The Amazing Spider-Man [2012] (4 discs)

Random Trivia For This Title:

• Andrew Garfield requested that the song "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory be played when filming the otherwise silent scene in which Peter goes into the web harvesting room with the spiders.
• Before Andrew Garfield was announced for the lead part, Taylor Lautner, Josh Hutcherson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Logan Lerman, Robert Pattinson, Jamie Bell, Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Angarano, Michael Cera, Alden Ehrenreich, Zac Efron, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Xavier Samuel, ^[?] Jim Sturgess, Liam Aiken and Anton Yelchin were also considered to play the lead role.
• This is the first "Spider-Man" film to not feature Spider-Man's perennial love interest Mary-Jane Watson (in Sam Raimi's three films played by Kirsten Dunst). Instead, Peter Parker's original girlfriend Gwen Stacy appears (who had been played by Bryce Dallas Howard in Spider-Man 3).
• Ashley Greene, Mia Wasikowska, ^[?] Scout Taylor-Compton, Teresa Palmer, Amber Heard, Dianna Agron, ^[?] Brooklyn Decker, ^[?] Imogen Poots, ^[?] Lindsay Lohan, Emma Roberts, Emily Browning, Lily Collins, Anna Kendrick, Ophelia Lovibond, ^[?] Sara Paxton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, ^[?] Georgina Haig, Hilary Duff and ^[?] Dominique McElligott were considered for the role of Gwen Stacy, but were beaten out by Emma Stone. It is interesting to note that one of the other names--Mary Elizabeth Winstead--had played Gwen Grayson (named for Gwen Stacy) in the superhero spoof Sky High.
• Originally conceived as "Spider-Man 4," a direct sequel to the original film trilogy, Sony Pictures had actually begun pre-production before opting to make this film as a reboot instead. Sony re-negotiated contracts with director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst (each receiving a reported $30 million) for a three picture deal with the intention of starting a new trilogy in the series. Scripts were commissioned from writers James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, David Koepp and Gary Ross, with each writer earning upwards of $1 million or more for their services. The story would have introduced the Vulture as a new villain: Raimi initially approached Ben Kingsley for the role before casting John Malkovich. Malkovich was actually slated to play Norman Osborne in the original film series, but had to withdraw due to scheduling conflicts. In addition to the Vulture, the film would also introduce the villainess Felicia Hardy, with Anne Hathaway set to play the character. In the initial story, Hardy would become her comic book alter-ego Black Cat, though later script rewrites recreated Hardy as an original character called Vulturess (after her departure, Hathaway would take on a similar role in The Dark Knight Rises). Raimi also expressed interest in having Dylan Baker return as Dr. Curt Connors, who would transform into the villain The Lizard, though Executive Producer Avi Arad vetoed this idea. With development costs skyrocketing in excess of $100 million, Raimi, unhappy with repeated versions of the script, and tensions rising between Raimi, Maguire and the studio, Sony opted (in January 2010) to cancel the film and reboot the series instead. Raimi, for his part, has said it was for the best, as the director had been unhappy with Spider-Man 3 citing studio interference, and "hated" the storyline concocted for the proposed fourth film.
• Emma Stone normally wears her hair red, but as Gwen Stacy she appears in her natural blonde. Bryce Dallas Howard, who played the same role in Spider-Man 3, is a natural redhead who had to dye her hair blonde.
• Before filming, Rhys Ifans researched his role by meeting several real handicapped people (who have missing limbs). He also spent one month performing his daily activities using only his left hand - including tying a tie. The script had a small snippet written where Connors ties a tie, but it was not filmed as it was too time consuming.
• The first live-action Spider-Man motion picture where a main villain ends the movie in prison rather than dead or at large.
• Ben Parker's line "With great power comes great responsibility", prominent in the Sam Raimi movies, is not once uttered in this film. The voice-mail left by Ben alludes to this, but never directly quotes it. This is actually more in keeping with Amazing Fantasy #15, the first telling of the story, where it was merely a text box that said "With great power, there must also come great responsibility" in Amazing Fantasy #15. Subsequent retellings of the story in flashback and reboot gave the world the more famous line.
• Michael Fassbender was originally considered for the role of Dr Curt Connors; he eventually went on to play Magneto in X-Men: First Class. His Inglourious Basterds co-star Christoph Waltz was later rumored to be attached to the part.
• To prepare for his role as Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield studied the movements of spiders and tried to incorporate them as much as he could: "Parker is a boy/spider in terms of how he moves, and not just in the suit."
• After Denis Leary was cast, his friend Jeff Garlin, a Spider-Man fan, said "I knew you would get the part." To which Leary replied "Why? Because I'm such a great actor?" Garlin then said, "no, because you look just like Captain Stacy."
• When first wearing the Spider-Man costume Andrew Garfield admitted to shedding tears.
• In this film Spider-Man uses artificial devices to shoot webs, inspired from the original comics where he possessed similar devices for his webbing (only later would he gain the superhuman ability to shoot webs). Marc Webb explained the web-shooters were a creative decision to showcase Peter's intellect: "We wanted to emphasize that these are things that Peter Parker made and that he is special himself even if he feels like he's an outsider."
• In this film Captain George Stacy is strongly opposed to Spider-Man's activities, (although he does admit that he was wrong at the end), and Gwen Stacy is both aware and supportive of Peter Parker's role as Spider-Man. This is in stark contrast to the mainstream comics, where George Stacy was a strong supporter of Spider-Man, and confessed on his death bed that he was aware of Peter's identity, while Gwen Stacy blamed Spider-Man for her father's death, and as such Peter never informed her of his identity. In the "Ultimate Spider-Man" reboot, Gwen did eventually learn and accept Peter's secret identity.