Spiderman 3

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The Secrets of Spider-Man 3

In an exclusive excerpt from Premiere's January/February cover story, Premiere.com untangles some of the mysteries surrounding the webslinger's third adventure.

By Tom Roston

Director Sam Raimi on why Spidey will finally face off against Venom: "[Avi Arad, the former chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios] said the fans want to see Venom. I come from a different generation. I read the comic books in the '70s, where it was Green Goblin, Sandman, Electro, Mysterio, the Vulture. It was not until the late '80s that Venom came about. But Avi said, 'I'm telling you, they're waiting for him. Don't be selfish. Spider-Man is everyone's myth, not just yours.' "
On casting Peter Parker's new love interest Gwen Stacy: To realize his vision, Raimi drew from both likely and unlikely sources for the casting. "Gwen Stacy is this buxom blond, and I'm this red-headed character actress," says [Bryce Dallas] Howard (The Village, Lady in the Water)."I was really, really shocked. Especially when I saw pictures of the character, I was like, 'What? Aren't there a million other women walking around in Los Angeles right now who actually already look like this?'" Says producer Laura Ziskin, "My joke is, I cast a blond as a famous redhead, and a redhead as a famous blond. There were a lot of hair issues."
On Peter Parker's "evil doppelgänger" Venom: Double Your Fun: Topher Grace plays Eddie Brock, a.k.a. Venom, "an evil doppelgänger of Peter," says Grace. "He dresses better, he's kind of good with the ladies, and we gave him a lot of hair gel."
Why Spider-Man 3 meant four times the stunts for star Tobey Maguire: For Spider-Man 3, Raimi says, Maguire multiplied his action scenes "by, like, four-fold." One extensive sequence has Harry fighting with Peter, who doesn't have his Spidey suit on. "It was more work for me, but it was fine," Maguire says of the maskless battle. "It's actually good when you've got the faces in there, because you get to feel for the characters and react more.""It is cool for me and hard on Tobey," Raimi notes. "He's got to do everything he could possibly do as Spider-Man. Stuntmen can fill in for the wide shots, CG can fill in for the outrageous stuff. But he's had to do a tremendous amount of physical action, of rolling, tumbling, leaping, landing, punching, fighting, falling." It's a touchy subject, because Spider-Man 2 almost imploded when there was talk that Maguire couldn't return because of back problems. "We're always careful with him," Ziskin says. "I mean, he has chronic problems and he works on it and he has a chiropractor, and we're careful in terms of what we ask him to do."
On Raimi's blissful unawareness of his stars' personal lives: Raimi does seem quite attached to his cast; he's watched them grow up over the course of three installments. "Remember on the first movie, Tobey and Kirsten had a thing?" he asks. "I'm so dumb, because I met with them for dinner one night during the shooting to talk about the next day's scenes. And I go, 'Okay, well, that's it for the meeting.' And then I ask Kirsten, 'Can I drive you home?' And they look at each other and she goes, 'No, no, I'm going to play a game of Touch 10 with Tobey.' I don't know, it was some game. I thought, 'That's weird. She's got to work tomorrow.'On the future of Spider-Man: "I'm sure they'll keep making Spider-Man pictures," says Raimi, who has signed up for each one individually. (Maguire was contracted for all three.)"Amy [Pascal, Sony cochairman] told me that she would. I love Spider-Man. And I love working with Kirsten, Tobey, James. I don't know if Thomas and Topher will be around in the next one, but probably Bryce will be. But I have to make sure that when I'm done with this picture I'm really still fascinated with the character. At this moment I'm fascinated with him. Whether or not I will be in six months when the movie's done I couldn't say. And I absolutely would not have anything to do with the picture unless I was hungry to tell the story."Could Raimi imagine doing Spider-Man without Maguire?"I'd rather not," he says, and then, "No, I couldn't imagine it."

Super Size Me

Super Size Me is a 2004 documentary film, directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. It follows a 30-day time period (Feburary 2003) during which Spurlock subsists exclusively on McDonald's fast food and stops exercising regularly. The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effects on Spurlock's physical and psychological well-being and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit.
During the filming, Spurlock dined at McDonald's restaurants three times a day, sampling every item on the chain's menu at least once. Before launching this experiment, Spurlock, age 33, was healthy and slim, with a body weight of 185.5 lb (84.1 kg). (Spurlock is 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall.) After thirty days, he gained 24.5 lb (11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, and his Body Mass Index raised from 23.2 (within the 'healthy' range of 19-25) to 27 ('overweight'). He also experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and nearly catastrophic liver damage. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight he gained.
The driving factor for Spurlock's investigation was the increasing spread of obesity throughout U.S. society, which the Surgeon General has declared "epidemic," and the corresponding lawsuit brought against McDonald's on behalf of two overweight girls, who, it was claimed, became obese as a result of eating too much McDonald's food. Spurlock points out that although the lawsuit against McDonald's failed, much of the same criticism leveled against the tobacco companies applies to fast food franchises.
The film opened in the U.S. on May 7, 2004, and grossed a total of $28,548,087 worldwide, making it the 7th highest grossing documentary film[1]. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, but lost to the film Born into Brothels.
In February 2005, Super Size Me Educationally Enhanced DVD edition was released. It is an edited version of the film designed to be integrated into a high school health curriculum.

Rahsaan´s Place

Rahsaan Patterson is an African-American singer and actor, best known for portraying "The Kid" on the popular 1980s television show Kids Incorporated. He is a native of The Bronx, New York. After appearing in a school talent show in 1984, Patterson auditioned for the television show Kids Incorporated. He was cast as "The Kid", and remained on the show for the next few years. After Kids Incorporated, Patterson gained experience as a backup vocalist for several artists (including Kids co-star Martika). Following his vocal contributions on Colour Club's self-titled album, as well as writing for other artists (his credits include Brandy's platinum Top 5 smash "Baby", and Tevin Campbell's hit "Back to the World"), Patterson signed with MCA Records. Collaborating with Keith Crouch and Jamey Jaz, among others, released his own self-titled debut in 1997.
Receiving positive reviews from critics, the album failed to find a large audience (the single "Where You Are" did receive attention on R&B radio). Patterson did, however, develop a loyal following both in the United States and abroad.
Patterson went to work on his followup, Love in Stereo, with Jaz and new collaborators such as Van Hunt. When Love in Stereo was released in late 1999 it received better reviews than its predecessor, although the mainstream overlooked it.
Although Patterson and MCA parted ways, he remained busy, continuing to perform live, working as a session singer, and contributing to both soundtracks (Brown Sugar) and compilation albums (Steve Harvey's Sign of Things to Come), while working on his next album.
After Hours, Patterson's third album, was released internationally early in 2004, again garnering positive reviews. With the forming of his own label, After Hours was released in the United States in late October 2004.