two — an artist and a writer — will create a comic cover, panel or a splash page (a full-page scene with both art and text) in front of spectators.
" 'Spider-Man' might be a kids' title, but a whole lot of people are into it," said Brett Joubert, 40, manager of The Last Sanctuary, a mecca for comic enthusiasts and collectibles and the site of the draw-and-create-on-the-spot competition, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 3. It's also one of the spots you can score a free comic book, while supplies last.
"We held a similar comic contest when 'Hellboy' opened, but for that one, you could bring in and submit your entry," said Joubert. "For this one, we're asking teams of two to stay in the store and work on their entry."
Michael O'Sullivan, 26, a Waikiki resident who has attended art school (but hasn't graduated yet), is one of the artists joining the comic-drawing competition.
"It seemed like too much of a challenge to pass up," he said. "I'm intent on being a comic-book artist, because I grew up with comics. They were the first thing I read. I felt something primal; comics really speak to everyone; they go beyond words, a derivation of those images put on cave walls for thousands of years."
He still was finding a writing partner this week. "I want to team up, and get a real joining effort together," O'Sullivan, who normally works with pencil and ink plus gray-tone watercolors. "But the three-hour limit makes it hard; there won't be time for flair."
Fans observing the creative process may be a tad intimidating, too, but Joubert hopes to lure at least 10 teams. Artists have declared an interest; writers have been a bit shy.
Ultimately, the entry rules may be tweaked, depending on the response. Check the store for details and updates.
Each team will receive a $50 gift certificate to the store, and Sony and "Spider-Man 2" will provide a prize pack — precisely what, Joubert hadn't heard at press time.
Joubert said the idea to present a contest, where the competitors must flesh out their finished product before spectators in a limited amount of time, came from writer Harlan Ellison, who sat in the front window of a San Francisco store to write and create.
"It sounded like a fun idea," said Joubert, who is hoping the contest will evolve into a healthy in-store demonstration and competition.
"Participants must bring in everything they need — pens, inks, paper — and we provide the space," he said.
Personally, Joubert said he's a "Batman" fan.
"That's where my loyalties lie," he said. "I've been a 'Batman' fan since I was a baby. I love comics, but I've never been a serious collector. I've moved around so much — and cleaned the house — that I don't have very many old issues. But I have a 'Batman' issue for the year I was born. And that's enough of a prized collection for me."
Why is "Spidey," or, for that matter, any comic superhero, still so popular today?
"I have a suspicion that as the world gets crazy and more unsettling — you can't escape trouble and stress on the news — I think people need a link to fantasy," Joubert said.
"What comics do is provide a hero with X-ray vision, or other powers, to save the world, in a time when we all feel so disempowered."
— Wayne Harada, Advertiser entertainment writer
