Sundance used to be a place where the boutique distributors went to find the next art-house hit and Oscar underdog. In recent years, Sundance has become the place where the studios go to find the next fresh filmmaker to take on a larger project, like Colin Trevorrow, with Jurassic World, and yourself, with Spider-Man. When you look back, how did this happen?
I’m not really sure what happened. I had never been to Sundance before. I was nervous because that was the first time we were showing the movie to an actual crowd. So I was dealing with that. I mean, Sundance is like a genre. At least it was to me growing up and in film school: it’s like a Sundance kind of a movie. But [Marvel] got to see Cop Car and they really liked it. But yeah, this trend is interesting. Now, I’ve got to make a slightly more expensive version. It’s an opportunity to just have a much bigger canvas instead of just scrapping together any story you can.
When you agree to sign on to a big franchise out of Sundance, how much thought goes into the compromise of, “Okay, I’ve always wanted to make this kind of movie, but at the same time, that means I’m not going to be able to make the two or three films that might be a little more personal.” Is there much consideration about those compromises, or am I being too philosophical about it?
I think that’s a little philosophical. I mean, I still have so many movies that I want to make, and [Spider-Man] just gets to become one of them. That’s how I think of it. I still have a lot of ideas I want to make, in addition to this, and I don’t think it’s a one-way path in that sense.
I love the casting of Tom Holland, someone I interviewed for The Impossible…
He’s so good in that.
…and when he was making Locke. I just really like the idea of him as Spider-Man and the direction you seem to be steering with him as your hero. What does he bring to the role that we haven’t seen before?
He can be a real high school student. That’s why people love Spider-Man. He’s the most grounded, relatable of superheroes. And Tom can really do that. He captures that. And he can do a standing back-flip. He’s perfect.
We’ll meet Tom’s Spidey before your film [in Captain America: Civil War]. Do you have to work in collaboration with other filmmakers on that, or do you just work independently on your standalone?
I mean, it’s a big universe, so everyone sort of works with each other to make sure that there’s continuity and that it all fits together. It’s really exciting actually. We’re just getting started, working on the script and all that, but it’s going to be a great process.
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