Today the junket for The Corpse Bride junket was held in Toronto, at the Toronto Film Festival. The junket in general was short on news – Tim Burton is taking a break, Helena Bonham Carter has a few things in the hopper and Johnny Depp is still knee-deep in Captain Jack Sparrow (his mouth was full of gold teeth). But Danny Elfman dropped a surprise on me when I asked him whether Sam Raimi had told him which villains for whom to consider themes. He’s not doing Spider-Man 3, he told me. I asked why.
Elfman: Spider-Man 2 was a miserable experience.
Q: Why? Was it too fast or –
Elfman: It’s a complicated thing.
Q: Why was it complicated?
Elfman: My connection to Sam got completely severed. As far as I’m concerned, he went to sleep and somebody put a pod next to him and when he awoke, he wasn’t the same person I’ve known for a decade.
Q: Will you work with him again?
Elfman: No. He went from right there, number 2 on my list of favorite directors, to the last – to the exact opposite of everything I look for in a film experience. Everything I could do on Spider-Man 1 I couldn’t do on Spider-Man 2. He got so intensely attached to the temp music, I couldn’t even adapt my own music. I couldn’t get close enough to me.
It’s the first time I’ve ever walked from a director in twenty years, and hopefully the last time. He became intolerable. I’ve been on some heavy duty films, so to say that it had to be pretty bad. I have been in war zones you wouldn’t believe in 55 films. But this is the first time I’ve said, I’ve had it. It’s just not worth it. I would rather go back to waiting tables than to do Spider-Man 2 again.
Strong words from Elfman. There’s no word yet on who will be scoring the next Spidey film.