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© (c) 2007 Sony Pictures
SPIDER-MAN 3: Producer Grant Curtis in his cameo role
Movies:
Exclusive Interview: 'SPIDER-MAN 3' PRODUCER GRANT CURTIS TALKS ABOUT VILLAINS FOR 'SPIDEY 4' + HIS OWN ORIGINS - PART 1
He also discusses moving up the ranks working with Sam Raimi leading to his producing duties on SPIDER-MAN 3
By SEAN ELLIOTT, Senior Editor
Published 5/29/2007
CURITS: I’m from the mid-west; Kansas City, and I say that because no one knows where Warrensburg, Missouri is. It’s about an hour east of Kansas City, obviously on the Missouri side. It’s a little town of about fifteen thousand, and the unique thing about Warrensburg is that it also has the University of Central Missouri that has an enrollment of about thirteen thousand. So it’s a unique blend of agricultural history and the intellectual element coming from the University. It made for a unique place to grow up, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
CURITS: I got a Bachelors Degree in marketing from the University, and I got my first job out of college with a hockey team called the Kansas City Blades. I was selling season tickets and group ticket packages, and it wasn’t my cup of tea and it made me re-evaluate what I wanted to do in life, and what my interests were and what really excited me. I guess you’re supposed to do that before you go to college, but I did it after. [Laughs] I realized that I’d always told stories and liked to write and so I went back to school and got a Masters Degree from the University of Central Missouri, which was a Masters in Communication with an emphasis in screenwriting. My thesis was a screenplay, and also to finish up I had to come out here [to Los Angeles] and interned with the LATE, LATE SHOW WITH TOM SNYDER. I had a blast and every night it was live. People don’t realize that most of those shows aren’t completely live; they’re tape delayed, but every night Tom was live to New York. What I did enjoy about TV, was whatever you worked on that day or that week, you saw on TV that night; it was quick gratification.
CURITS: I was a fan, but I wasn’t a fanatic. I just admired his filmmaking style from EVIL DEAD, EVIL DEAD 2, and ARMY OF DARKNESS. I thought that QUICK AND THE DEAD was a very underrated movie, even when I saw it in college. I mean, that is a great movie. If you look at the acting in that movie, the acting from Sharon Stone and Leonardo Dicaprio, Gene Hackman, and Russel Crowe; it’s really tight. The camera work was done really, really well and it was just beautifully shot. Then I got to work for him. I mean I also enjoyed HUDSUCKER PROXY, which he wrote with the Coen Brothers [Editor's Note: Raimi also directed second unit on that film].
CURITS: I still work for Sam, [Laughs] I can’t say that he works for me. I mean, I definitely know what I bring to a project, and what I do for a project. The thing that I got lucky on, was when I started as Sam’s assistant it was doing smaller films and I got to get my feet wet. He always gave me as much as I could take on, and when you do a film like SPIDER-MAN where a lot of the jobs are more segmented it’s a lot tougher to get plugged in. On THE GIFT, though, I was in charge of keeping track of all of the script changes. I would get in those meetings with the producers and the actors and the writers, and making the changes to the script and distributing them to the crew. All of those little jobs, where you have specific positions on a bigger film, I got to get into and do. I filmed all of the casting sessions, and because Sam was the director and he wanted easy access to all of that material I was in a unique position to say that I would gladly do it. Admittedly, doing the script changes and distributing them to the crew, people aren’t beating down your door to do that job, because it’s hectic and time consuming, but that got me into the meetings and I had the opportunity to slowly make myself indispensable.
CURITS: Yeah! I was one of the bank car drivers and had my cameo in this one. In the second film I was the guy who sold Peter Parker the hotdog during the “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” sequence. I was in A SIMPLE PLAN, that was my acting debut, but I ended up on the cutting room floor.
