'Spider-Man' Reboot: Sam Raimi 'Excited' About High School Story; Chris Columbus Inspired By The Character

Sam Raimi shared his excitement about the “Spider-Man” reboot that is currently being developed by Marvel. Meanwhile, Chris Columbus talked about the character being his inspiration to get into filmmaking itself.

In a discussion about the TV series “Ash vs. Evil Dead” with MTV, Raimi was asked to share his opinion about the coming reboot of the wall-crawling superhero. Raimi has directed three “Spider-Man” movies starting with the 2002 movie. The franchise began another iteration of the character with Marc Webb directing movies in 2012 and 2014.

Raimi praised Webb's movies. Talking about the reboot, he said he was “glad” that Marvel is taking the story back to high school. “I think that’s going to be refreshing,” he said, looking forward to a story based on the comic books. He also expressed confidence in the producers and explained that they “really know their stuff.”

Raimi felt that the “Spider-Man” reboot should explore the relationship of the hero with the character Gwen Stacy. The difficulty of going through high school is unique to a superhero, and that’s what the Peter Parker character is all about, he explained. “That they’re going to explore that head on is very exciting,” he said.

The beloved comic book character also has apparently inspired Columbus. The director of “Pixels,” speaking to ComicBook, said he was “obsessed” with Spider-Man and the character was “probably the reason” why he became a filmmaker.

Columbus said he used to spend eight hours a day in his basement drawing “Spider-Man” comics and that Steve Ditko and John Romita were his favorite artists. The director said a 1966 comic of the character changed his life. He remembered seeing the cover of the book that showed the villain Green Goblin carrying Peter Parker in his superhero costume on his glider. The cover is said to have exposed the face of the hero, and Columbus said it was the “coolest comic book cover” he had ever seen.