The following spies are heroes... geek journeymen sent back in time to record that which young illustrator and pup reporter, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee were in place to witness.... The historic battle of BONE SAW MCGRAW and SPIDER-MAN.... Can you imagine being there? To see it for yourself.... the first appearance of a man shooting webs from his wrists, tossing and leaping about... destroying a man far 'stronger and bigger' than he. He wears a mask so he's not to be trusted that's for sure. As Mr T's mom told him when he grew, "Never trust a man in a mask!" Words to live by.... Now, without further ado... pull up a seat ringside... You are there....
Hey Harry! Cybertooth here! I just got back from the first of a three day shoot in Culver City with Spider-Man and Bonesaw McGraw's wrestling match! HOLY CRAP, it was COOL! Let me tell you bout it!
First, we got there at 6am and were shuttled to the Sony lot (and the sound stage right next door was filming Planet of the Apes... which is STILL being referred to as "The Visitor", btw). On the door of Sound Stage 30 (where Apes is at), there was a flyer that some guy had lost his cell phone in "Ape City". I thought that was cool! I even saw a little bit of jungle foliage and talked with a guy who played Chin the Chimp as I walked from the Spidey set to the restroom, which is right across from Sound Stage 30.
Anyway, the scenes that we filmed went like this: (MAJOR SPOLIERS AHEAD, SO COVER YOUR EYES, KIDDIES!)
BEGIN SPOILERS
It starts out with Bone Saw McGraw in a smoky, low rent wrestling ring in the New York Wrestling League. Peter Parker walks up the bleachers and turns to watch as Bone Saw is beating the TAR out of another wrestler with a tattoo on his head and wearing camoflague. Nobody knew the wrestler's name. Then, we get (ready?)... BRUCE CAMPBELL AS THE RING ANNOUNCER!!!!! YES! He was great! Gold Jacket and gold chains! He looked awesome!!!! So, let the rumors rest about what part Brucie is playing: He is the Ring Announcer! Anyway, Bruce comes out and asks the crowd (who are cheering like maniacs for the unstoppable Bone Saw) who is next. Nobody wants to go. They are TERRIFIED of McGraw! Bruce then announces the arrival of another Wrestler: "The FLying Dutchman". I hope they edit this moron out of the movie. He looked LAME! His costume was a furry, feathered mask with steer horns and an orange, short, latex jumpsuit! I would have called his character "The Gay Minotaur" instead of "The Flying Dutchman". But, on to more...
So, the Dutchman gets his ass handed to him in 15 seconds (the time for each match is 3 minutes in the ring with Bone Saw. The one who can do it will win $3000) when he is thrown out of the ring (with wires.. but it looks FRIGGIN REALLY COOL!!!! ) and onto a table, shattering it to splinters. The crowd boos him as Bone Saw's "Bone-ette's" (the women of WOW, btw: Roxy Powers, The Disciplinarian, Jungle Girl (and one who I didn't recognize) kick the shit out of him and are sent up a ramp to wait for the next contestant to enter the ring with Bone Saw.
Bruce goes into his speil about how NOBODY wants to challenge Bone Saw! He says "Are you ready for the next challenger?" And Bone Saw (in Macho Man Randy Savage's most memorable and BEST line) grabs the mic from him and says: "BONE SAW IS READY!" The crowd went NUTS when they heard this!!! EVERY TIME!!! It was sweet! Anyway, Bruce walks up the ramp, past the Bone-ette's and we see the silohuette of a small man behind a drawn screen. Bruse annoncees the next challenger, pauses and asks the person behind the screen what their name is. He listens, then turns back around and says: If he can stay in the ring for more than 3 minutes, the sum of $3000 will go to the Terrifying... The Astounding... The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN!!!!
The screen raises and out walks Tobey Magurie in what can only be described as a total low rent, obviously made at home costume. And yes, he is wearing a mask! A red ski mask! His top is a red pajama top (or a long sleeved red shirt?) with a black spider logo silk-screened on the back and a web with a red spider-logo on the front. Blue sweats with red, vertical leg stripes and red tennis shoes filled out the costume. Truly K-Mart. Looked Great! He walks down into the ring and is dissed by the Bone-ette;s o either side of him in what can only be described as inane dialogue. "You beter go home to Mommy" and "Better run, itsy bitsy spider. The sun ain't comin out THIS time." I would rather listen to Halle Berry utter that lame ass Storm-Toad-lightning line a bazillion times on a scratchy record than hear those lines again!
So anyway, the crowd promptly boos Spidey as he walks to the ring and watches as two Paramedics roll The Flying Dutchman out on a gurney. He climbs into the ring as the audience begins to chant "CAGE! CAGE! CAGE!" A giant cage closes over the wrestlers from the ceiling, much to Spider-Man's surprise! He turns as the Security Guards lock the cage with chains. (Magurie left after lunch and his stunt double took over for the rest of the scenes. But Magurie showed up and signed a few autographs later, thanks to me. I snuck up behind him on the set while he was eating dinner and asked him to autograph the Bone Saw sign I was holding during the wrestling match. After I did that, the flood gates opened and he was swamped. Needless to say, Tobey Magurie hates me, now! But Macho Man and the WOW girls gave me autographs and really nice conversation during breaks! ) Back to the scoop!
