As a co-writer on some of the year’s most high-profile blockbusters, including Wonder Woman 1984, Mortal Kombat, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Dave Callaham has become one of the most highly sought-after scribes in Hollywood. And his hot streak continues next year with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2. Landing the gig couldn’t have come easy, especially given the Oscar-winning success of the original film. But in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Callaham revealed how producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller invited him to take a stab at Miles Morales’ next animated adventure.
“They said, ‘We have this animated Spider-Man movie we are doing,’” recalled Callaham. “They were still working on the first movie [and] they couldn’t tell me what it was going to look like. Because it’s them, I said, ‘I’ll come in and see what you have. I don’t get it.’ They showed me an animatic, which at the time looked like napkin drawings with temp vocals and no animation styling behind it. I could feel the heart behind it, but I couldn’t imagine how spectacular this thing could be yet.”
“They showed me some still images of some of the art they had been working on,” added Callaham. “With them, I trust them implicitly and I believed they were going to do something special. I said, ‘OK,’ and they said, ‘Great. Pitch us a sequel.’ So I began the very strange process of working on the sequel for a year before the original came out.”
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Callaham went on to explain how animation allows for a more fluid approach to the script than some might expect. In other words, nothing has to be set in stone right away. And even though production on the sequel has been underway for over a year, the story is still evolving.
“No, I am still (laughs) — the process continues,” said Callaham. “I am now writing it with Phil and Chris. The three of us. Sometimes it’s one of us. Sometimes it’s two of us [and] sometimes it’s three of us, depending on our [availability]. Which I am actually very glad for, because they were too busy finishing the first movie when I was writing the initial draft of the second. But I can’t emulate their writing style. I do my best, but now I’ve been able to see how they do their thing and it’s been great. I’m sure we will be writing stuff for that movie until it releases.”
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 will hit theaters on October 7, 2022.
Are you excited to see what Callaham brings to the sequel? Let us know in the comment section below!
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