So Spiderman 3 is completely your director's cut then? I assume it's the same?

Yes, we've had a very good relationship like that throughout all the pictures. There are discussions and there's compromises that you make in any relationship, but I'm very happy with the picture.

The producers said an interesting thing, which was even at the end of principle photography, because of the effects in the film, you found yourself actually directing the film three months after you'd wrapped. Can you talk about that? Direct yourself to the Sandman stuff and finding new character stuff in the film even after you'd wrapped?

Well, I don't know about finding new character pieces, because those I discover through the actors' performances and discussions with the actors, or with the screenwriter, Alvin Sargent, or my brother Ivan, or our producers Laura Ziskin and Avi Arad and Grant Curtis. But the directing never stops on a modern picture with a lot of CGI because even though I've done a storyboard and submitted it and shot the plate for the animation to take place in, and have even provided an animated guide within the plate, it's a crude guide. And as the animation director takes over, he adds his own interpretation or improves it or tries to understand what it was that I was after that the animator I was working with couldn't provide me, and tries to take it to the next step, so yes, performance in pictures where there is--maybe this is what you mean--where the main characters are CG, continues to evolve. That's true. But more in the physical, in a very physical place and not so much in a spiritual or mental performance place.

Why are these actors so willing to take a leap of faith -- I'm talking about Topher and Thomas Hayden Church -- to sign on something that is not yet completely finished in script form? What is it about this project that attracts them?

Well, I'm very happy that they did, because I needed their talents to create these characters. Um, but, I think it's just the nature of the Spiderman films, and maybe modern day films that are heavy in effects, which is basically--at the end of Spiderman 2, I'm told when the release date is for Spiderman 3, and it simply is going to be on the screen on May 4th. But, but, but--I don't have it worked out yet. So we have to be working it out and writing the script as we're casting, as we're shooting, as we're working on the effects. It's just, the demands, we don't have enough time to do it all in the proper sequence. Ideally, we would write the script, and rewrite the script and finish it, and only then begin the casting process. And only then start storyboarding the piece after rehearsals, and then begin figuring out the effects. But I had to start the effects before I had written a script and cast it before I'd written a script. So it was all a coming--it was unfortunately, on these big pictures that's how it works, a simultaneous process. It's like building a house without a blueprint.

With Dr. Connors you obviously like classic characters. If you continue with the series, might we see something--?

Yes, I think it's the same with Captain Stacey and Dr. Connors and all the other periphery characters in the Spiderman universe. The more films we make, the more the producers and myself and I think, in Dr. Connors case, maybe Avi suggested him in the first one, hey you're going to mention a professor, why don't you mention Dr. Connors he said? Okay. And then it was a really logical thing, when Peter was in class, to have it be Dr. Connors. It's a desire to incorporate, slowly but surely, all of the Spiderman families, for the film to come so we've been true to the comic books and so they're there to draw upon for future stories.

The first picture you did not want to use Gwen because she wasn't the girlfriend/wife. Now you've brought her in on the third one, how along in the script process did you decide that?

Well, my brother and I had written in the story about another woman that recognized Peter and knew who he was at this dinner and that Mary Jane got jealous of her. But Laura Ziskin, my producer, said let's make it Gwen. And I said, I don't think I should because Gwen was--really Gwen was introduced before Mary Jane in the comic books, and now I'm introducing her later and I'm not sure that--she's not even in high school anymore. She's in college and I'm afraid if I introduce Gwen the fans will have all these expectations, which we're not going to deliver in this picture. And she said, well, the fans would much rather have Gwen make an introduction now, and you can do what you need to do or someone can do what they need to do in the 4th picture with her, but at least you've introduced her and they would appreciate that. So, after much soul searching I thought maybe it's true--I've already screwed  up the order, and I've already started the Mary Jane first--she has to be, whenever she's introduced, she'll be introduced in the wrong order. I might as well give the fans the introduction to Gwen. So I took her advice and named her Gwen Stacey and therefore connected her to a policeman who had been on the periphery of the scenes. Made a little stronger relationship between them but, not much, just enough to be true to the fact that she was his daughter. That's about all.

Did you ever want to use that quote ‘Face it Tiger, you've hit the jackpot’?

That's Mary Jane's line though.

I know, but when you were writing this, did you ever want to put that in the script somewhere?

Oh, so you're not asking that in relationship to Gwen, right?

No.

In the first picture, I was finishing a scene with Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst on the street and he had just come a long distance to see her and she'd got rejected from some soap opera, and she was about to leave and I was trying to find the right look or the right way to end the scene, the right moment on the set, and Avi said to me, why don't you just have her say, 'catch you later, Tiger.' And that Tiger line was enough for me to remind the audience of that classic moment that is a different line but similar enough that I thought it was a good idea of his. So I feel like we've incorporated that moment in some respect in the picture already. A reference to it at least.

Was there ever a desire to extend the Venom and the symbiote storyline because he is such a big character?

Yes, but I thought it would be unfair to--the Venom storyline, unfortunately, has Eddie Brock--the establishment of who he is and what he is--the symbiote coming to Peter Parker first and you've got to go through his entire getting of the black suit, the dark Peter, the ridding of the black suit, before it even comes on to Eddie Brock. So the very nature of that story demands that you either do it two part, if you want to spend more time with Venom, which I didn't think was fair to the audience, to the fans of Spiderman. I thought about it, I really did, and I kept reading the fans' emails that Avi would send me saying they'd better not just introduce him to tease us, that would be--I felt that the fans didn't want that from the thousands of emails that were sent me. So I thought okay, they want--cuz I tried to do that, and Avi said ‘you're not giving me what I asked you’ he said they want Venom, just give them Venom already. So, I said okay, but obviously, through the very nature of it, he's only going to be in half an act or one act. I'll just make it as thorough and the best that I can, deliver Venom in the most complete way that I understand the fans might want him. That was my desire. I was led there.

Is there a release date for Spiderman 4?

They haven't told me.

If you were to sign on to do another Spiderman film, or even possible few films, with the pressure you were under to deliver 3 by a certain date, would you be more firm with the next one? Saying I want this to be--everything more set up in advance?

No, because the fans, I mean, that's really, that's a Sony decision. I'd have to ask myself can I get it together, the quality picture I need in – if I could find the right story and the right character arc and Tobey was interested then I would have to see when Sony wanted the picture and then make sure I could make a proper picture within that time.

If they he Tobey said he had enough, would you be more reticent to do Spiderman 4?

For me, yeah, because I've made all these three with him, he's like my partner, and part of it for me would be a real specific experience of continuing the depth of that character that he portrayed. It would be another story working with someone else on the character.

What about Kirsten?

I love Kirsten, she's great, but what about her?

Same thing. If she said no?

It would be very difficult without her also.