Gloating and walking around the arena, Bone Saw says: "Hey, FREAK SHOW! Your mine for THREE MINUTES! THREE MINUTES OF PLAYTIME!!!"
He charges Spidey, but Spidey leaps into the air (wires, again, looking really fucking awesome!) and grabs onto the cage bars above him, climbing them with two hands, just like a spider! Beautiful! Bone Saw rants and raves. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE??!!" Spidey leaps down, lands, then leaps up, spins around and lands on all fours in a classic Spidey crouch (they NAILED the poses!)!!! Bone Saw charges him and Spidey shoots webs (to be added via CGI) and FLIPS OVER BONE SAW, landing behind him!!! The crowd (once behind Bone Saw) goes NUTS and Spidey (not used to being treated as a hero) gloats! He does not notice as one of the Bone-ette's slips Bone Saw a folding chair. Bone saw smacks Spidey over the head with it.
(We did not get to see the next part. They did not shoot it that day... but we DID see the end of the match!)
Here it is: Again.. REALLY SPOLIER HEAVY.
Spidey is in a crouch, on his knees. Next to him is the chair and a crowbar on the mat. Behind him, Bone Saw lay unconscious, but slowly regaining. The clock is stopped at 2 minutes. The cage is raised, the auduence is going nuts and chanting "SPIDER-MAN! SPIDER-MAN!", having abandoned their signs and cheers for Bone Saw McGraw. The ref rushes into the ring and counts Bone Saw out. Bruce Campbell comes back on the wrestling mat and proclaims Spider-Man the winner!
And that was that!
I
LOVED the wire work! At first, when I saw the wires, I groaned. Wires look like shit on film. But these tricks that Spidey was doing on the wires were graceful and damn natural looking! They were quick and not totally unreal! ESPECIALLY the flip over Bone Saw and the throwing of the Dutchman out of the ring.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents! I would have stayed for more filming... but I have to work and it cannot be avoided! I will be there in april, though!
Cybertooth out!
And now one of the most feared Talk Backers in the history of AICN.... Dan Maunz Fan Club....
Harry, I've managed to pull myself away from my babe-filled lifestyle for a
moment to write about what went on at the Spider-Man set today. Although
I'll need to keep things short, since I need to leave for a hot date in just
a few minutes.
They filmed bits and pieces of the wrestling scenes. I'm not sure if this
is common knowledge on the internet these days, but there is a contest held
to see if any wrestler can survive three minutes in the ring with Bone Saw
MacGraw (Randy Savage). Before delving into the opponents, let me say that
Randy Macho Man Savage is a terrific human being. He was by far the best
thing about the day. He kept the crowd entertained and laughing...almost
too effectively. At one point joking Raimi had to tell him "This is
spider-man, not the randy savage show!".
The contest starts out with Savage pounding a dumpy looking fellow in army
fatigues. The match is over in seconds, at which time Bruce Campbell comes
out (looking like a regular Schultz-Pimp) to ask if anyone in the crowd has
the guts to face Bone Saw. Everyone obviously declines, although I would
have given Savage a beating. But since that's not in the script, we move
onto the FLYING DUTCHMAN.
One of the greatest characters in the history of cinema, the flying dutchman
is given painfully little screentime as Bone Saw throws him out of the ring
and onto a table. By far one of the nuttiest stunts I've ever seen.
After that, Campbell has a brief exchange with MacGuire, and announces him
as "the fearsome, the deadly, the amazing SPIDERMAN!!!". He wears a
homemade outfit, which I suppose he revamps later upon deciding to fight
crime. On the way in, Bone Saw's ring girls, the Bone-ettes (played by
various stars of W.O.W.) accost MacGuire with some truly terrible dialogue
(yet it's all delivered at once, and sort of hard to understand, so let's
not complain).
The fight begins as a cage lowers around the ring and Savage says "You've
got three minutes with me...three minutes of playtime!". He charges at
Spidey, who leaps to ceiling and spends the next bit of the match trying to
peacefully coexist in the small space before giving Savage the whooping he's
got coming. During this fight, spidey strikes various awesome,
McFarlane-esque poses (the stunt man seemed impossibly limber). He also
uses his two middle fingers to activate his web shooters in the way all of
you dorks have come to love. This fight looked really cool.
In closing, a few random facts you may not already know:
At one point Raimi said that it's a short movie, only around 90 minutes.
Perhaps this is already known, but Savage reportedly has a large part in the
next film.
And that's all. From what I've seen today, the film seems to be good hands
and you can rest-assured it will mend your hearts should LOTR break them.
