The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff chats with
Madame Web
producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.
Dakota Johnson headlines the new Marvel movie as a NYC paramedic who gains the ability to see the future.
During their chat, di Bonaventura explains why he wanted the film to focus on Cassie and not the larger Spider-Man Universe, he picks the upcoming film he’s working on he’d most like to see get a green light, an earthquake hits, and more!

In an industry packed with franchises focused on creating cinematic universes and ever-expanding storylines, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura preferred to go a different route with the latest installment of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, Madame Web. He and director S.J. Clarkson preferred that the film wasn’t heavily attached to the larger SSU and instead kept the focus on telling the title character’s story.

Dakota Johnson headlines the film as Cassie Web, a paramedic working in New York City who comes to learn she’s got the ability to see the future. When she has a vision of a mysterious sinister individual (Tahar Rahim) taking the lives of three young women (Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor), Cassie reluctantly takes it upon herself to keep them safe and use her visions to ensure they’re always one step ahead of the enemy.

With Madame Web celebrating its theatrical release this weekend, Di Bonaventura took the time to chat with me about the evolution of the screenplay, his top priorities when producing franchise movies, and loads more. You can read about it all in the interview transcript below, but I highly recommend watching the video version of our chat at the top of this article so you can enjoy my extreme facial expressions as an earthquake interrupts our conversation.

Madame Web Cassandra Webb is a New York City paramedic who starts to show signs of clairvoyance. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she must protect three young women from a mysterious adversary who wants them dead.Release Date February 14, 2024

PERRI NEMIROFF: You’ve obviously had your fair share of experience producing franchise films. What is something about your approach to making that type of movie that has stayed the same since day one, but then I also want to know, what’s something new you’re doing based on how the industry and viewer habits have evolved?

LORENZO DI BONAVENTURA: I’ll tackle the first one for a second and then think about that. It’s an interesting question.

I, for whatever reason, have been able to retain my childlike enthusiasm. So, for me, I treat these with really a great seriousness, but it comes from the point of view of, you could say fandom, but really, just on a pure storytelling level, I love the escapism of different worlds and different people and that character. So, I guess that certainly had an impact because I haven’t changed it.

I love that answer to that question. I feel like if you don’t have that passion and enthusiasm for this material, what are you doing here?

DI BONAVENTURA: Well, I think it’s time to retire then if you’ve lost it.

I think what’s interesting, and in some ways this movie is a return to the kind of, I’ll say, superhero movie I really like, which is really about the character. I think what’s happened in, I’ll say, the greater comic book world is it’s become more about the world than it is about the character. And that, to me, one, I’m not that interested in the world. I’m interested in the character, and it’s something I learned on Transformers, for sure, which is when we got those movies right, it was about the characters, and when we didn’t get it so right it’s less interesting. So in Madame Web, it’s so about her, about her as a scarred human being who is now going to go on an emotional ride for that character. I can stay connected to her and I can root for her, and I can do all those things that I think are basic desires that I want from a movie.

‘Madame Web’ Producer Wanted to Free the Film from the ‘Spider-Man’ Obligation
Image via Sony

Given that you just brought that up, I am wondering, was there ever an iteration of this script where it was connected to the larger universe, and if that was the case, what happened that made you realize the stand-alone approach would best serve this story and character?

DI BONAVENTURA: Before I was involved there was a script, and before S.J. was involved as well. Both of us really saw the advantage in not having the burden of the attachment of all this other stuff that has gone on. You’d be silly to think you don’t pay some homage to it and some acknowledgment, which we do, but it really freed us in a way to tell a pure story, I think. And so, for both of us, that allowed us to get into what I love about Dakota’s journey. It’s not just simply, “Well, I’m gonna stand up and become the hero.” It’s, “I’m scarred. I don’t want attachment. I definitely don’t want responsibility for these three people. What the hell is happening to me? I’m going insane.” And then, “What do I do now that I’m in this situation?” So, for me, freeing ourselves from that obligation, in a sense, was very freeing and allowed us to do a more complex ride with the hero.

