Tom Holland is going to be starring in two of the biggest movies this summer, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. But working on Christopher Nolan’s next epic blockbuster seemingly revealed to Holland that Marvel’s approach to moviemaking is more like a messy factory and less like the set of a talented auteur director. He seemingly wasn’t happy about it and kept bugging the people in charge, asking, “Why are we making this movie?”
In a recent interview with GQ, via Variety, Peter Parker/Spider-Man actor Tom Holland talked about how he had to convince Sony to delay production on the upcoming Spider-Man movie so he could go off and make Nolan’s Odyssey film. Sony agreed, and off Holland went. And according to Holland, this movie likely helped the Spider-Man move as it allowed Sony more time to secure Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton and gave him six months to “develop the script.”
“I truly believe that we’ve made the best version of any Spider-Man movie going,” said Holland. “So while it was a tough pill to swallow for Sony, I think in hindsight, they’re very grateful that it happened.”
Meanwhile, Holland told GQ that while on the set of The Odyssey, he would call Sony to “lay down the law” after watching how prepared Nolan was and how he made his massive film.
“We are not going to come to set and figure it out,” Holland says he’d tell Sony execs. “We need to know why we are making this movie beyond the fact that it’s Spider-Man 4 and they make loads of money, and we’re going to just have a big summer. Why are we making this movie?”
“[Director] Destin was super instrumental in that, but it was just really great to constantly be calling up the studio and [producers] Amy [Pascal] and Rachel [O’Connor], who I love, and be like, ‘Well, Chris is doing it this way. This is how I think we should be doing it.’”
I like to think Sony execs on the other end of that phone call rolled their eyes and held back giggles as they ignored that Holland had answered his own question: These movies make lots of money. It is cute to see Holland finally realizing that, wait a minute, these big Marvel movies that often film with half-finished scripts and bring in directors after all the decisions have been made years in advance might not be high art created by passionate filmmakers willing to take risks and who prepare for years before starting production. Hmmmm, who could have known!?
The Odyssey opens on July 17. Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in theaters soon after on July 31.