-DMFC
Next up is H.G. Wells and... well a lovely oh so lovely...
The web has been spun. H.G. Wells here. My friend the extra (we'll
call her "M.J.") returned from the Spidey set today and WHOA did she deliver.
She has been a longtime Spidey fan, and was thrilled to be on the set. She
also knows a little bit about Bruce Campbell (basically what I've told her)
and I gave her strict orders to follow his every move. What follows is Part
One of her journal from the set. I've edited a few things for pacing, but
this is just about all of it. Enjoy.
MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!!!! BEWARE!!!!!!!
DAY ONE
5:30 AM call time
We're bused from West LA College, our parking area, to the Sony
Studios. We check in at Stage 6, the holding area for the 150 paid extras.
Wardrobe puts me in a halter top that says "Bonesaw McGraw wil McGnaw you".
I'm assuming this a wrestler that Spiderman will face. We're off to the set.
Aha! We're at Stage 27, right next to the stage where I went ape on
"The Visitor". This whole stage is done up like a wrestling arena. An AD told
me it's supposed to be a small space in NY, but this place is massive! They
bring in about 1,000 unpaid extras who got the gig through tvtix.com. Poor
bastards.
Bruce Campbell has just arrived. I've only seen Army of Darkness, but
this guy is great! He's cracking jokes with us, and making goofy faces. He's
decked out in a shiny gold suit and smooth looking sunglasses. Ahhh... okay.
He's the ring announcer. Sam Raimi is going through his blocking with him.
Bruce steps into the ring announcing that any man who can last 3 minutes with
Bonesaw McGraw will win 3, 000 dollars.
Randy Savage steps into the ring as Bonesaw. This guy is huge. His
unfortunate opponent sports military fatigues and his bald head is painted
camouflage. This is going to be an interesting day! Bonesaw body slams this
guy, then jumps off the top rope and elbows him. This guys gone. The next
opponent is introduced by Bruce as "The Flying Dutchman". He wears a mask
with horns on it. We pick up to where Bonesaw has thrown the Dutchman out of
the ring, breaking the announcer table. I wanted to see the stunt. Maybe
we'll get to see it later!
Here comes Tobey! He's in sweats and is at the top of the stands,
watching the action as Peter Parker. I'd heard he buffed up for the role, but
he's still kinda shrimpy.
Bruce now introduces the "terrifying, frightening, but amazing
spiderman". We're supposed to boo him, but I want to cheer. He looks great.
He's in a "homemade" Spiderman outfit. Basically, a red ski mask which covers
his head and mouth, a long red shirt with the black spider emblem on it, blue
warmup pants, red sneakers, and red and white gloves. I guess this is before
he decides to fight crime.
As he comes down, they lower a huge cage over the ring! This is crazy!
The "Bonettes" are 4 girls from the Women of Wrestling. They heckle Tobey as
he heads down to the ring.
We're going to get to see Spiderman fight!
H.G. Wells back now. That's it for tonight. That's about halfway through her
journal right now. She'll be on set for the next 2 days, so... more to
come....
And for our final report of the night.... George Smiley....
Today I was an extra for the new Spiderman film. The scene was for a
wrestling match between Spidey and a championship wrestler called Bonesaw
McGraw played by The Macho Man Randy Savage. But I'm getting ahead of myself
here.
I found out about this at Golden Apple Comics, and me and a bunch of
other extra-to-be's met at the store at 7:00 am. An hour(!) later the buses
arrived and we were whisked away to Sony Studios in Culver City.
The first thing I did once we got to the stage was go to the restroom.
It just so happened that the restrooms were right across from a sound stage
for the film The Visitor. Scuttlebutt has it that this is the cover name for
Planet of the Apes, but no apes were visible today. The door to the stage
was open and I was able to get a look inside at the backside of a very large
rock wall covered with vines. Aside from some stunt mats and a wire rig, not
much else was visible.
I digress. The set we were on was of course a wrestling ring. I'd
ballpark the bleacher capacity at around 1200 people or so based on my count
of the seats. At the front of the arena is the ramp the wrestlers come down,
on the opposite side hung a big American flag and next o it a New York State
flag. On a third side is a big countdown clock. The ring itself has a
yellow and black safety stripe border and a yellow and black logo that says
NYWL (I'd guess standing for New York Wrestling League) encircled by a single
strand of barbed wire. Above the ring is a spiffy cage that folds down and
covers the ring. The whole arena is surrounded flashing lights, which
produce some nice beams due to the artificial smoke added for atmosphere. We
extras got to play a horde of fans holding signs like "He Eats Bones for
Breakfast," "You Torturer You," and "Kill ‘em Dead." Not being a wrestling
fan, it's about what I imagine a pro-wrestling ring would look like.
