Danny Elfman talks “Spider-Man” (2002)

When I first saw Spider-Man (sometime in 2003 0r 2004), I would never have guessed that the character would be rebooted twice less than twenty years later. No offense to Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland, but for me Spider-Man will always be Tobey Maguire.

The first Spider-Man film served as an origin story for everyone’s favorite web-slinger. Peter Parker (Maguire) starts out as a nerdy high school senior who lives with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben (he also has a hopeless crush on Mary Jane Watson) and is friends with Harry Osborn (the son of Norman Osborn, the CEO of Oscorp). After being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter discovers that he has developed superhuman abilities: he can shoot webbing, climb walls and sense things ordinary humans cannot. After Uncle Ben is killed (by a thief he allowed to get away), Peter becomes “Spider-Man” and begins to fight injustice in the city, while working as a photographer for the city newspaper.

Meanwhile, Norman Osborn is facing problems of his own. Looking to secure a military contract, he uses an experimental (and highly unstable) performance-enhancing chemical upon himself, but the procedure goes wrong and Norman develops an insane alter-ego dubbed “The Green Goblin” by the newspaper. It’s only a matter of time before the Green Goblin and Spider-Man clash, and the ramifications will be huge for all concerned.

The score for this film was created by Danny Elfman, a composer well-known for his work in the Batman films (having scored Batman and Batman Returns, as well as the theme for Batman: The Animated Series). In this interview, Danny Elfman talks about his composing process: how he likes to “block out” the important musical moments in a film before going back and filling in the gaps with the rest of the score. Such moments might include Spider-Man’s theme, the Goblin’s theme, a love theme, etc. One of my favorite moments is when Peter discovers he can climb walls, I love how the music briefly matches Peter’s movements as he begins to climb up.

Please enjoy this look at Spider-Man with Danny Elfman. Of the three actors who have played the character, who do you think has done it the best? Let me know in the comments below, catch ya’ll later 🙂

See also:

Danny Elfman talks Batman (1989)

Danny Elfman talks Batman Returns (1992)

Danny Elfman “Planet of the Apes” scoring session (2001)

Danny Elfman talks Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Danny Elfman talks Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Danny Elfman talks Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

Danny Elfman talks Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

Film Composer Interviews A-H

Film Composer Interviews K-Z

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*poster image is the property of Columbia Pictures