Studio Notes on Spider-Man: Home for the Holidays

FROM: Earl J. Woods
TO: Jeff Shyluk, Executive Producer, Paranoid Productions
RE: SPIDER-MAN 4--Studio Notes

Jeff, 

As always, your notes are spot-on, especially given the reasonable skepticism we're facing from Disney, Sony, and the fans given our position as new kid in town with the IP. Getting them was a coup, but making a good movie is the only way the gamble is going to pay off. 

Totally understand your concerns about Gwen's agency, the overall weakness of the third act, and tropes we've seen before; we absolutely do not want to do MJ over again, or Raimi's work. Your observation regarding Spider-Man's effect on his world vs. Rick Deckard's is spot on. 

I agree that the relationship between Peter and the Stacy's is the core of the film, and we'll build on that core in future treatments. 

It might be more realistic for Peter to get hauled in for suspicion regarding the Christmas Eve car bomb, but I'm resistant--I feel like Captain Stacy really wants to be in Peter's corner despite his suspicions. On the other hand, if Stacy stops his detectives from questioning Peter, he's undermining his authority. 

Damn. Don't see that I have a choice. Peter's going to have to face some tough questions from our John Munch figure. (Maybe played by Bruce Campbell?) 

Might not make sense for Kingpin to car bomb Stacy, you're right. Could be a mook with too much initiative (not Bullseye, someone lower level - maybe a comic-relief type character we introduce into Kingpin's organization earlier in the film). 

Your final suggestion could save the third act. I'm going to scrap the idea of Bullseye kidnapping her. Her being an unwitting pawn of the Kingpin is far more organic. She'll still play a key roll in our Die Hard-esque showdown, but instead of playing the damsel in distress, she'll be in a (very dangerous) position to help Spider-Man--working behind the scenes to sabotage the Kingpin's men while trying not to give herself away. 

Captain Stacy and the NYPD will have an important role to play in the third act, too--they won't be standing idly by. In the comics and some of the films, the people of NYC helping Spider-Man save the day is a key theme--the community is just as important (more important!) than the singular hero. 

Kind of surprised Disney hasn't suggested any cameos--I was sure they'd want Daredevil involved somehow. Gotta have that corporate synergy. Hell, I'll put him in the post-credit scene as a hedge. 

I'll send another treatment in a few days. 

Excelsior! 

Spider-Man: Home for the Holidays

A modest proposal for the next MCU Spider-Man film. 

Peter is studying at Empire State University, and his intent is to stay in the dorm over the Christmas break; none of his friends remember him, so there's no point visiting them. Besides, he's been spending more and more time as Spider-Man, spending most of his Peter time on his studies; and even then, he's taking courses and learning not for the sake of learning, but for pouring all that knowledge into how to be a better crimefighter. He's wisecracking less, and his jokes tend to be a little bitter now. And he's found himself in an intense but toxic relationship with cat burglar Felicia Hardy, who, of course, loves Spider-Man and doesn't even know Peter exists; she won't even let him take his mask off when they're intimate. 

Without his loved ones, Peter is losing perspective. Several of his dormmates and classmates--including a very intriguing blonde by the name of Gwen Stacy--offer friendship, but Peter politely but firmly holds back from making any real connections; he's too scared of the pain of losing people he loves again. The only bright side is that at least MJ and Ned got into MIT, so he doesn't need to feel guilty about that anymore. 

On the first day of the Christmas break, Spider-Man faces a truly humiliating defeat at the hands of the Kingpin and Bullseye--teaching him a lesson for (unknowingly) doing so much damage to the Kingpin's operation. This defeat happens right in front of Felicia, who runs away, disgusted and afraid, unable to deal with seeing her lover brought down so low. His costume in tatters, his body bruised to the bone, Peter staggers back to ESU but passes out just at the door to his dorm room, collapsing in the hallway. 

He wakes up later being ministered to by Gwen. It's lucky anyone was even at the dorm--everyone else had left for the holidays, and the only reason she hasn't is her father is late picking her up. When Captain Stacy finally arrives and sees Peter's condition, he and Gwen insist that he come home for the holidays with them--he's in no shape to stay at ESU alone. If he has no where else to go, why, of course he's coming with the Stacys. Besides, Captain Stacy can tell Peter's claim that he was mugged is hogwash, and he wants to find out what really happened.  

Over the break, the Stacy family makes Peter feel cared for the first time in a long time. Despite himself, his better nature yearns for this kind of connection, and his body--and soul--start to recover.

What Peter doesn't know is that he's not the only one to have vexed Kingpin. Under the sound leadership of Captain Stacy, the NYPD is making a dent in organized crime, too--and the Kingpin has marked Captain Stacy for death. Only Peter's spider-sense prevents the Stacy family from falling victim to a car bomb on Christmas Eve. Though Captain Stacy is grateful, he's still a cop; how could Peter have possibly known about the car bomb? Did he plant it? Were his injuries a ruse to get closer to Gwen--and him--in some kind of setup? 