Next we got to see the principals for the scene. First of you have
Bonesaw himself. Mr. Savage has long shoulder length hair and a beard,
really ripped muscles, and wears a black leather/vinyl wrestling outfit with
silver trim that is jagged like a saw blade. Down both sides of his pants is
"Bonesaw" in jagged, blood dripping letters. Accompanying him are the four
Bonesaw girls (or Bone-ettes as they were also called), who wear tight black
leather, but not very much of it. We were informed that they were played by
the Women of Wrestling, but their individual names escape me. The ref for
the fight was also an actual ref from WoW.
Spiderman appeared wearing his very, very first costume which looks like
it was whipped up in ten minutes in his garage. The costume is consists of
red shoes with a white swoosh, blue sweat pants, a red sweatshirt and a red
hood with a single wide eyehole for both sides and a pair of white athletic
gloves. The logo on the sweatshirt looks like it was made by placing a
cutout of a spider in a web and then spray painting black paint over it so
that there was a red spider on a black background. I didn't really get to
see Tobey Maguire without the mask or hear him deliver any lines, so I can't
really critique his performance one way or another. I can say that he is
about a head shorter than Savage and is *much* smaller. Bonesaw looks like
he could easily rip Spidey in half.
Bruce Campbell played the announcer and was done up in a gold jacket with
black shirt and pants, looking suitably slimy. Then there are the two
wrestlers that go up against Bonesaw first. Contestant number one is never
given a name beyond "contestant number one." He's a burly guy in camouflage
pants and tank top with a beard a shaved head that's painted in camouflage
makeup; I'll just call him Camo Guy. The other wrestler is the Flying
Dutchman. He was in a sort of a leopard skin patterned leotard in gold,
green and orange and wore what looked like a goofy bison mask. How you get
the Flying Dutchman out of that is a mystery to me. That pretty much sums up
the notable costumes.
Now for the action. The conceit is that there is a $3,000 prize for
anyone who can spend 3 minutes in the ring with the undefeated champion
Bonesaw. The scene starts with Bonesaw in the middle of finishing off Camo
Guy. He throws CG onto the mat, and then climbs on the ropes and body slams
him. The ref declares Bonesaw the winner, to the jubilation of the packed
crowd of Bonesaw fans while Camo Guy slinks off. Bruce Campbell then steps
in and does some patter to rile up the crowd before introducing the Flying
Dutchman, who is roundly booed. Bonesaw almost immediately bounces the
Dutchman against the ropes and then throws him out of the ring onto a
ringside table. This leaves Bonesaw the winner in only 15 seconds! The
crowd goes wild while the Bone-ettes kick and taunt the fallen Dutchman until
the ref pushes them away so paramedics can cart him off. Bruce comes out
again and does more patter and asks us if we're ready for more, which gets
Bonesaw to announce "*Bonesaw* Is Ready!" Bruce then goes to introduce the
third mystery contestant hidden behind the curtain. He stops for a moment to
ask "Kid, what's your name" and gets the response "The Human Spider." He
then resumes the patter and introduces "the terrifying, the deadly, the
amazing Spiderman!" [although I couldn't hear it we were told what the
dialogue was between the announcer and Peter]. The curtain comes upwind the
newly christened Spiderman is given a shove by Raimi (going by his suit I
think he's playing a promoter ALA Vince McMahon) to get going and walks down
the ramp and gets taunted by the Bone-ettes whiled being roundly booed by the
audience. At the bottom of the ramp he sees the panicky Flying Dutchman
being carted off by paramedics. He climbs into the ring while the crowd
chants "Cage! Cage! Cage!" and the cage is lowered and locked over the ring.
The match begins.
Spidey immediately crouches down, and when Bonesaw charges him Spidey
uses his webs to swing over him (the stunts here were down with wires, and
the webbing is to be added as CGI). This astonishes the crowd, which cheers
and applauds Spiderman. Spidey is stunned and elated to suddenly be getting
positive attention, so he doesn't notice that Bonesaw has grabbed a chair.
Bonesaw bashes Spidey in the head with it. We next saw Spidey climb up the
side of the cage and jump over the head of Bonesaw, with Bonesaw then turning
and charging Spidey (these two stunts looked pretty damn cool as far as I'm
concerned). The rest of the fight scene wasn't filmed, we just jumped to the
end were Spiderman is triumphant over Bonesaw after throwing him into the
cage and knocking him unconscious (there's a prop crowbar in this part, so
presumably it appears in the fight at some point). The crowd at this point
has gone over fully to Spiderman and is chanting his name in exultant victory.
Now of course this wasn't shot in chronological order. We started with
the wide crowd shots of the events between the fights, then we did the fights
themselves in more-or-less chronological order. We ran out of time for the
Spidey fight, so I don't have any more details for it. Thursday and Friday
are also shooting days, and according to Tobey there will be some "real cool
shit."
Two last things. One, on the same sound stage behind a curtain is a big
building facade. It was for a cool-looking stone building, maybe Art Deco or
a bit earlier, with a balcony supported by two colossus statues. It was
obviously meant to be several stories up at least. Part of the balcony was
rigged to collapse, so this is probably for a fight scene. I couldn't miss
the thing since I got lunch right in front of it.
