….
Pre-production was underway.
And once again, like clockwork, it was Simon and Daren, two pairs of eyes… are sitting at the same corner table in the back of Regal's office production wing.
As the line producers, logistics experts, budget wranglers and even firefighters for the inferno of chaos that followed every project Regal touched.
They had been here from the beginning, from the psychological complexity of [Death Note] to the chaotic coordination of [The Hangover] multiple locations, and even the magical world of [Harry Potter], now found themselves staring at perhaps their most daunting undertaking yet.
Spider-Man.
But this time, they both knew things were different.
Bigger is the size but also in responsibility, budget and risk.
MarvelDC had been a name in this world that… not only for making one movie which tanked real bad.
Right now, Regal was single-handedly attempting to reshape it from paper to screen, the rights had been cleared, Stan Lee, despite initial hesitation, had nodded in cautious agreement.
"One thousand people, huh…" Darren muttered, half-amused, half-in disbelief, flipping through the pre-production sheet again like it might change if he looked at it from a different angle.
He wasn't exaggerating, that was the real figure.
For - [Spider-Man: Web of Destiny] - they need to employ over 1,000 individuals across its various stages of production to make things work.
Simon, leaning back in his chair, didn't even blink. "Yeah, sounds about right, seven stages at Culver, rotating unit shifts, secondary teams for practical effects, stunt pre-rigs, wirework techs, and don't forget the CG support staff working overseas in tandem, it adds up fast."
A thousand people.
They knew not all of them would be present at once, many would come in for specific windows, VFX departments would join in post, construction crews would cycle in and out depending on location deadlines, makeup and wardrobe would surge closer to the shoot dates.
Still, the sheer scope of this film would make it their biggest undertaking to date.
And it wasn't like they hadn't done big before.
[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone] had employed a rotating crew of nearly 600, from unit teams to creature effects to set decorators working across multiple castle builds.
They had doubled as location scouts in Scotland and architectural engineers in London.
Not to mention the 100+ extras per classroom scene, the Quidditch stadium setup, and a rotating three-crew schedule for child actor protection laws.
And that was a fantasy set in a closed, fictional world.
This? Spider-Man? It was an urban jungle of moving parts.
They had New York City's pulse to replicate, skyscraper exteriors, rooftop stunts and chases through crowds and they were about to paint it with webs.
From rigging specialists to traffic management teams and local police liaisons.
There are also drone camera units and parkour consultants all this while they hadn't even started on the costume development pipeline yet.
The very first thing on Simon and Daren's list?
Insurance.
The moment the word 'web-swinging' entered a script, insurance premiums shot up like rocket fuel.
They needed permits for aerial stunt rigs, wires running across real city blocks, and closed-off shooting windows coordinated with the NYPD and city government.
Every swing, and rooftop stunt, if it wasn't done in a green screen studio, had to be orchestrated like a ballet of risk and regulation.
Darren was looking at his scribbled notes, it's the locations, housing and extra unit crews for the stunt team.
CGI water simulations for a key scene that was, according to Regal's notes, 'a rain-soaked rooftop monologue' - poetic, expensive, and logistically hellish.
And while Simon worked numbers, estimating the burn rate per week, he knew something else too.
The schedule was about to become merciless.
….
Back in his office, Regal was sorting another pillar of production - casting.
That was being handled by him and Samantha.
They were still early in the process, dozens of auditions lined up, but Regal had already marked a few faces.
….
Meanwhile, Simon and Darren returned to their notes, now reviewing legal clauses, prop regulations, union issues, and cost reports for building a makeshift city block in-studio just in case real-world shoots failed.
Oh, and product placements, always annoying, but necessary.
But that was a problem for another day.
For now?
The layout of [Spider-Man: Density of Web] was being laid, under fluorescent lights, takeout boxes, storyboards taped to walls, and the faint vibration of a dream slowly becoming real.
And Regal, hidden behind the glass, just watched it unfold.
His world.
About to swing.
Then came the suit.
.…actually for the most part this responsibility was taken by Regal himself.
…and trusted it and passed it on to someone else they are really familiar with.
They felt like it was about time that person also officially entered into the team, and she already proved herself in their last project.
So this is going to be the final nail into the coffin.
But just hearing the requirements sounds like a drag to meet.
Obviously Regal wasn't going to settle for any ordinary fabric stitched together and called "Spidey."
It has to look like nanotech, hug the body like a second skin, and move without wrinkles.
And there is also a problem with visibility for the actor, air vents, hidden harness attachments, heat-resistance for pyrotechnic scenes… and above all, it had to look cool.
Yeah they still remember it clearly when Regal said that to an artist that is making the prototype suite for the spiderman.
Simon groaned. "Why do we always say yes to this man?"
But the truth was, both of them knew why.
Because every time Regal reached too far, he actually caught it.
From imaging [The Following] and [Death Note] into something grounded and terrifying… to dragging [The Hangover] into prestige territory… to resurrecting [Harry Potter] in a way that made critics stunned.
