Spider-Man landed on the roof of a train... Well, it was not a safe landing, more like he was rolling on the roof. Especially when he was currently brawling with Dr. Octopus. The roof of the train caved in and the passengers were terrified as they realized what was happening.
The train was still running fast, with no intention of stopping.
Once Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus found their balance, the two started fighting again. Dr. Octopus's metallic tentacles moved fluidly, attacking Spider-Man.
"Cut--!"
Kazir announced and the camera stopped rolling. The train was nothing but props and it was not moving at all, the crew just gave it the illusion of moving. As for the background, well, it was a huge green screen.
Kazir was not insane enough to film an action stunt on top of a moving train that was running at 120kmp.
Once the director said cut, Alfred Molina sighed and laughed lightly. The metallic tentacles on his back were of course not real, they were also props.
These tentacles were not remote-controlled. Instead, 17 puppeteers were responsible for moving them.
Each finger, each arm, was controlled by puppeteers. The puppeteers used thin invisible cords for the fingers while they used a black pole to move the trunks. These black poles would be edited out later, together with the green screen.
Using remote controllers to move around these things would be difficult and inefficient. In fact, even though they used puppeteers to do the job, the filming still took a long time to finish. Sometimes mistakes happen such as one of the tentacles moved wrongly, causing the scene to be reshoot.
By the way, these metallic tentacles were not all made of metal. Most of its parts were made of foam, painted with metallic paint. Or else Alfred Molina would have a hard time moving around with a piece of heavy equipment on his back... Well, even though the tentacles were not made of metal, it was still heavy.
Imagine four tentacles on your back... Ahem, sounds like something from a hentai, to be honest.
While on break, Alfred Molina decided to sing a song from a play. Alfred Molina was actually part of a play this month and he had a habit of practicing his song in the set in every break. He was a stage actor.
When he auditioned for the role, Alfred Molina was already part of a theater play. He couldn't let go of the theater play despite winning the role of Dr. Octopus. Thankfully, Director Grey was generous. As long as his play didn't clash with the filming of Spider-Man 2, the director didn't have a problem. It was his private time after all, it all depends on Alfred's schedule.
So yeah, now you see Dr. Octopus singing while his four metallic tentacles join the beat.
One of the cameramen filmed this short performance. Perhaps they could add it to bloopers once they sell the DVDs.
Speaking of DVDs, the market for DVDs already defeated the thicker and heavier videotape. A new year arrived and the statistics clearly proved that.
Now only a few households use VHS, most families use DVD players. DVD players mostly cost around $80 and this price was getting lower as time went on. It's very affordable.
As for DVD discs, a DVD movie could cost around $5 to $20, depending on the contents. However, if the DVD contains a complete Trilogy or a complete season of a TV Show, it could cost at least $50.
In fact, after counting their profit last year, Grey Pictures confirmed that they earned more than $100 million just by selling DVDs.
Last year(2003), the DVD market had grossed more than $4.2 billion in revenue. DVD market doesn't only sell movies after all, TV Shows, Children's shows, anime, and even adult films were also included in the DVD market. A lot of niches that people could enjoy. DVD rentals were also included in the statistics.(Note: I just made this up and I have no clear data to prove. But in Germany, the DVD market exceeded 1 billion euros in 2003, so that's where I get the idea plus the potential buying power of Americans.)
Because of this, Grey Pictures returned to its wealthy status. Kazir naturally gave the workers the bonus they deserved.
However, Kazir and Grey Pictures also understood that the money that they made would return to invest in more projects.
This year, Grey Pictures will release Fast And The Furious 2 and Mr. And Mrs. Smith.
This time Mr. And Mrs. Smith would have a cameo in Fast And The Furious 2 to help Brian O'Connor in finding wanted people.
In exchange, Brian O'Connor would also show in Mr. And Mrs. Smith. This was just a short story of the two movies.
Grey Pictures understood that producing two movies per year was their limit, added that they have Game Of Thrones to handle.
Last year they almost suffered some setbacks because of four projects, with Pirates Of The Caribbean having the biggest investment.
Regarding Pirates Of The Caribbean, Grey Pictures confirmed the profitability of this movie and they were good with making another sequel. However, the sequel was planned to be released in 2006.
Meaning, Kazir currently had no projects for 2005...
The director had an idea of what to do about it but it was another story. After all, Kazir was not sure if he had the chance to direct it.
For now, the director decided to focus more on finishing Spider-Man 2 and getting his salary... If he remembered it right, Spider-Man 2 had the lowest box office out of the three movies, it made $789 million. Well, it was still a lot of money though. It was still a box office hit.