Two, sometime in March they will be shooting another crowd scene for the
movie, this time for a carnival in Times Square. If anyone's interested, you
can try checking with www.tvtix.com as well I suppose the Golden Apple. Be
warned that there is a lot of waiting involved in extra work. We spent
twelve hours of today working on a scene I guestimate to be five minutes
tops, and this was day one of three.
George Smiley.
Hey Harry! Cybertooth here! I just got back from the first of a three day shoot in Culver City with Spider-Man and Bonesaw McGraw's wrestling match! HOLY CRAP, it was COOL! Let me tell you bout it!
First, we got there at 6am and were shuttled to the Sony lot (and the sound stage right next door was filming Planet of the Apes... which is STILL being referred to as "The Visitor", btw). On the door of Sound Stage 30 (where Apes is at), there was a flyer that some guy had lost his cell phone in "Ape City". I thought that was cool! I even saw a little bit of jungle foliage and talked with a guy who played Chin the Chimp as I walked from the Spidey set to the restroom, which is right across from Sound Stage 30.
Anyway, the scenes that we filmed went like this: (MAJOR SPOLIERS AHEAD, SO COVER YOUR EYES, KIDDIES!)
BEGIN SPOILERS
It starts out with Bone Saw McGraw in a smoky, low rent wrestling ring in the New York Wrestling League. Peter Parker walks up the bleachers and turns to watch as Bone Saw is beating the TAR out of another wrestler with a tattoo on his head and wearing camoflague. Nobody knew the wrestler's name. Then, we get (ready?)... BRUCE CAMPBELL AS THE RING ANNOUNCER!!!!! YES! He was great! Gold Jacket and gold chains! He looked awesome!!!! So, let the rumors rest about what part Brucie is playing: He is the Ring Announcer! Anyway, Bruce comes out and asks the crowd (who are cheering like maniacs for the unstoppable Bone Saw) who is next. Nobody wants to go. They are TERRIFIED of McGraw! Bruce then announces the arrival of another Wrestler: "The FLying Dutchman". I hope they edit this moron out of the movie. He looked LAME! His costume was a furry, feathered mask with steer horns and an orange, short, latex jumpsuit! I would have called his character "The Gay Minotaur" instead of "The Flying Dutchman". But, on to more...
So, the Dutchman gets his ass handed to him in 15 seconds (the time for each match is 3 minutes in the ring with Bone Saw. The one who can do it will win $3000) when he is thrown out of the ring (with wires.. but it looks FRIGGIN REALLY COOL!!!! ) and onto a table, shattering it to splinters. The crowd boos him as Bone Saw's "Bone-ette's" (the women of WOW, btw: Roxy Powers, The Disciplinarian, Jungle Girl (and one who I didn't recognize) kick the shit out of him and are sent up a ramp to wait for the next contestant to enter the ring with Bone Saw.
Bruce goes into his speil about how NOBODY wants to challenge Bone Saw! He says "Are you ready for the next challenger?" And Bone Saw (in Macho Man Randy Savage's most memorable and BEST line) grabs the mic from him and says: "BONE SAW IS READY!" The crowd went NUTS when they heard this!!! EVERY TIME!!! It was sweet! Anyway, Bruce walks up the ramp, past the Bone-ette's and we see the silohuette of a small man behind a drawn screen. Bruse annoncees the next challenger, pauses and asks the person behind the screen what their name is. He listens, then turns back around and says: If he can stay in the ring for more than 3 minutes, the sum of $3000 will go to the Terrifying... The Astounding... The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN!!!!
The screen raises and out walks Tobey Magurie in what can only be described as a total low rent, obviously made at home costume. And yes, he is wearing a mask! A red ski mask! His top is a red pajama top (or a long sleeved red shirt?) with a black spider logo silk-screened on the back and a web with a red spider-logo on the front. Blue sweats with red, vertical leg stripes and red tennis shoes filled out the costume. Truly K-Mart. Looked Great! He walks down into the ring and is dissed by the Bone-ette;s o either side of him in what can only be described as inane dialogue. "You beter go home to Mommy" and "Better run, itsy bitsy spider. The sun ain't comin out THIS time." I would rather listen to Halle Berry utter that lame ass Storm-Toad-lightning line a bazillion times on a scratchy record than hear those lines again!
So anyway, the crowd promptly boos Spidey as he walks to the ring and watches as two Paramedics roll The Flying Dutchman out on a gurney. He climbs into the ring as the audience begins to chant "CAGE! CAGE! CAGE!" A giant cage closes over the wrestlers from the ceiling, much to Spider-Man's surprise! He turns as the Security Guards lock the cage with chains. (Magurie left after lunch and his stunt double took over for the rest of the scenes. But Magurie showed up and signed a few autographs later, thanks to me. I snuck up behind him on the set while he was eating dinner and asked him to autograph the Bone Saw sign I was holding during the wrestling match. After I did that, the flood gates opened and he was swamped. Needless to say, Tobey Magurie hates me, now! But Macho Man and the WOW girls gave me autographs and really nice conversation during breaks! ) Back to the scoop!