Because you just brought up S.J., I’ll go to her next. I’ve read a bunch of interviews she’s done and she often emphasizes the fact that she felt like she had free rein on this project, which really excites me. As a producer, what are some things that you like to do to make sure that your director has creative authority over the project, maybe even things that you wish more producers out there would do?

DI BONAVENTURA: Well, creative rein is in the eyes of the beholder, right?

That’s fair.

DI BONAVENTURA: I look at my role as trying to channel their talent, so I challenged her in a lot of places. But at the end of the day, if your director doesn’t own her own instincts, or his own instincts, you’re not gonna get a good movie. The chances of you having a good movie is very small. Fortunately, for me, I’ve worked on a lot of movies, so I can see the brick wall coming very often, and sometimes that’s my most important job is to say to the director, “There’s a brick wall headed your way,” whether it’s from a storytelling point of view or from a shooting point of view.

So it’s about, I think, shepherding, in a way, as a producer. I think the best producers, and as a former studio executive, I got to watch and have an opinion about which producer was doing a more interesting job, and there’s a lot of different ways to do it. For me, there’s a similarity in all my movies, I think, that represents how I like to tell stories, but in each case, it’s their story.

An Earthquake Interrupts Our ‘Madame Web’ Interview
Image By Jefferson Chacon

I just emphasized the value of having creative freedom, but you also brought something up that I think is an important part of the process – the collaboration, the opportunity to raise the quality of each other’s work. Can you give me an example of a time when that happened on Madame Web, a time when you challenged something S.J. wanted to do and it made something better because the two of you worked through it?

DI BONAVENTURA: I think it’s not one specific thing, but there are several times. In one of the drafts, I felt like I really didn’t understand the villain … was that an earthquake?

That’s the first earthquake I’ve ever felt in LA and I’ve lived here since 2016.

DI BONAVENTURA: There ya go! [Laughs] Congratulations.

Nothing would stop me in the middle of an interview, but that just did. [Laughs]

DI BONAVENTURA: [Laughs] That did, okay!

There’s a few places in it. One was I felt like we were overstaying our welcome in this particular scene so we ended up cutting that scene. I pushed her to do the doctor scene because I said, “If I had this crazy thing happening to me, the first thing I would do is go see the doctor.” So there are things like that where, that’s not a big idea, but it just helps, I think, the audience to go, “Oh, that’s what I would have done,” and therefore buy the sort of decision-making that she’s making. Because I think that, in some ways, is the hardest thing about taking on a character like that, is you have to buy the decision-making of the character. So sometimes in small ways you’re encouraging them to look at it differently, and in other ways you’re saying, “I’m missing this.”

Lorenzo di Bonaventura Wants to Make a Movie About Mercenaries Who Go to Hell to Kill Satan
Image via Sony Pictures

I’m gonna end with a future project question for you. You have, like, a bajillion titles on your IMDb. I never know when something’s still on the table and when something isn’t, so I’ll ask you more broadly, if right now you could snap your fingers and green-light the project of your choice, what project would it be and why?

BONAVENTURA: It’s a funny thing because it’s a project that is on nobody’s radar right now, but it’s one I keep coming back to. It’s called Hell Bent.

No, it’s on my radar! That’s Corin Hardy, right?

DI BONAVENTURA: It was. It was, originally. At one point in time, he joined us.

I love that idea.

DI BONAVENTURA: So I love that idea! Paramount’s management was about to really jump into it, then it changed management, so it’s sitting there for the moment, but that’s the one I would do.

A group of mercenaries go to hell to kill Satan!

DI BONAVENTURA: Yeah, I think it’s great.

I’m a genre lover. Sign me up for that.

DI BONAVENTURA: I am, too! That’s what I love. To redeem themselves.

Looking for more Madame Web conversations? Catch my chat with director S.J. Clarkson below:

Madame Web is now playing in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes.

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