Andrew Garfield: Amazing Spider-Man 2 script made me cry (Exclusive)

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ will be more epic and emotional than the first instalment – so emotional in fact, that the script made star Andrew Garfield cry when he first read it.

“I sat with [writers] Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman in a restaurant for lunch in New York, and they pitched me this movie… And I was crying” said Garfield.

“I was really emotionally moved by what they said to me. And I think a lot of my emotion was because these two guys love the character as much as I do.”

[Five things we learned from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer]

The British actor, who took on the iconic role after Tobey Maguire’s hugely successful stint, acknowledged that the character suffered in his first 'Spider-Man' movie because of the narrative legwork needed to reboot a franchise.  This wasn’t helped by grumbles that it was released just five years after the final Sam Raimi film.

“I think there was something missing in the first one because our focus wasn’t on character as much we were trying to keep a number of plates spinning in the air – How can we reintroduce the character? How do we not upset this guy or this guy? That was a tough wasteland we had to move through.”

After the first film made more than $700 million at the box office however and won positive reviews, they felt confident focusing back on Peter Parker.  “Now we could say, ‘who is this guy?’ How can we best serve Spider-Man?’”, said Garfield.
 
Marc Webb, the ‘500 Days Of Summer’ director whose appointment to the ‘Spidey’ job surprised fans, agreed with Garfield and said he felt more freedom as a director this time around.
 
 “You know the first time we had to deal with the origin story which was fun, but tricky. This time around the flood gates opened for all of us.”

“We got to explore things that just hadn’t been explored cinematically before. Whether it’s [Jamie Foxx’s villain] Electro you know, or more the story with Gwen [Stacey, played by Emma Stone]…”
 

[Spider-Man storyboards reveal major plot details]

We do know the ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ sequel will pick up the action soon after the events of the 2012 movie, following the continuing struggles of Garfield’s Peter Parker as he tries to balance high school survival and his relationship with Gwen, with his wall-crawling alter ego’s heroics.

“They’re struggling with some things,” Stone revealed of her character’s romance with Peter, “There’s a lot of tension… there’s a lot going on.”

However, when Peter begins to investigate his late father’s history, he discovers new villains on the scene, Electro, and Rhino (played by Paul Giamatti), have one thing in common… OsCorp.

“This time around we’ve really focused on making this a driving action movie from the get go,” boasts director Webb of the movie’s action credentials, complementing what new Harry Osborn actor Dane DeHaan calls the “really great” script.

“When they did the first [movie] they were like rookies at it, letting people know what was going on… and it was fantastic,” agreed Electro star Jamie Foxx. “But now they’re really in command of the roles. Marc Webb is in command of the scope of the movie and where he’s going with it.”

“Just how big it is,” Foxx added, “Fighting in Time Square. It’s dope!”

[Amazing Spider-Man 3 and 4 announced]

So where is ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ series going? We recently heard that a third and forth sequel to the franchise had been green-lit, scheduled for May 2016, and May 2018 respectively.

“We did think about these movies from the very beginning as a series of movies,” admits Webb. “Really a trilogy to be totally frank.”

However the web-slinging star himself Garfield is uncertain about his part in Spider-Man’s future, telling us the forth movie was “all news” to him.

“I mean I’m under contract for another one after this… as far as a forth one? That’s not anything to do with me,” he revealed.

“But yeah, I think what we’re doing here is we’ve established the world. And now we get to really play inside that world,” he added.

“Use our imagination, and kind of expand. That’s what this film is.”

‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ is out in the UK 18 April 2013. You can watch the first trailer, below.