Gloating and walking around the arena, Bone Saw says: "Hey, FREAK SHOW! Your mine for THREE MINUTES! THREE MINUTES OF PLAYTIME!!!"
He charges Spidey, but Spidey leaps into the air (wires, again, looking really fucking awesome!) and grabs onto the cage bars above him, climbing them with two hands, just like a spider! Beautiful! Bone Saw rants and raves. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE??!!" Spidey leaps down, lands, then leaps up, spins around and lands on all fours in a classic Spidey crouch (they NAILED the poses!)!!! Bone Saw charges him and Spidey shoots webs (to be added via CGI) and FLIPS OVER BONE SAW, landing behind him!!! The crowd (once behind Bone Saw) goes NUTS and Spidey (not used to being treated as a hero) gloats! He does not notice as one of the Bone-ette's slips Bone Saw a folding chair. Bone saw smacks Spidey over the head with it.
(We did not get to see the next part. They did not shoot it that day... but we DID see the end of the match!)
Here it is: Again.. REALLY SPOLIER HEAVY.
Spidey is in a crouch, on his knees. Next to him is the chair and a crowbar on the mat. Behind him, Bone Saw lay unconscious, but slowly regaining. The clock is stopped at 2 minutes. The cage is raised, the auduence is going nuts and chanting "SPIDER-MAN! SPIDER-MAN!", having abandoned their signs and cheers for Bone Saw McGraw. The ref rushes into the ring and counts Bone Saw out. Bruce Campbell comes back on the wrestling mat and proclaims Spider-Man the winner!
And that was that! I
LOVED the wire work! At first, when I saw the wires, I groaned. Wires look like shit on film. But these tricks that Spidey was doing on the wires were graceful and damn natural looking! They were quick and not totally unreal! ESPECIALLY the flip over Bone Saw and the throwing of the Dutchman out of the ring.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents! I would have stayed for more filming... but I have to work and it cannot be avoided! I will be there in april, though!
Cybertooth out!
And now one of the most feared Talk Backers in the history of AICN.... Dan Maunz Fan Club....
Harry, I've managed to pull myself away from my babe-filled lifestyle for a moment to write about what went on at the Spider-Man set today. Although I'll need to keep things short, since I need to leave for a hot date in just a few minutes.
They filmed bits and pieces of the wrestling scenes. I'm not sure if this is common knowledge on the internet these days, but there is a contest held to see if any wrestler can survive three minutes in the ring with Bone Saw MacGraw (Randy Savage). Before delving into the opponents, let me say that Randy Macho Man Savage is a terrific human being. He was by far the best thing about the day. He kept the crowd entertained and laughing...almost too effectively. At one point joking Raimi had to tell him "This is spider-man, not the randy savage show!".
The contest starts out with Savage pounding a dumpy looking fellow in army fatigues. The match is over in seconds, at which time Bruce Campbell comes out (looking like a regular Schultz-Pimp) to ask if anyone in the crowd has the guts to face Bone Saw. Everyone obviously declines, although I would have given Savage a beating. But since that's not in the script, we move onto the FLYING DUTCHMAN.
One of the greatest characters in the history of cinema, the flying dutchman is given painfully little screentime as Bone Saw throws him out of the ring and onto a table. By far one of the nuttiest stunts I've ever seen.
After that, Campbell has a brief exchange with MacGuire, and announces him as "the fearsome, the deadly, the amazing SPIDERMAN!!!". He wears a homemade outfit, which I suppose he revamps later upon deciding to fight crime. On the way in, Bone Saw's ring girls, the Bone-ettes (played by various stars of W.O.W.) accost MacGuire with some truly terrible dialogue (yet it's all delivered at once, and sort of hard to understand, so let's not complain).
The fight begins as a cage lowers around the ring and Savage says "You've got three minutes with me...three minutes of playtime!". He charges at Spidey, who leaps to ceiling and spends the next bit of the match trying to peacefully coexist in the small space before giving Savage the whooping he's got coming. During this fight, spidey strikes various awesome, McFarlane-esque poses (the stunt man seemed impossibly limber). He also uses his two middle fingers to activate his web shooters in the way all of you dorks have come to love. This fight looked really cool.
In closing, a few random facts you may not already know:
At one point Raimi said that it's a short movie, only around 90 minutes.
Perhaps this is already known, but Savage reportedly has a large part in the next film.
And that's all. From what I've seen today, the film seems to be good hands and you can rest-assured it will mend your hearts should LOTR break them.
-DMFC
Next up is H.G. Wells and... well a lovely oh so lovely...
