Finally, the world quieted down.
However, it didn't last long—
One after another, visitors kept coming.
Since Anson had entered the trailer, there hadn't been even thirty seconds of peace, making him wonder if there was a long line of people waiting outside.
This went on until James Franco showed up.
"Wow."
"Wow..."
"Wow!"
James didn't say much, just kept exclaiming, and then plopped onto the big bed, letting his entire body feel the softness of the mattress.
In fact, Anson immediately sensed the playful mockery behind James' actions. However, Anson gave no response, calmly sitting nearby.
Unable to resist, James sighed dramatically, "Oh... sigh... it's so heartbreaking..."
Unfortunately, he still didn't get any response.
James sat up abruptly, "Hey, man, aren't you going to console my wounded soul? The crew gave you a luxury trailer, and we got nothing. Can you believe it?"
"Nothing! At all!"
"This is unfair treatment, and I'm going to file a complaint with the actors' union."
As he spoke, James rolled around dramatically in mock protest.
Anson looked at him calmly, amused, as if watching a circus performance, shaking his head, "What a pity. Someone missed out on the role, fate played its tricks, destiny shifted... too bad, too bad."
James froze for a moment, then clutched his chest dramatically. "Killer! You're heartless! Ah, I'm dead..."
Just as he finished, the trailer door opened again.
Sam Raimi stood there, looking awkwardly at James rolling around. But James hadn't noticed and kept up his performance.
Anson didn't bother to alert James. He stood and walked over to Sam. "Hey, Director, long time no see."
Before Sam could speak, James called out lazily, "It's no use talking to the director!"
Anson noticed Sam's slightly awkward expression—Sam, a straightforward man, was clearly uncomfortable—and explained, "He's jealous of my trailer."
Sam immediately understood and chuckled, "I'm jealous too."
After a brief pause, Sam seemed more at ease. After all, he and Anson had enjoyed a pleasant collaboration before, and they'd stayed in touch through calls and emails over the past few months. They had built a rapport.
"The whole crew has been eagerly awaiting Anson Wood."
"Look, the moment you showed up, word spread like wildfire. Everyone rushed over to see you, like water boiling over."
Earlier, the steady stream of visitors had all been crew members stopping by to greet Anson. At first, Anson hadn't understood why, as this wasn't the usual practice. But he gradually realized—over just a few months, his status in Hollywood had quietly shifted, and with a project as big as Spider-Man 2, the atmosphere on set had changed as well.
Even Sam was making jokes now.
Anson raised an eyebrow. "Like a panda at the zoo."
A panda?
The image popped into Sam's mind, and he couldn't hold back a laugh.
Finally, James noticed something was off. He looked up and saw Sam, tumbling off the bed in a panic. "Director, when did you get here?"
"Right when you got shot in the chest," Sam replied calmly.
James tried to explain but ended up choking on his own spit, coughing violently. "Director... director..."
Sam exchanged a glance with Anson, a mischievous twinkle in his eye, though outwardly he remained composed. Ignoring James, he turned to Anson. "You called me over for something?"
"Yes, the script." Anson cut straight to the point, skipping further small talk.
Sam wasn't surprised. "I figured as much."
He sat down on the sofa against the wall, pulled the script out of his briefcase, and pushed it toward Anson.
Earlier in the year, during discussions between Edgar and Sony-Columbia about the sequel, Anson had expressed a desire to read the script in advance and offer his input, wanting to be involved in its creation.
Edgar had been supportive, hoping Anson would gain more influence and strengthen his position. Sony-Columbia also wasn't surprised, assuming Anson was looking to transition into a producer role.
However, Anson had his own ideas.
He knew that Spider-Man 2 was later hailed as a classic and became a milestone in superhero cinema. But why didn't Spider-Man 2 achieve the legendary status of The Dark Knight?
Even as the superhero genre exploded, with countless films flooding the market, The Dark Knight remained an iconic masterpiece, while Spider-Man 2 didn't receive the same recognition.
The reason lay in the script.
Spider-Man 2 undeniably pioneered a new style and inspired many similar films, solidifying its status as a classic. However, the script itself was still lacking.
The strength was that Peter Parker's character arc was well-developed.
The weakness was that "well-developed" didn't mean "outstanding."
First, Peter Parker's character arc was bogged down by repetitive, unnecessary narrative elements.
Second, the plot was overly simplistic, with the tone of a high school soap opera.
These soap-opera elements not only disrupted the film's pacing but also weakened its appeal. Tobey Maguire's performance in particular came off as overly melodramatic, his tendency to act with wide-eyed innocence a problem partly of his own making and partly of the script.
And that wasn't the worst of it.
What frustrated Anson the most was that Sam Raimi was willing to spend time exploring the emotional depths and growth arcs of the characters, but poor narrative efficiency led to a lot of unnecessary scenes. This, in turn, limited the development of key relationships:
Family—Aunt May; friendship—Harry; romance—Mary Jane.
Of these three, aside from Aunt May, who served a functional role, both Harry and Mary Jane, crucial to the plot and character development, felt shallow and even irritating, failing to evoke any emotional response despite ample screen time. They remained flat, one-dimensional characters.
This was a huge missed opportunity.
So, while The Dark Knight comes to mind when discussing iconic films, Spider-Man 2 rarely gets mentioned in the same breath.
In Anson's view, Spider-Man 2 had the potential to be a timeless classic. If Sony-Columbia simply treated it as a youthful coming-of-age movie, it would be a tremendous waste.
Of course, Anson wasn't aiming for the philosophical depth or moral complexity of The Dark Knight. He wanted to maintain the popcorn-flick quality, the youthful, school-focused feel—similar to The Avengers, a classic in its own right. That would be enough to make Spider-Man 2 a lasting classic.
So over the past few months, while touring Europe, Anson had been in constant communication with Sam, exchanging ideas and diving deeper into the script in hopes of finding a balance and making the movie tighter and more compelling.
However, this wasn't an easy task.
It's one thing to discuss ideas, but actually implementing them makes you realize just how challenging screenwriting in Hollywood really is.