CURITS: They did, but let me start with the fact that the producers on these films are top notch and the best in the business; be it Avi Arad, Laura Ziskin, Joe Caracciolo, or Stan Lee. Especially Laura and Avi, even as far back as SPIDEY 1 where I was co-producing there was nothing that they kept me from and said they would take care of it. It was always “come with us” and there were never lines drawn. I always knew what they took care of, because they’re the best in the business, but I was never outside looking in. I was always the person that they brought along gladly. I always knew that it was a learning process and that was one of the things that helped me along the way. It was always a collaborative process. Then when you move into the full producer position, there is more responsibility, but not that much more because it was such a full collaborative process from the beginning. Doing a franchise picture series, where we filmed one, two, and three back to back gave me a unique opportunity to advance and to gain their trust. That’s what it was really about. One of the things I worked on for the first SPIDER-MAN was I kept track of all of the script changes and kept the cast and crew up to date, which allowed me to work very closely with Avi and Laura, and that really helped me gain their trust.
Reader Comments
anonymous from london sez....
i don't mind if the lizard & kraven the hunter villians of spidey 4. in fact maybe spidey and the blcak cat could team up and take them both on. i say go for it.
7/8/2008 9:55:36 AM
anthony from abbots bromley sez....
get the lizzard in there cause he is awsome and i want to see the second venom team up with cassidy as carnage that would make a good buget
5/15/2008 11:20:20 AM
dan from esm high school sez....
i think that all 3 movies have been extremely well done and all 3 movies have been a huge succeus but.......... i think they could of done alot more with venom and the way that they just killed him off really dint make any scence ani i think they should have venom and carange in the next 1
5/13/2008 10:03:51 AM
Amy Sumber from Ohio sez....
i think that the return of venom would be great for more spotlight! carnage two because him and venom would be a great team against spiderman , then later venom helps spiderman ... the lizard also would be good because conner has been in the last two movies
4/20/2008 11:14:00 AM
TheWillofD from Oregon, OH sez....
I've been pondering this one for a while, but here goes,
This may sound weird at first, but hear me out.
villains
-Venom
-Carnage
-Scorpion
-Lizard
In the comic, the Venom symbiote takes over Mac Gargan/Scorpion, who becomes the 3rd Venom. Spidey could fight off Scorpion at the beginning, who eventually comes across the symbiote., After bonding with Mac, Carnage could be spawned from the incident. As for Lizard, they could work in how one personality likes spiderman and one hates him, which could lead to an alliance. If they have the Topher Grace return as venom, they could work in when He teams up w/Spidey to defeat Carnage. Carnage might be a little tough to pull off, (Lizard/Ock below me) But usually violence in comic movies can be toned down. It has been before and it's worked.
1/12/2008 3:17:17 PM
Lizard/Ock from my room sez....
Venom is done, kaput, get over it. Carnage is too violent for general audiences and lacks origin to be used in a movie. And keep Captain America and other superheros out of the sm movies. Lizard definitely is a good choice for SM4 and he has a good origin to tell. besides, Dr. Connors has already appeared in the last 2 sm movies, it's only logical that he changes into the Lizard for the 4th film. Adding Kraven to the story would be great too.
12/30/2007 4:46:09 PM
christopher kaumeyer from edmonton, AB, Canada sez....
I think, for spiderman4, they should definatly put Venom back in spiderman. and I think that Carnage and venom verses spidey and antother secret hero(s) like captin america or the Fantasic four would be spectacular!
6/28/2007 7:14:40 PM
David from Orlando FL sez....
Venom needs to come back for part 4, he's Spider-man's biggest enemy and didnt have enough of a spotlight in part3. Also we need some LIZARD up in the mix. Kraven the hunter would be a nice addition as well... or scrap all that and bring out the sinister six!
6/27/2007 4:08:40 PM
DRay from VA sez....
I think that the Lizard would rock in SPIDER-MAN 4!!
6/6/2007 9:13:43 AM
Chris from Colorado sez....
I think carnage needs to be in spiderman 4 because venom was in spiderman 3.
5/30/2007 6:11:54 PM
Christopher Cook from NY sez....
I've always said that the Lizard would be cool! Why put Connors in the story if you're not going to use the Lizard?
5/30/2007 5:02:46 AM