The web has been spun. H.G. Wells here. My friend the extra (we'll call her "M.J.") returned from the Spidey set today and WHOA did she deliver. She has been a longtime Spidey fan, and was thrilled to be on the set. She also knows a little bit about Bruce Campbell (basically what I've told her) and I gave her strict orders to follow his every move. What follows is Part One of her journal from the set. I've edited a few things for pacing, but this is just about all of it. Enjoy.
MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!!!! BEWARE!!!!!!!
DAY ONE
5:30 AM call time
We're bused from West LA College, our parking area, to the Sony Studios. We check in at Stage 6, the holding area for the 150 paid extras. Wardrobe puts me in a halter top that says "Bonesaw McGraw wil McGnaw you". I'm assuming this a wrestler that Spiderman will face. We're off to the set.
Aha! We're at Stage 27, right next to the stage where I went ape on "The Visitor". This whole stage is done up like a wrestling arena. An AD told me it's supposed to be a small space in NY, but this place is massive! They bring in about 1,000 unpaid extras who got the gig through tvtix.com. Poor bastards.
Bruce Campbell has just arrived. I've only seen Army of Darkness, but this guy is great! He's cracking jokes with us, and making goofy faces. He's decked out in a shiny gold suit and smooth looking sunglasses. Ahhh... okay. He's the ring announcer. Sam Raimi is going through his blocking with him. Bruce steps into the ring announcing that any man who can last 3 minutes with Bonesaw McGraw will win 3, 000 dollars.
Randy Savage steps into the ring as Bonesaw. This guy is huge. His unfortunate opponent sports military fatigues and his bald head is painted camouflage. This is going to be an interesting day! Bonesaw body slams this guy, then jumps off the top rope and elbows him. This guys gone. The next opponent is introduced by Bruce as "The Flying Dutchman". He wears a mask with horns on it. We pick up to where Bonesaw has thrown the Dutchman out of the ring, breaking the announcer table. I wanted to see the stunt. Maybe we'll get to see it later!
Here comes Tobey! He's in sweats and is at the top of the stands, watching the action as Peter Parker. I'd heard he buffed up for the role, but he's still kinda shrimpy.
Bruce now introduces the "terrifying, frightening, but amazing spiderman". We're supposed to boo him, but I want to cheer. He looks great. He's in a "homemade" Spiderman outfit. Basically, a red ski mask which covers his head and mouth, a long red shirt with the black spider emblem on it, blue warmup pants, red sneakers, and red and white gloves. I guess this is before he decides to fight crime.
As he comes down, they lower a huge cage over the ring! This is crazy! The "Bonettes" are 4 girls from the Women of Wrestling. They heckle Tobey as he heads down to the ring.
We're going to get to see Spiderman fight!
H.G. Wells back now. That's it for tonight. That's about halfway through her
journal right now. She'll be on set for the next 2 days, so... more to
come....
And for our final report of the night.... George Smiley....
Today I was an extra for the new Spiderman film. The scene was for a wrestling match between Spidey and a championship wrestler called Bonesaw McGraw played by The Macho Man Randy Savage. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
I found out about this at Golden Apple Comics, and me and a bunch of other extra-to-be's met at the store at 7:00 am. An hour(!) later the buses arrived and we were whisked away to Sony Studios in Culver City.
The first thing I did once we got to the stage was go to the restroom. It just so happened that the restrooms were right across from a sound stage for the film The Visitor. Scuttlebutt has it that this is the cover name for Planet of the Apes, but no apes were visible today. The door to the stage was open and I was able to get a look inside at the backside of a very large rock wall covered with vines. Aside from some stunt mats and a wire rig, not much else was visible.
I digress. The set we were on was of course a wrestling ring. I'd ballpark the bleacher capacity at around 1200 people or so based on my count of the seats. At the front of the arena is the ramp the wrestlers come down, on the opposite side hung a big American flag and next o it a New York State flag. On a third side is a big countdown clock. The ring itself has a yellow and black safety stripe border and a yellow and black logo that says NYWL (I'd guess standing for New York Wrestling League) encircled by a single strand of barbed wire. Above the ring is a spiffy cage that folds down and covers the ring. The whole arena is surrounded flashing lights, which produce some nice beams due to the artificial smoke added for atmosphere. We extras got to play a horde of fans holding signs like "He Eats Bones for Breakfast," "You Torturer You," and "Kill ‘em Dead." Not being a wrestling fan, it's about what I imagine a pro-wrestling ring would look like.
Next we got to see the principals for the scene. First of you have Bonesaw himself. Mr. Savage has long shoulder length hair and a beard, really ripped muscles, and wears a black leather/vinyl wrestling outfit with silver trim that is jagged like a saw blade. Down both sides of his pants is "Bonesaw" in jagged, blood dripping letters. Accompanying him are the four Bonesaw girls (or Bone-ettes as they were also called), who wear tight black leather, but not very much of it. We were informed that they were played by the Women of Wrestling, but their individual names escape me. The ref for the fight was also an actual ref from WoW.
