SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains details from Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

If there’s someone who knows about Spider-Man, it’s Amy Pascal. As the former chair of Columbia Pictures, she was there when the studio first launched the webslinger out of a cannon in his first big-screen debut.

That 2002 movie lit the wick on the mega-success of the superhero genre that continues today, with the Sam Raimi-directed feature not only drawing comparisons to the Holy Grail of comic-book movies (Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman), but also becoming the first Hollywood movie to gross more than $100 million in an opening weekend (with $114.8M).

Spider-Man would go on to break his domestic opening-weekend record three more times, with 2007’s Spider-Man 3 ($151M), 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260.1M) and now this past weekend’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day at $360M, the new all-time high overall topping Avengers: Endgame.

We talk with the three-time Oscar-nominated Pascal, who is also behind the award-winning and near $1.1 billion success of the animated Spider-Verse films, about this weekend’s box office feat with Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

DEADLINE: Amy, you know this franchise like no other. And this has heart, but I also remember it having heart with Sam Raimi. We were left with a cliffhanger in No Way Home, but how was it possible to outdo three Spider-Mans?

AMY PASCAL: We knew we couldn’t go bigger than three Spider-Mans, so we had to go deeper with Peter Parker. And the truth is that every time with my partner, Marvel’s Kevin Feige, my producing partner Rachel O’Connor, whenever we sit down to decide, to think about what the next movie should be, we always think about what the Peter Parker story should be. And it really is about focusing more on Peter than Spider-Man which makes a good movie.

DEADLINE: Was there a comic where Peter had a connection to Jean Gray, or was that a storyline you originated?

PASCAL: The comics are connected all the time between X-Men and everything else. We didn’t pick Jean Gray because she was part of the X-Men, we picked Jean Gray because [director] Destin [Daniel Cretton] came in and said, “If you guys want to do a movie that is about the way people feel isolated, even more today than ever, because of our technology and everything else, and not just young people, but everybody. But it has afflicted young people so much. If we can do a movie that is about how reaching out and making a connection to someone is the most important thing that you can do, then I understand how to do this movie.” And he was the one who said, “I really think it would be great if the villain could be a teenager,” instead of all the monsters we’ve done in the past. Because the other truth about Peter Parker is, the best stories are when the villains have the same problem that he does in the anonymity and feeling isolated. It just seemed like the right story to tell for today, because it’s something that we can all relate to.

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DEADLINE: What lessons have you learned in making and shepherding this franchise?

PASCAL: The key is for all of us who work on these movies together is to really focus on telling a story about Peter Parker, not telling and not telling a story about the end of the world or things that none of us can really relate to. The wonderful thing about Peter is he’s just a kid with no money and no girlfriend, and no game. That’s what makes him such a heroic character and such a mythic character for people, because all he is is a good guy.

DEADLINE: Destin has done a remarkable job…

PASCAL: Remarkable job. And the thing about Destin is, everything with him comes from a place of authenticity, a place of emotion. And when we met with him the first time, it was so clear that he had to be the director of this. The way to make a great movie is to work with a great director. That’s just the truth.

DEADLINE: Did he come in with a whole presentation, a look book or sizzle reel?

PASCAL: No, not at all. He didn’t have to. First of all, I loved Shang-Chi, Short Term 12 and No Mercy. Kevin had a great working relationship with him on Shang-Chi. We knew that he knew how to do action, and that he would do action that was different. We really wanted to tell a movie that was a more ground-level, kind of practical Spider-Man, and he came in and said, “I want to respect the laws of physics in this movie.”

DEADLINE: Is he involved in the next film? Is there a writers’ room?

PASCAL: There’s no writers room. If we have our way, he certainly will be.

DEADLINE: Then as far as the deal with Marvel, Tom Rothman tells me it’s on a picture-by-picture basis.

PASCAL: Yes, it’s always been a picture-by-picture basis. I love working with Kevin, Marvel and [Marvel co-president] Lou [D’Esposito] and all those guys. It’s such a wonderful partnership, and I think we always put Peter first, and that’s why it works.

DEADLINE: The media is always writing the obituary about the superhero movie and superhero fatigue. Is that a real thing?

PASCAL: No, I don’t think any of that is ever a real thing. If you make a good movie that people can relate to, I think they relate to it and they want to see it. People go to movies emotionally. They go to movies about characters that they care about and Spider-Man is at the top of the heap. And to be honest with you, I don’t really think of these movies as superhero movies. Tom gave a beautiful performance in this movie. I think we had so many fantastic actors. The beautiful thing that Destin did in the movie is all the different stories, whether it was the story of Sadie Sink’s character or Punisher story or Bruce Banner. All of them have the same problem: They are all living this kind of life of isolation where there’s something inside them that they can’t control. I think that the best movies are when the whole thing is a cohesive unit and every character is telling the story that you want to be telling about Peter.