And if [Spider-Man: Density of Web] actually worked…
If it actually landed… they wouldn't just be making a film.
They would be creating a cinematic launchpad.
A new comic book universe.
Simon turned to the board and drew a fresh circle around February. "Prep ends in five weeks, I want five rounds of location locks, costume updates every Friday, and I don't care what it costs - get the second unit pre-vis artists from Wētā, they worked on District 9 and they will get what Regal's going for."
Darren nodded, already opening his call sheet.
Outside, the construction was beginning, the faint, rhythmic hammering of a temporary scaffolding build for a mock rooftop.
The thousand were coming.
One by one.
….
Meanwhile the concentration of the suit is under progression.
Like another other Superhero custom, the creative process behind Spider-Man's suit began in the most unlikely of places - in a computer modeling software.
Regal and his design team first ticked out their fundamental questions that would define their entire approach.
Seren Seraphsail - who has just passed two three months into an accident, but healed - is going to be the main person behind this task… she just remembered something.
"Seren, I need you to think like a seventeen-year-old kid who has just discovered he has incredible powers but has exactly forty-seven dollars in his checking account." Regal began, his voice carrying both excitement and the weight of creative responsibility. "Make sure that we are not just creating super complex superhero costumes, this is about authenticity, making something that Peter Parker could actually build in his bedroom using whatever materials he could scrape together from the street side general store."
Seren picked up one of the fabric samples, rolling the red spandex between her fingers as she considered the challenge.
She understood immediately that they were walking a tightrope between realism and cinematic appeal.
She also understood that it's not just how the suit would look, but how it would behave, how it would move, and most importantly, how it could realistically come into existence through the hands of a resourceful teenager.
The breakthrough moment came when the team began experimenting with wind dynamics simulations, imagining what would happen if a massive gust of air caught a giant spider web and thrust it onto a human form.
They watched, fascinated, as the digital web wrapped around the virtual body, creating organic patterns that seemed to flow naturally across the contours of chest, arms, and legs.
This wasn't just aesthetic inspiration, it was biomechanical truth.
The way a real spider web would conform to a person's body became the foundation for understanding how Peter Parker's homemade suit should look and feel.
Seren absorbed this digital research as she began translating virtual concepts into physical reality.
The computer models had revealed something crucial: the suit needed to feel like it had grown from Peter's understanding of spider biology rather than comic book convention.
Every line, every pattern had to suggest that a scientifically-minded teenager had studied actual arachnid behavior and tried to replicate those principles using whatever materials he could acquire.
The legitimacy of the suit's construction became an obsession that drove every design decision.
They spent countless hours poking Regal for the backstory of how Peter would have sourced his materials, what thought processes would have guided his choices, and what compromises he would have made when faced with budget constraints and limited resources.
…these were the things that a commercial script usually skips its way out.
However, that's not gonna happen here.
The yellow-tinted lenses emerged from this process, not as a stylistic choice, but as the logical result of a teenager repurposing sunglasses because proper optical equipment was beyond his reach.
The shoe development process exemplified their commitment to authentic problem-solving.
Regal found himself thinking like Peter Parker: how would a seventeen-year-old approach the challenge of creating footwear that could withstand wall-crawling and high-impact landings?
The answer seemed obvious once they considered it, he would take tennis shoes and cut off the bottoms, repurposing the sole material as protective padding integrated into his suit design.
It was exactly the kind of resourceful, practical thinking that would occur to someone who understood physics but lacked access to specialized equipment.
This realization launched an exhaustive search through athletic footwear that consumed weeks of research.
The design team examined hundreds of shoe models, analyzing not just their aesthetic appeal but their structural integrity, their ability to maintain foot shape while providing support, and their potential for modification.
They needed shoes that could believably be dismantled and rebuilt by a teenager while still functioning as effective superhero footwear.
The breakthrough came with track and field shoes, athletic footwear designed for performance, with clean lines that maintained the natural shape of the foot while providing the structural support necessary for Peter's acrobatic activities.
These shoes possessed the streamlined silhouette that would keep the suit's overall design coherent, avoiding the bulky appearance that would suggest professional manufacturing rather than homemade construction.
The modification process became an important part in reverse engineering.
The team carefully deconstructed the chosen shoes, studying how they could be incorporated into the suit's overall design while maintaining the illusion that Peter had performed this same process in his bedroom.
They worked to transform traditional athletic footwear into something that resembled integrated boots, elements so seamlessly incorporated into the suit that they appeared to be custom-designed components rather than repurposed consumer products.
This attention to authentic construction details extended throughout every aspect of the suit's development.
Each element needed to tell the story of Peter Parker's ingenuity, his scientific understanding, and his resourcefulness in the face of limited resources.
The result would be more than just a costume, it would be a wearable narrative that convinced audiences they were witnessing the work of a brilliant teenager who had solved the practical challenges of superhero costume design using nothing more than determination, creativity, and whatever materials he could find in …street end general stores.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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