Lorenzo di Bonaventura wanted to keep Madame Web detached from the rest of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.
The 67-year-old producer worked on the new superhero film and revealed how he and director S.J. Clarkson felt it would be better for the development of Dakota Johnson’s character Cassie Webb if a standalone approach was taken.
In an interview with Collider, Lorenzo said: “Before I was involved there was a script, and before S.J. was involved as well. Both of us really saw the advantage in not having the burden of the attachment of all this other stuff that has gone on.”
“You’d be silly to think you don’t pay homage to it and some acknowledgement, which we do, but it really freed us in a way to tell a pure story.”
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Di Bonaventura explained that the isolated story allowed them to focus completely on the plot, which sees Cassie come to the aid of three young women with special powers (played by Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O’Connor) when her ability to see into the future presents her with the vision of a sinister individual (Tahar Rahim) taking the trio’s lives.
He said: “For both of us, that allowed us to get into what I love about Dakota’s journey. It’s not just simply, ‘Well, I’m gonna stand up and become the hero.’ It’s, ‘I’m scared. I don’t want attachment. I definitely don’t want responsibility for these three people. What the hell is happening to me? I’m going insane.’ And then, ‘What do I do now that I’m in this situation?’
“So, for me, freeing ourselves from that obligation, in a sense, was very freeing and allowed us to do a more complex ride with the hero.”
Madame Web is in theaters now.
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