Sony has officially announced the Spider-Man franchise will be directed by former music video director Marc Webb. Let’s take at the legacy of Sam Raimi’s directorial masterpiece: the Spider-Man trilogy.
A self-confessed Spider-Man fan, when Raimi took the director’s chair he was just transitioning from the world of independent film to big Hollywood. He still had the style and grace of his early days, but had a few dramatic flicks under his belt with The Quick and the Dead (1995 ) and A Simple Plan (1998) to persuade the suits he could make a big budget action film. From the very beginning, his love of the character shined with plucky choices like Spider-Man’s organic web-shooters, the Green Goblin’s battle-suit and casting the little-known Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker. His signature style remained in tact with dramatic close-ups and sweeping camera shots.
The first two films were a runaway success catapulting the character to new heights of popularity, but the third film suffered from lack of direction and studio pressure. In the end, it was Raimi’s struggle to reconnect with the character, juggle villains, adapt to technology and still satisfy the studio that did him in. It was a successful run though and, as he moves on to other projects, he’ll always be remembered as one of the finest comic-book movie directors in the business.
What did you think of Sam Raimi as the director of Spider-Man? Let us know in the comments!
[Image from Videogameblogger]
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="42921 ">1 Comment
Nice retrospective. It's weird to think that there was a time when people were trying to figure out how to make a Spiderman movie. And that Raimi was a hack B-movie director best known for "Evil Dead."