DEADLINE: As far as Tom Holland coming back for the next one, it sounds like he’s open, but of course nothing’s in place yet…

PASCAL: The funny thing is from the very beginning, we’ve never planned the next thing. I remember after the first Spider-Man movie came out, Sam Raimi said to me, “I don’t have anything else to say” and I said, “I just don’t believe you.” I think that’s good about making these movies is that they have to stand on their own, is that it makes the movie singular in a very different way. I think it’s proven to be a good formula because they each have to be movies on their own.

DEADLINE: You’re having a phenomenal year, even before this with Project Hail Mary. How are you feeling about theatrical?

PASCAL: God, look at this year. There’s been so many huge movies, Toy Story 5, and Odyssey. Jesus Christ, Chris Nolan was able to make people think that Homer was cool. When you understand how to make movies for the people want to see, that touch them, they’re gonna go. I’ve always believed in the theatrical experience because there isn’t anything like it.

DEADLINE: What’s the timeline on Bond? Do you think we might have some news toward the end of the year about who might play him?

PASCAL: I would say the end of the year is a good bet. We are being really, really methodical. Having worked with Barbara Broccoli at the studio, I mean, Daniel Craig is a hard act to follow. And it’s got to be something really different that is a stirring and exciting and different.

Late Fame which premiered a year ago this month at the Venice Film Festival is a gem. It is a movie about, among other things, discovery and rediscovery. It may be a year after critics first saw this movie that I am only just discovering it myself as it begins its theatrical engagements, but if ever there was a beguiling and enlightening film hiding in plain sight it is this one from director Kent Jones (Diane) and Oscar nominated screenwriter Samy Burch (May December).

Based on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1890’s novella, Burch has modernized it and changed the Vienna setting to New York City’s Soho district, a once bustling enclave for artists and poets, and now something quite different. Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe) has worked for the post office for 37 years, but in the late 70’s he was a published poet with a brief dance with notoriety, a couple of articles written about his modest papaerback book, now relegated to the back shelves of a dusty private bookstore, if you can even find it there. Meyers (Edmund Donovan) the leader of a young group of men with respect for those who came before and whose little salon competes with “influencers” tied to their iPhones in the same space, has indeed discovered Saxberger and intends to make him the group’s next project, an excavation of greatness somehow passed over but ripe for renewal.

Setting out to find Saxberger, he encounters this modest man whose current social interactions are with blue collar work colleagues at the local bar and a peaceful existence in his modest apartment. Friends only know Ed as a fellow postal worker, certainly not as a man who once wrote poems with the gift of Frost. But that was another life, another time, and so when Meyers invites Ed to his group it is meant with some resistance. He can’t even fathom how this guy even could find his book, much less want to praise it. Nevertheless he shows up and thus begins his relationship with the self-called Enthusiasm Society, a gathering of twenty-something admirers, if not much else, who call themselves intellectuals and reject technology in favor of art and poetry. Indeed their recognition of him as a kind of genius eventually wins over Ed who begins to remember the love for creativity that once drove his life in a very different era, a lost New York where art was prized.

And there also is Gloria (Greta Lee), the older female friend of the Enthusiasm Society, an actress and singer and somewhat tragic, if flamboyant personality whom they have also latched on to. Ed finds something in common with her, even if they are the exact opposites in demeanor. By her very nature she begins to light up his life especially when she agrees to perform his poetry at a show the Society is going to produce, one advertising new poetry from this lost genius.

What makes this film work as well as it does, even if inspired by material from well over a century ago, is first and foremost a truly splendid cast. Dafoe continues to be a miracle of an actor, never overplaying his hand here and believably embodying a man resigned to a different life than what might have been, a richly talented writer of long ago suddenly reawakened after putting it all in the past. His skepticism is real and so is his awareness that these new found admirers may not see him for who he really is and what his poetry is really about. Lee, so fine in a wide variety of roles from Past Lives to The Morning Show, is superb as a woman playing a role in life as well as piano bars. Fortunately she is no stereotype here as Gloria is a genuine talent herself, an exceptional performer as she proves singing Brecht and Weill’s “Surabaya Johnny” in a beautiful moment with Ed in the audience recognizing he is also seeing someone deserving of late fame herself. Unfortunately she has demons and Lee is truly stunning in a role that runs the gamut. Donovan is perfect as the leader of a group who essentially adopts artists for their own sense of worth.

Burch’s brilliantly witty, biting, and all-knowing screenplay never satirizes these characters or looks down on them in a movie Jones and his exceptional actors have blessed with sheer humanity and grace.

Producers are Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon, Mason Plotts, Danny Roberts
H.S. Naji, Jackie Langelier, Taylor Shung, Ethan Lazar.

Title: Late Fame

Distributor: Magnolia

Release Date: August 7, 2026

Director: Kent Jones

Screenplay: Samy Burch

Cast: Willem Dafoe, Greta Lee, Edmund Donovan, Jake Lacy, Clay Singer, Clark Johnson, Luca Padovan, Arthur Langlie, Graham Campbell, Tony Torn.

Running Time: 1 hour and 36 minutes