Sam Raimi talks about the Spider-Man 2.5 DVD
IGN talks with the director about the new extended edition of the Spider-Man 2.
by Jeff Otto
October 11, 2004 - With the Spider-Man 2 DVD currently slated for release on November 30, 2004, Sam Raimi and Sony are already working on a follow up special edition DVD that will feature some extended scenes and extra footage tentatively titled Spider-Man 2.5.
At the press day for the The Grudge, which is produced by Raimi's Ghost House pictures, IGN was on hand to talk to the director/producer about the upcoming special edition of Spider-Man 2.
The release date is not set in stone yet, but it looks as if it will probably be ready mid to late 2005. "Well, I know that I won't be done with my part of [Spider-Man 2.5], these new effects shots, the editing... I'm still boarding the new scenes, so I don't know, but I don't think I can be done until January at least, maybe February."
"I'm kind of completing scenes that we didn't have the money to complete when we did the first movie. I board out, with my artists, a lot of sequences in the Spider-Man movies, that I eventually cut down for pacing sake. Most often times, for money sake, I can't afford them. Now Sony said to me, 'We want to release a 2.5,' because they want to make more money. It's not really that I had some scenes to put in. The movie really was the best I could make it. It's not like I think I could make it better. I said, 'Okay, if you want to spend money and really give the kids a few more action scenes, okay, that's fine.' It's the kids choice if they want to spend that money, then I think it's fair."
So why release Spider-Man 2 and then 2.5 later? Raimi has a very honest answer: "Well, I think that, one, it's just a financial decision by the studio. They know that people who liked the second movie would want to own it as it is on DVD, and then it's just a gamble. 'Oh, if we spend another four million dollars, can we make another ten million dollars? I think that's how it works."
The extra footage will mostly be extensions of action sequences from the original release. "It may not seems like a lot to you, but it's a lot to me. There's like six seconds new of the train, there's gonna be eight seconds new of some water fight you never saw, there's like twelve seconds new on this battle building. For me, though, twelve seconds is six shots that will have to be figured out and within that two seconds, the amount of animation of each of those tentacles and how Spidey's gonna move and it's very complicated for me."
Spider-Man 2 first hits DVD on November 30th, 2004 with the 2.5 edition likely landing in mid to late 2005. You can read our full interview with Raimi here.
t: 
very sad
