“Spider-Noir,” Prime Video’s new antidote to superhero fatigue arrived on May 27 and the spirited show is currently enjoying a wave of enthusiastic reviews from both critics and fans and is now registering an impressive 91% Rotten Tomatoes aggregate score.
It stars Nicholas Cage as Ben Reilly, AKA The Spider, a Depression-era multiverse version of Spider-Man in New York City which was introduced in Marvel’s “Spider-Man Noir” comic books and later seen in the 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” He’s a different beast from Peter Parker (Spider-Man going to space was a nice surprise, but we don’t expect Cage’s webslinger to ever make it into the cosmos), and not really part of the MCU (yet).
“Spider-Noir” is eight episodes of old-fashioned fun featuring pulp villains like Molten-Man, Tombstone, Sandman, Electro and the villainous crime lord Silvermane, played by veteran actor Brendan Gleeson (“Braveheart,” “Harry Potter Franchise”).
But one of it’s most alluring elements is that viewers can watch episodes in either True-Hue Full Color or Authentic Black & White, a cool gimmick that provides a very different experience depending on whatever suits your taste.
We connected with acclaimed cinematographers Darran Tiernan (“The Penguin,” “Westworld”) and Peter Deming (“Evil Dead II,” “Cabin in the Woods”), the filmmaking wizards behind this two-pronged experiment to learn how it evolved during production.
“Initially it was going to be a black-and-white show and then very early on it was like, ‘can we have a color version too?’’” Tiernan tells Space.
“I think it was Nic and Oren [Uziel] that said to the studio, ‘well why not have both?’ There was always going to be a little bit of concern about black-and-white. However, it’s a film noir. So the task that was set to us was how are we going to create two versions that can co-exist with each other? We went through a lot of testing and discussions. Then it was a matter of synching departments so they knew what camera and lighting set-ups looked like.
“When we did the color sessions we tended to do the color version first, then the black-and-white, and there were certain scenes that would actually create a different emotional reaction in me, even though it’s the same scene, the same actors, the same lines, the same composition.”
Deming recalls Nicolas Cage making made a comment about this decision, emphasizing the fact that there’s a resistance to black-and-white in the marketplace.
“People either gravitate toward it or are hands off,” he adds. “He wanted the show to reach the largest audience and he thought if there was a color version those people averse to black-and-white would tune in to the color. Now it sort of morphed into an adult version and a kid-friendlier version being the color, which is evocative more of a comic book or graphic novel look. It’s never been done and I think it’s working out.”
With its nostalgic comic book roots, “Spider-Noir’s” atmospheric shots were intentionally framed and composed to imitate the appearance of classic comic panels.
“And all the amazing film noir films that gave us so many exciting ways of seeing a scene,” Tiernan notes. “Sometimes they were very limited in resources and could create drama and action from where they placed the camera. It’s definitely a mix of the beautiful compositions and interesting angles of the comics books but also huge influence from film noir. You can go from films that I love that made a mark on me like Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Killing’ and Orson Welles’s ‘Touch of Evil’ and ‘The Lady From Shanghai.’ The list goes on and on of how incredibly inventive they were, so you have that license, and that was part of the storytelling.”
Other cinematic influences were drawn from that dark well of Hollywood noir history.
“Also ‘The Third Man’ or ‘The Sweet Smell of Success'” says Deming. “It was also a little bit of the chicken and the egg. I think film noir stole a little bit maybe from the comic book style, but then took it farther, then made its way back to graphic novels. So they’re sort of feeding on each other, and that’s why the black-and-white and the color versions work. Because they both have origin stories in that stylistic sense that are not put upon by filmmakers or designers. The color has the comic book base and the black-and-white has certainly the film noir base. It was a great playground to play in, and I hope that it opens up more projects like this for creatives to embrace and trust.”
Created by Oren Uziel, “Spider-Noir” is currently airing all episodes on Prime Video.