Of course Peter can tell Captain Stacy isn't sure what to make of him, and he feels shame--he wants to trust this new father figure, and he's falling for Gwen. Once again, Spider-Man is coming between him and happiness, and once again, his dual identity is endangering people he cares about. 

The week between Christmas and New Year's, Spider-Man takes to the streets again, but this time he's specifically looking for members of the Kingpin's gang, working his way up the leadership ladder, sending a message that the Stacys are off-limits. But he's misjudged the Kingpin's ruthlessness; Wilson Fisk is not easily intimidated, and sends Bullseye to kill Captain Stacy. But Stacy has been changing his schedule around so that he's harder to pin down, and he's sent Gwen into hiding--or so he thinks. Gwen can't bear to leave Peter by himself, so she's at the wrong place at the wrong time when Bullseye shows up at the Stacy home. With no specific orders regarding the girl, he brings her back to the Kingpin, reasoning she makes an excellent bargaining chip to force Captain Stacy to offer himself up for assassination. 

It's New Year's Eve, and Spider-Man has to fight his way through Fisk Tower to pull off an improbable rescue...when it's all over, will the new year bring triumph or tragedy? 

The Incredible Iron Jeff

I brought a mobile phone camera ring light to Gaming and Guinness, and Jeff, in a moment of genius, stuffed it under his shirt while lit to make it look like he was sporting an arc reactor. I loved it. 
 

Introducing the MBU: Phase One

 

Tonight I watched The Bees (Alfredo Zacarías, 1978), one of a series of the killer-bees-panic subgenre of the 1970s. John Saxon stars, so I immediately started texting Sean with a play-by-play of the film, mostly because for some reason Dad hated John Saxon and famously said he'd "shoot that son of a bitch" if he ever ran into him. Of course Dad actually would never do such a thing (although he did in a dream once, right in the face), but Sean and I have always found Dad's irrational hatred for an actor he never met pretty funny. 

Anyway, captured above is Sean's inspired moment where he laments the lack of an extended bee universe. I immediately dubbed it the "MBU," the Malevolent Bees Universe, aping Marvel's MCU, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Phase One of the MBU begins with a recut of Freddie Francis' The Deadly Bees (1966), in which a beekeeper creates a strain of killer bees and uses them to start killing people because the scientific community doesn't take him seriously. After the bees kill a few people on remote Seagull Island, the mad beekeeper's plans are thwarted by a rival, ethical beekeeper. 

Phase One continues with Invasion of the Bee Girls (Denis Sanders, 1973). By looping in some new dialogue, it should be easy to connect this film with The Deadly Bees by revealing that the formula used to create the bee girls of this film draws upon the science established by the mad beekeeper in the first film. 

Next, Curtis Harrington's 1974 made-for-TV thriller Killer Bees our heroine, Victoria, encountering an eccentric family who are using Africanized bees to improve yields at their vineyard. With some editing tricks, we can connect villainess Madam Van Bohlen to the first two films by suggesting that her psychic power to control bee swarms is a result of experiments from the first two films. We could also suggest that our heroine, Victoria, is an ex-Bee Girl. By film's end, she has become the new Bee Queen. Perhaps we'll see her again...

Mission: Impossible creator Bruce Geller produced and directed The Savage Bees (1976), in which savage bees stow away on a freighter and attack partiers at Mardi Gras. With some simple newly-shot scenes, we can create a framing story that reveals the Bee Queen is behind this attack. 

Believe it or not, there was a sequel to The Savage Bees: Terror Out of the Sky (Lee H. Katzin, 1978). This time (thanks once again to some newly-shot footage), the Bee Queen uses her psychic bee control powers to attack a school bus, a marching band, a truck driver, and other unfortunates. What is her overarching plan? 

In Irwin Allen's The Swarm (1978), the bees mount their greatest assault yet, invading the continental United States in full force with only an all-star cast of classic Hollywood greats (Fred MacMurray! Olivia de Haviland! Michael Caine! Richard Widmark! Lee Grant! Ben Johnson! Richard Chamberlain! Henry Fonda! Katharine Ross! Slim Pickens!) standing against...THE SWARM! (And the Bee Queen, thanks to some dialogue looping and new scenes, of course.) 

Phase One of the MBeeU concludes, fittingly, with The Bees. After a tremendous amount of hilarious carnage, John Saxon learns how to communicate with the bees and basically acts as their spokesperson at the United Nations. The bees swarm the General Assembly, and in a fantastic cliffhanger to end Phase One, Saxon sides with the bees to demand humanity surrender control to the bees - or face genocide by bee sting. Wow, Dad was right: John Saxon really was a son of a bitch! At least in this role...