The Amazing Spider-Man 2 writer Roberto Orci talked to IGN on the Sinister Six, a possible Eddie Broke Venom, Oscorp unifying the villains, and the future of the Amazing Spider-Man Universe. IGN: There are release dates through Spider-Man ...4. Will that be a continuation of the Spider-Man franchise or might what were calling The Amazing Spider-Man 4 be a placeholder for Sinister Six or Venom? Orci: There were three superheroes I loved when I was a kid: Superman, Wonder Woman and Spider-Man. I think its such a popular character, and when I see my friends kids, I remember why somehow, it sinks into kids brains. So no, I think with Spider-Man 4, the intention is for it to be Spider-Man. IGN: How do you approach a film like Sinister Six that is so villain-centric. Do you take an approach similar to Marvels Thunderbolts, where its a group of villains that are now - at least to some degree - being good? Orci: Thats the discussion were having right now; how exactly do you do that, and how do you do it without betraying the audience and making them all mean? Drew Goddard [Cabin Fever] is going to be writing that one, so its kind of his problem. [Laughs] Im kidding. Were all working on each others stuff. So we want to be true to it, but there are some antiheroes in this day and age. Theres been examples of that even on TV -- Vic Mackey on The Shield, one of the great antiheroes of all time. There are ways to milk that story. Audiences have seen everything. Theyve seen all the good guys who never do anything wrong. Is there a story in seeing the other side? Thats the challenge, and thats the fun. Im not sure how were going to do that yet. IGN: It is really interesting, because this is perfect time for an antihero like this in a comic book movie, because audiences are so primed with Walter White, or Tony Soprano, or Vic Mackey...But the big question in terms of Venom is, do you think theyre primed enough for an Eddie Brock? Or does it need to be Flash Thompson -complicated, but more heroic? Orci: I think theyre ready to have things shaken up. I think weve all seen everything. Youve seen everything. You can probably predict the ending of most things even better than a general audience, but a general audience is still pretty good at it. They can see it all coming. So we have to shake it up. You cant just keep telling the same stories every day. IGN: When were looking at the trailers for something like Spider-Man 2, theres certainly a lot of villains. It looks like Oscorp may be the central fulcrum that all of these villains are spinning out from. Is that a technique you guys are using to unify this world and make it more cohesive? Orci: Yeah. Oscorp plays an important part in how our villains get created, obviously, in the first one. So because Peter becoming Spider-Man came out of that, rather than saying, And then this alien came from space, or whatever, theyre doing human-hybrid, weird stuff at Oscorp. Thats where Gwen Stacy works anyway as well. So the idea of it representing the good and the bad of science, that it can do great things, but it can also mess you up and do weird things and transform people -- as all science can be used for good or bad. So its nice to have that organizing principal, but it wasnt like, We must keep it at Oscorp. It flowed naturally from the story development. IGN: Then Norman and Harry can carry through as a central players... Orci: That family, yes. IGN: It seems like a particular challenge though to introduce all of these new characters and maintain the focus on your central characters. How do you do it? Orci: The way we do it is to make sure that their presence is based on a character thing that necessary for the theme of the movie. You cant just throw somebody in there to show up and make it harder on Spider-Man. The stories that we have for these guys, theyre tragic villains, youre going to find out, a little bit. Its not as simple as Evil dude shows up. Jamie Foxx has some very touching scenes. As long as I can describe their stories and character terms, then I feel like its okay. If you cant, then you know youre having them crash-land out of nowhere, and whats that about? IGN: As a fan, do you have a fantasy crossover that cant happen because of rights issues? Orci: [Laughs] Id love to see the Enterprise go to Cybertron. What? Paramount owns both. You mean in the Spider-Man universe? IGN: Yeah...although, tell me about that! What would that look like? Orci: Maybe the Enterprise would get the technology to transform itself into other things. The Enterprise becomes Voltron, how about that? IGN: The world would melt down. [Please note: this doesnt translate to print as well, but Orci - who wrote both Transformers and the Star Trek reboot - is joking about the Enterprise/Cybertron crossover.] Orci: [Laughs] Yes. But you mean the superhero universe? Like I said, my favorites were the three, and Batman as a fourth. I dont miss anybody else. [Laughs] I like the purism of it being that characters universe, in a sense. Again, Venom and Sinister Six come out of that universe, and I dont mind that. I like a little bit of focus. IGN: I think its really fascinating, and I wonder what you guys think, because as outsiders were watching what the different studios are doing, just in terms of the approach theyre taking with the characters that they have. I think the idea of this approach is awesome, because its ballsy. I mean, what Marvel Studios has done with Disney is brilliant. It is. But this is really the ballsiest one that Im seeing. Does it feel that way to you? Orci: No it doesnt, actually. It feels very familiar, because Alex and I started in television. In television, you get a great team of writers together, a writing staff, and youre working on five episodes at once. Youre prepping one, youre shooting one, youre writing one, youre posting one, and youre trying to make sure theyre consistent over 13 or 22 episodes. Thats how we learned how to do things. So its funny in the movie business, and you have different things being done by different teams and theyre not all communicating with each other. So when we talked about our interest in all this stuff, we said, Well, the way would want to do it is kind of go to a TV model, and then the distinction between the quality of TV and film has gone away. Theyre both equally viable, awesome storytelling formats. So the idea of, lets get a core group of writers and producers and directors -- and even though I might not be the one writing Venom, Ill be in the meetings talking about how to make it interesting. We could be putting in easter eggs and planning ahead in the previous movies, and then that guy over there is going to write that movie, and Ed Solomons gonna write another one with us. So having a committee, a board, of people who are creative, who are filmmaker, who just keep it all together, thats kind of going back to the way we started. IGN: But even in terms of, well Marvel Studios said, Were gonna set up this character, and this character, and this character, and theyre all heroes, and then theyre gonna come together, versus, Were gonna do villains head-on. Thats what feels particularly ballsy to me. Because I dont think anyone else is doing that. Fox could with Magneto, but hasnt entirely. Orci: Oh, I see. You mean focusing on the villains. One of our old sayings always is Whatever youre afraid of, go there. Follow the fear. Dont turn away from the fear. So what youre saying is exactly the reason why were doing it. Like, lets try and challenge ourselves. Do we think of ourselves as ballsy? No. Were the luckiest guys in the world. Theres no courage involved in this. [Laughs] But thank you for saying so. But youre raising the correct point, which is head towards the difficult stuff. Otherwise... IGN: Why do it. Orci: Yeah.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 06:48:23 +0000
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