‘Spider Noir”s Lord Anne Miller talks about Nicolas Cage’s view of the hero.

When trying to find a tone suitable for MGM+ prime video‘S spider noir, executive producer fill road Chris Miller signed on to star immediately. nicolas cage‘s new inspiration: 70% Humphrey Bogart, 30% Bugs Bunny.

“One of the things you don’t think about is black I think you’re saying, ‘This is really serious,'” Miller said in an interview. spider noir“But Bogart always had a twinkle in his eye and was always doing something clever, and he and Bugs Bunny have more in common than you might think,” said a panelist at Saturday’s Deadline Contenders TV event.

“Yeah, there’s such a thing as playfulness, right?” Lord agreed. “And there’s a playfulness to Nic, and I think that’s why he’s so iconic, and I think there’s a playfulness to (showrunner) Oren (Uziel), who we worked with as well. jump street movie. So I feel like this show is a big character drama, an incredible mystery, a big TV event, but also lighthearted.”

spider noir It is a live-action series based on Marvel Comics. spiderman noiR. The film tells the story of Ben Reilly (Cage), a seasoned private investigator in 1930s New York who must grapple with his past life as he experiences personal tragedy as the city’s only superhero.

“The original story is that this was the character we initially developed. Spiderverse Miller explained. “And when we had the idea to do a live-action Spider show, this was the first idea we had because it felt like a contained universe,” Miller explained. “It was its own thing.”

relevant: Full coverage of Deadline’s Contenders TV event

Miller emphasized, “I didn’t want to do something that was part of a huge web of interconnected series. It’s just a little gem of a story. It’s a big gem. Small means a huge gem. It’s the hope diamond of television.” So the two called their friend Oren Uziel. “He was the biggest fan of noir we knew, and he immediately embraced the idea: the idea of ​​doing a Humphrey Bogart-type character, a detective story, but the detective also happens to have the powers of a spider.”

Miller explained that Cage came right back to them and said, ‘Listen, do you mind if he gets old and disappears as a character?’ Because I relate more to that type of person than to a plucky, upstart teenager,” Miller said. “We’re like, ‘Of course!’”

“The reason I love noir is because it’s about people in impossible situations,” Lord added. “And what Amy Pascal has always taught us about Spider-Man is that it’s not about flying. It’s about what’s going on inside these people and how challenged they are to live their lives as human beings while also living their lives as heroes.”

Miller added: “One of the things you don’t think about about noir is that it’s ‘really serious.’ But Bogart always had a twinkle in his eye and always did something clever, and he and Bugs Bunny have more in common than you might think.”

Lamorne Morris plays Robbie Robertson, Li Jun Li plays Cat Hardy, and Karen Rodriguez plays Janet.

spider noir Produced exclusively by Sony Pictures Television MGM+ And Prime Video. Emmy Award-winning director Harry Bradbeer (Fleabag, Killing Eve) director and executive produced the first two episodes. Oren Uziel (The Lost City, 22 Jump Street) and Steve Lightfoot (Marvel’s Punisher, Shantaram) serves as co-showrunner and executive producer.

Check back on Monday to see the panel video.