Mortal Engines Film Details
Madame Web is a 2024 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Columbia Pictures and Di Bonaventura Pictures in association with Marvel Entertainment and TSG Entertainment, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is the fourth film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU). The film was directed by S. J. Clarkson from a screenplay she co-wrote with Claire Parker and the writing team of Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. It stars Dakota Johnson in the title role, alongside Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Tahar Rahim, Mike Epps, Emma Roberts, and Adam Scott. The film depicts the titular character’s origin story and involves Cassie Webb (Johnson) confronting her past while trying to save three young women (played by Sweeney, Merced, and O’Connor) and their futures from Ezekiel Sims (Rahim), who wants to kill the trio before they turn into Spider-Women characters as adults and kill him.
Sony began development on a Madame Web film for its shared universe by September 2019, with Sazama and Sharpless hired to write the script. Clarkson joined as director in May 2020, making the film her feature film directorial debut, while Johnson was cast in early 2022. This was followed by additional castings in the following months, particularly for the three Spider-Women. The creatives took a standalone grounded and gritty approach with the film and made it a suspense thriller. Filming began in mid-July 2022 and wrapped before the end of the year, occurring throughout Massachusetts, including Boston, and in New York City and Mexico. Clarkson and Parker’s involvement as writers was revealed in November 2023. Johan Söderqvist, a frequent collaborator of Clarkson, composed the film’s score.
Madame Web premiered at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles on February 12, 2024, and was released in the United States on February 14. The film was panned by critics and has grossed $97 million worldwide against a production budget of $80 million.
STORY
CAST
- Dakota Johnson as Cassandra “Cassie” Webb / Madame Web:
A paramedic in Manhattan who, after an accident, develops psychic abilities as a clairvoyant which allow her to see future events within the “spider world”, and is a reluctant hero. In the film, Cassie is depicted as an inexperienced clairvoyant in her 30s learning her new powers, compared to the comic book version which is a blind and paralyzed elderly woman connected to a life support system and a “fully fledged” clairvoyant. Johnson and director S. J. Clarkson sought to differentiate the film’s portrayal from this version while embracing the character traits from the comics. Johnson felt Cassie’s wit, humor, and abrasiveness were balanced with her compassion, particularly through her forming a “sort of family” with the three young women after not getting along through the film’s events. which stemmed from Cassie being on an “unending, insatiable quest” to save people after she was unable to save her mother. She was interested in playing a female character whose superpowers stem from her mind, and by the prospect of seeing into the future while understanding the character’s past and present, while Clarkson was inspired by the psychological and cerebral aspects of the character, with Cassie questioning her sanity which she battles within herself and attempts to understand. Clarkson called Cassie a loner and described her as somewhat abrasive, quirky, and “on the outer edges of things”, which she compared to the title character of the Marvel Television series Jessica Jones (2015–2019). - Sydney Sweeney as Julia Cornwall:
An awkward teenage girl who lives with her father and stepfamily following her mother’s departure. She is hunted by Sims for being a future Spider-Woman and one of those responsible for his death. - Isabela Merced as Anya Corazon:
A homeless teenager forced to live alone after her father’s deportation. She is also hunted by Sims for being one of the three future Spider-Women responsible for his death. - Celeste O’Connor as Mattie Franklin: A teenage girl from a wealthy family, but with absent parents. She is one of the three future Spider-Women hunted by Sims.
- Tahar Rahim as Ezekiel Sims:
A former explorer who searched for a secret tribe in the Amazon rainforest in Peru alongside a research team with Cassie’s mom, whom he betrays. He gained their enhanced strength and health abilities through a powerful spider, as well as clairvoyance which allows him to see the future and his death, making him obsessively search for his killers. This leads him to hunt three young women who have the potential to become Spider-Women in the future. Clarkson said the character was not afraid to be intense and had a “level of ambiguity” with multiple layers. He also wears a black suit, styled similar to Spider-Man. - Mike Epps as O’Neil: Cassie and Ben’s co-worker and friend.
- Emma Roberts as Mary Parker: Ben’s pregnant sister-in-law.
- Adam Scott as Ben Parker: Cassie’s paramedic partner and friend.
- Kerry Bishé as Constance Webb: Cassie’s mother and a scientist whose work researching spiders brought her to the Amazon in 1973 in hopes of healing Cassie’s muscular disorder.
- Zosia Mamet as Amaria: A gifted hacker and Sims’s research assistant.
- José María Yazpik as Santiago: A member of Las Arañas, a secret tribe from the Peruvian jungle with spider-based abilities.
PRODUCTION
Development
After their work on the Marvel Comics-based film Morbius (2022), part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU), Sony Pictures hired Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless in September 2019 to write a script centered around the Marvel character Madame Web. Sony’s executive vice president Palak Patel was overseeing the project. Kerem Sanga had previously written a draft for the film. In May 2020, S. J. Clarkson was hired to develop and direct Sony’s first female-centric Marvel film, which was reported to be Madame Web. The studio was looking to attach a prominent actress such as Charlize Theron or Amy Adams to the project, before hiring a new writer to further develop the film with her in mind. After meeting with several “A-listers” for the title role, Sony narrowed their shortlist during December 2021 and January 2022. Dakota Johnson became the frontrunner by the end of 2021, and was in talks to star as Madame Web by early February. Clarkson was confirmed to be directing Madame Web at that time.
In March 2022, Sydney Sweeney was cast in the film alongside Johnson. Justin Kroll of Deadline Hollywood described the project as being “Sony’s version of Doctor Strange” due to Madame Web’s comic book abilities, though he noted that the film could be departing from the source material since the comics version of Madame Web is an elderly woman, named Cassandra Webb, connected to a life-support system that looks like a spider web. Kroll noted because of this that the film reportedly could “turn into something else”. Grant Hermanns of Screen Rant noted speculation on whether Johnson was playing Cassandra Webb or the younger Julia Carpenter, who was the second character in the comics to be known as Madame Web. A month later, Sony gave Madame Web a release date of July 7, 2023, and confirmed Johnson and Sweeney would star in the film. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who produced the film for Sony through his production company Di Bonaventura Pictures, described the film as a thriller and called the titular character’s clairvoyance a “tricky skill set” that was not likely to be used for an action film. He said the studio chose to keep details on the film secretive given the character was not well known to general audiences. Sweeney said the film was different from audiences’s expectations of superhero films.
RELEASE
February 14, 2024
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