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SAM RAIMI:
“The easiest thing about working on Spider-Man 3 was that the team was the same, the production designer, editor and animators, who had learned how to move Spider-Man with great grace. And because I met Tobey and Kirsten seven years ago and we worked on the first picture as professional people, our friendship deepened on the second picture, and we weren’t afraid of hurting each other’s feelings, we could really speak honestly with each other about what we felt was lacking and what we felt we needed.”
TOBEY MAGUIRE:
“I loved working with the cast and the crew on this movie, and especially with Sam, so it was great coming back and I really felt like in this movie it was definitely the continuing story of Peter Parker and the other characters, but we were exploring new territory for the character, so it was exciting for me to venture into some different areas.”
KIRSTEN DUNST (Mary Jane):
“This is definitely the end to this trilogy. We’ve closed this chapter. But if Sam, Tobey and I were to come back together, we’d definitely be doing another movie.”
JAMES FRANCO (Harry):
“My feelings towards the movies have really changed. When I signed on to the first one I knew it was going to be a big blockbuster, but I didn’t realize the heart that Sam would put into it, that the emphasis would be put on the characters and the story. So in the beginning, before I’d seen the first one, I might have been reluctant to be a superhero, because it would seem cheesy, but after realizing what the movies were really like, I was happy to do it in this film.”
THOMAS HADEN CHURCH (Flint Marko/Sandman):
“The birth of Sandman was by far the most challenging, dramatic thing that I did in the movie, because it’s setup by the terror of being ripped apart. It also happens to involve by far the most dangerous stunt in the movie, which I did myself. The insurance company would only allow me to do it one time, and we literally rehearsed it for six hours before we shot it. It was when the deionizer, which was built off this Bell helicopter turbo engine, goes to full rev, and the stunt guys said, ‘If you get hit it’s like getting hit by a car at 80 miles an hour.’ I had to run straight at the bars and then get yanked back. The intensity, and quite frankly the fear, is really there.”
TOPHER GRACE (Eddie Brock/Venom):
“The first day they actually poured some kind of tar-like substance on me, and the stuff was getting in my eyes and I remember thinking, ‘This is going to be a long shoot.’ There was a kind of goop that they’d smear on the suit to give it the effect of being more liquid. That remained to the end. It was kind of unpleasant. But the good thing about Sam is if it can be done physically he’ll do it, which is ironic. The more that he filmed it on the set, the more it felt authentic. But there is a bunch of CGI, especially the character of Venom.”
RAIMI:
“In this story, Peter Parker falls victim to his own pride. He starts to believe all the press clippings about himself, that he’s really this hero and someone great. That pride manifests itself in a much darker way. Working on those sequences with Tobey and the dark Spider-Man was difficult for me, because I didn’t like watching Spider-Man go bad.”
MAGUIRE:
“I probably had the most fun doing [the bad Spider-Man] scenes. I have heard Sam say that he didn’t like those sequences, I’m not quite sure that I’ve ever believed him though. I think he’s attracted to it and repulsed by it at the same time. I think it’s hard for him to see Peter behave in those ways because it’s his treasured character, but I think we both get a little pleasure seeing Peter like that.”
FRANO:
“A lot of the stunts were me. I filmed that aerial battle in the beginning for a month and a half, and even after moving on from that scene we’d go back and shoot additional shots. So I did a fair amount of that. Most of the computer-generated replicas of me are used for the wide shots, but all the stuff in close struggling with Peter is usually me. And then there’s some shot where I’m wearing a mask and they’d want to use a stuntman.”
DUNST:
“I have absolutely no interest in being a superhero. I got to throw a cinderblock in this one, which was fine. That’s enough for me. If I were to do any superhero-esque film, I’d do some werewolf, avant-garde in-the-streets-of Paris kind of thing.”
MAGUIRE:
“Right now I feel like Spider-Man 3 is my favorite [of the trilogy]. I’m excited about it. It’s fresh. It’s funnier, it explores new territory. It’s probably the most distinctly different of the three films. I thought 2 was a really good movie. The story came together very well. In the first one I loved the excitement of it and the origin story.”
RAIMI:
“I [would do another Spider-Man movie] if there was a great story to tell, and I had a really good take on where he could grow to now. But I’d have to have a tremendous passion to do it because so many people love Stan Lee’s character. If I didn’t think I could do it fantastically, then I should step aside and let a younger director come in who loves the character. But it would be very hard to say goodbye to Spidey.”
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THE CONCEPT:
