‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ director Destin Daniel Cretton on capturing the spectacle without losing the heart

A timid boy with an accidental spider bite caught everyone’s on-screen attention at the turn of the century. Slinging across the high-rises of New York, the boy’s steady descent into a masked vigilante donning a vibrant red and blue suit became an epitome of morality for a new generation. Spider-Man transformed the boy, Peter Parker, into a version he never imagined. It was a clever mix of fantasy and realism; Parker’s ordinariness was easy to identify with, but it was Spider-Man’s enhanced abilities that teased the limits of imagination. The web-slinger’s first on-screen appearance in 2002 enthused all, including Destin Daniel Cretton, the director of the upcoming, Spider-Man: Brand New Day .