Avi Arad dishes that Norman 'wasn't an important face,' while Matt Tolmach states that the character didn't make a cameo since the film should focus on Peter Parker's relationship with Dr. Connors.
- Jul 6, 2012
AceShowbiz - For those who have watched "The Amazing Spider-Man", it was revealed that [SPOILER ALERT!] Norman Osborn played a significant role in the movie as he's strongly affiliated to Dr. Curt Connors' experiment. However, the villainous character didn't even appear in the film though he's mentioned several times by Dr. Rajit Ratha.
Answering fans question of why Norman was absent in the movie, producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach took some time to explain the reason to Empire magazine. "Norman for us, in this movie, wasn't an important face," Arad said, as quoted by Comic Book Movie. "It was more of a symbolic idea [Oscorp Tower] of the world of science."
"It's a place where his father worked. It's a place where Connors works. And most importantly, it's a place where Peter aspires to be. One, because his father worked there and two, it stands for the ultimate advancement of science and biotechnology," he explained.
Tolmach added that Norman wasn't included in the plot because the film was planned to focus on Dr. Connors' relationship with Peter Parker. "We had a lot of story to tell within this movie and Dr. Connors is a very rich character and that's where we wanted to spend time, on the relationship between Peter and Dr. Connors," said the producer.
"If you begin to venture into Norman and Oscorp in this movie then...ummm..you just have a finite amount of screen time," he reasoned. "As Avi said he hangs over this building and the lives of these people and you know, we're going to make more movies."
Tolmach went on explaining that Norman Osborn's story could be explored further, probably in the follow-up movie. "He, like Connors, and this is important, is connected to Peter Parker," he said before adding, "You get hints of that in the movie obviously, through his relationship to Peter's father and his relationship to Doc Connors. Norman Osborn, the man, is critically important to where this story is going."
"Norman is an important character and obviously there's a certain inevitably to one day seeing the Green Goblin," he added. "What we've done, and what we'll always do is go back to what serves the story best. Going back to this quest that Peter is still very clearly on when this movie ends, that's going to lead us to villains, that's the best version of how you figure out who your villain is going to be, it serves Peter's story along the way."
"The Amazing Spider-Man", which was released on July 3, has grabbed a solid $35 million on its first day, and has broken the record of biggest Tuesday opening ever. On its official Facebook page, it has been revealed that the film is "the first installment in a movie TRILOGY that will explore how our fave hero's journey was shaped by the disappearance of his parents."
The announcement apparently confirmed previous report that the Marc Webb-directed Spidey movie was planned as a trilogy. Producer Tolmach once told Coming Soon, "We knew that it was going to be more than one, and at the very least three. We're going to let this movie tell us what the story is."
