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The Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Directors Talk About Which Spider-People Were There From the Beginning

Published Mon, 08 Apr 2019 11:15:22 -0500

Way back in February Bleeding Cool was invited to Sony Animation Studios for the release event of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Our embargo has finally come down and we can share the interview we got to have with directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman. It should be noted that this interview took place the Wednesday before the Academy Awards so this was before we knew that this movie was going to win. Hence why they are asked about their feelings going into the awards that coming Sunday at the time of the interview.

Bleeding Cool: So one of the questions I wanted to ask you guys during the Q and A was that when you're working with something like Spider verse you have a humongous choice of characters that you could have chosen to feature. Why did you choose Spider-Man Noir and Penni Parker and Spider-Ham in particular when you were working on the story?

Bob Persichetti: I mean it was pretty it's interesting because in these movies you often iterate characters out in and out of movies a lot. You know in the creative process and all of these characters were in the first treatment which is kind of amazing that they stuck around all the way through the whole film. You know the goal was to bring disparate characters from disparate universes that could both look and feel very different from Miles but also at the same time could kind of be a good sort of sounding board or foil or obstacle to Miles becoming Spider-Man you know. So with all of those sort of criteria those you know, Noir, the pig, Gwen especially, Penni. Like they all just sort of felt like the natural fit. Yeah. And then they all just led into like really cool visuals as well.

Peter Ramsey: Yeah I mean they some of the better-known ones. I think again that factored in I'm sure. But I think what Bob's saying about you know telling the story of the Spider-Verse, the multiverse. It helps to have characters that are different from each other and as different from Miles as possible I think. Became a really nice shorthand way of kind of selling that idea and making it clear.

BC: So I got to ask Joshua [Beveridge – Head of character animation] this earlier but you released the teaser for this a full year before the movie was even released. And what was it like to see such a strong reaction from not only fans but people all over the internet for I'm assuming was barely an alpha build of what the movie was actually going to end up being. What was that like.

Ramsey: Yes it was crucial for us. You know we spend on a movie like this you spend so long working in you know. In seclusion. The mission of the movie was to try to you know. Was to try to make something that looked and felt like something we hadn't seen before which is a hard ambition that to nail. So that was the first you know meaningful feedback we got. We got a sense of just that people were excited, we got a sense that people were ready to go on the trip with us.

Persichetti: It puts some wind in ourselves for sure. Like that was a moment. I mean literally, every shot that's in that teaser was finished the day before we released it. We had nothing else to show. Like we were still, in that moment, we were still trying to define and refine the look and the process of making it. And so we were really struggling just get a little to have a win. You know we loved it the visuals. Like every single shot "is this going to be in it? I think it's going to fall out. I don't know if we're gonna get through it" and we ended up getting kind of the entire thing up. Like two of the shots got reanimated after the teaser when Miles lands and he pulls his mask off.

Those were the first two sort of skinned shots of Miles that we really thought they were great but as we as we went deeper into making the film we figured out a better way to make his face look better. So we went back and redid him but it gave us some distance also from the studio like they were like "Oh okay okay. Yeah yeah." They got excited about. They were like "oh yeah the people are embracing it. So we'll let you guys keep going."

BC: During the Q and A you guys talked a bit about how you got been we're seeing so many positive messages from people. Could you tell me a particular fan interaction or message that you have gotten that really touched you?

Persichetti: I mean I literally have had people I mean the thing about people saying they've had a hard year. That's been a lot of people. Some of some famous people on Twitter or they've DM-ed me or whatever and they're choking up. And the other one is, it sounds like a corny cliché, but it's people you know sending me emails or coming out of screenings and people going "oh well we're watching with my little kids and they're hey he looks just like me on screen" like actually doing that which is like. "Are you making that up?" People are really moved by that. It moves me. I mean it's crazy. You hope that what do you make is gonna make that kind of connection with somebody but the level to which it's happened on this one is this special.

Rodney Rothman: Yeah I think it's connected with a lot of people. I think obviously people of color like that's a that's like the top line. It goes so much broader and wider and deeper than that because we've been getting responses from people. Just you can imagine any category that might fall under the umbrella of "outsider", not feeling like others. The outreach we've had and just "like anytime I'm down I literally go watch your movie in the theater and it makes me feel good about myself." And you're just like; what more could you ask for. That's a dream.

Ramsey: There's someone on Twitter, a comedian, and writer named Amber Ruffin, who said to me on Twitter last week or the week before. The thread she wrote herself was extremely moving and eloquent and funny and that that tweet became like a spark. A lot of people speaking in the comments or some tweeting, like a chat room and that reading everyone's comments in that just straight up makes me sob.

BC: How are you guys feeling about Sunday?

Ramsey: I think I've finally gotten enough distance from being finished, making the movie, that I'm kind of relaxing and the whirlwind. I think just this past three days where not much was happening and it's going on it's winding down. I'm actually like physically relaxing. So, for me, I'm just kind of like hey we'll see what happens. I'm kind of mellow about it. Talk to me Sunday night.

Rothman: I mean I'll be nervous on Sunday but I genuinely feel lucky to be there. To be having this conversation. And it's kind of like the end of what's been a very intense road for us with lots of ups and downs.

Persichetti: So I think it goes to the thing of like we finished so late, the movie came out late in the year, that maybe it's like there's finally this little like breathing moment before the Oscars. Where we can go like "wait a second we've like we won a Golden Globe. We won a Critics Choice. We've been doing like wow this is and this is real." The response to the movie is real. And the last bit of it is the Oscars and whatever happens happens. But it's finally sinking in that the accolades are real. It's a dream and it's a very strange thing to think about.

BC: So I don't want to put two part question first part I'm pretty sure you can answer the second part I'm pretty sure you can't but I'm going to ask anyway. How did you guys react when you were given the sequel and the spin-off announcement very early? And second of all. Are any of you going to be involved with either? And if so when does stuff start?

Ramsey: I mean there's been sequel talk around for months. So we knew that that was in the works and that there have been like you know discussions and storylines and all this stuff floated. I don't think any of us is like intimately familiar with any of that stuff that's going on and so on. But if we know it's happening you know we know people that.

Persichetti: There is a room in this building that probably has some drawings on the wall that might be about a sequel. If you want to just go snoop around.

BC: Oh that sounds like a way of not getting the invited back [to Sony Animation Studios]. I would like to come back some day.

Rothman: What Bob was saying about us just handing this thing over at the last minute. I mean I don't think there's been like a second for us. And I think originally the idea maybe was, I know they wanted to get the sequel started before we were we haven't done it yet. Because they were like whoever is doing will just roll on into the next and the same people won't necessarily be involved the bubble blah blah blah.

Persichetti: I think everybody's been taken by surprise with how the movie's gone over and both with audiences and also critically. So I think everybody's just sort of, I think I think there's just a genuine like whoa we did, okay, wow let's reset and let's think".

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is OUT NOW on Digital and swings home on Blu-ray and DVD 22nd April in the UK.

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