Spiderman appeared wearing his very, very first costume which looks like it was whipped up in ten minutes in his garage. The costume is consists of red shoes with a white swoosh, blue sweat pants, a red sweatshirt and a red hood with a single wide eyehole for both sides and a pair of white athletic gloves. The logo on the sweatshirt looks like it was made by placing a cutout of a spider in a web and then spray painting black paint over it so that there was a red spider on a black background. I didn't really get to see Tobey Maguire without the mask or hear him deliver any lines, so I can't really critique his performance one way or another. I can say that he is about a head shorter than Savage and is *much* smaller. Bonesaw looks like he could easily rip Spidey in half.
Bruce Campbell played the announcer and was done up in a gold jacket with black shirt and pants, looking suitably slimy. Then there are the two wrestlers that go up against Bonesaw first. Contestant number one is never given a name beyond "contestant number one." He's a burly guy in camouflage pants and tank top with a beard a shaved head that's painted in camouflage makeup; I'll just call him Camo Guy. The other wrestler is the Flying Dutchman. He was in a sort of a leopard skin patterned leotard in gold, green and orange and wore what looked like a goofy bison mask. How you get the Flying Dutchman out of that is a mystery to me. That pretty much sums up the notable costumes.
Now for the action. The conceit is that there is a $3,000 prize for anyone who can spend 3 minutes in the ring with the undefeated champion Bonesaw. The scene starts with Bonesaw in the middle of finishing off Camo Guy. He throws CG onto the mat, and then climbs on the ropes and body slams him. The ref declares Bonesaw the winner, to the jubilation of the packed crowd of Bonesaw fans while Camo Guy slinks off. Bruce Campbell then steps in and does some patter to rile up the crowd before introducing the Flying Dutchman, who is roundly booed. Bonesaw almost immediately bounces the Dutchman against the ropes and then throws him out of the ring onto a ringside table. This leaves Bonesaw the winner in only 15 seconds! The crowd goes wild while the Bone-ettes kick and taunt the fallen Dutchman until the ref pushes them away so paramedics can cart him off. Bruce comes out again and does more patter and asks us if we're ready for more, which gets Bonesaw to announce "*Bonesaw* Is Ready!" Bruce then goes to introduce the third mystery contestant hidden behind the curtain. He stops for a moment to ask "Kid, what's your name" and gets the response "The Human Spider." He then resumes the patter and introduces "the terrifying, the deadly, the amazing Spiderman!" [although I couldn't hear it we were told what the dialogue was between the announcer and Peter]. The curtain comes upwind the newly christened Spiderman is given a shove by Raimi (going by his suit I think he's playing a promoter ALA Vince McMahon) to get going and walks down the ramp and gets taunted by the Bone-ettes whiled being roundly booed by the audience. At the bottom of the ramp he sees the panicky Flying Dutchman being carted off by paramedics. He climbs into the ring while the crowd chants "Cage! Cage! Cage!" and the cage is lowered and locked over the ring. The match begins.
Spidey immediately crouches down, and when Bonesaw charges him Spidey uses his webs to swing over him (the stunts here were down with wires, and the webbing is to be added as CGI). This astonishes the crowd, which cheers and applauds Spiderman. Spidey is stunned and elated to suddenly be getting positive attention, so he doesn't notice that Bonesaw has grabbed a chair. Bonesaw bashes Spidey in the head with it. We next saw Spidey climb up the side of the cage and jump over the head of Bonesaw, with Bonesaw then turning and charging Spidey (these two stunts looked pretty damn cool as far as I'm concerned). The rest of the fight scene wasn't filmed, we just jumped to the end were Spiderman is triumphant over Bonesaw after throwing him into the cage and knocking him unconscious (there's a prop crowbar in this part, so presumably it appears in the fight at some point). The crowd at this point has gone over fully to Spiderman and is chanting his name in exultant victory.
Now of course this wasn't shot in chronological order. We started with the wide crowd shots of the events between the fights, then we did the fights themselves in more-or-less chronological order. We ran out of time for the Spidey fight, so I don't have any more details for it. Thursday and Friday are also shooting days, and according to Tobey there will be some "real cool shit."
Two last things. One, on the same sound stage behind a curtain is a big building facade. It was for a cool-looking stone building, maybe Art Deco or a bit earlier, with a balcony supported by two colossus statues. It was obviously meant to be several stories up at least. Part of the balcony was rigged to collapse, so this is probably for a fight scene. I couldn't miss the thing since I got lunch right in front of it. Two, sometime in March they will be shooting another crowd scene for the movie, this time for a carnival in Times Square. If anyone's interested, you can try checking with www.tvtix.com as well I suppose the Golden Apple. Be warned that there is a lot of waiting involved in extra work. We spent twelve hours of today working on a scene I guestimate to be five minutes tops, and this was day one of three.
George Smiley.
