It looks as though the awesome mechanical webshooters in The Amazing Spider-Man were all down to one man – comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis.
After the rather more organic webshooters of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, many Marvel fans were pleased to see The Amazing Spider-Man use mechanical devices as a means of slinging his signature webs. But that may not have been the case if Sony execs managed to get their own way…
During an interview with Yahoo! Movies, comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis revealed that the webshooter decision went to a committee… and his was the deciding vote.
“They’ve asked me in to be the deciding vote on some stuff, which is an odd experience”, he explained. “They sat me down in Amy Pascal’s office with this big roomful of producers and writers and directors, and she looked at me and said ‘organic webshooters or mechanical webshooters?’ I said ‘mechanical’, and half the table said, ‘goddamn it!'”
Of course, the webshooters went on to be one of the more popular aspects of The Amazing Spider-Man and led to several rather amusing scenes as Peter Parker tinkered with his new gadgets.
And that’s not all – his mechanical prowess in assembling his very own webshooters really showed what Parker was capable of… a young scientific genius rather than the result of a lab accident.
“They were mad because I was clearly the deciding vote, even though I didn’t know that,” he added. “So when I see the mechanical webshooters, I feel a little happiness. I feel like I did something good in the world”.
It’s certainly something to feel proud of… but I can’t help thinking that Bendis has given us something even more important here – an insight into how the new Spider-Man movies are made.
[Gambit Solo Film Announced For 2016]
It seems to me that big decisions (such as Spidey’s webshooters) went to committee rather than being brought forward by writers and filmmakers. And perhaps this glimpse into Sony’s process gives us some idea as to why The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was so bad.
After all, an executive-led process is hardly the most creative environment to make a film.
Either way, it seems that Sony relied on a comic book consultant to sort out some of their big issues… and quite what else Bendis fixed in the franchise is up for debate. But it doesn’t give us much hope for the future of the Spider-Man franchise.
At least, not in Sony’s hands.
What do you think of Bendis’ comments? Is this really the best way to make a movie? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
