How Did Spider-Man: Brand New Day Recreate New York? 

The latest Marvel flick found a way around shooting in the big apple. 

Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day is smashing box office records all over the world. While audiences might be very familiar with the web-head by now, that hasn’t diminished any interest in the property. 

As is usually the case, the friendly neighbourhood web-slinger is depicted patrolling some famous New York neighbourhoods, with the iconography of the city that never sleeps on full display. However, Spider-Man: Brand New Day did not shoot in New York City, so how did it recreate some of those incredible constructions? 

From One Capital To Another 

New York City is the undisputed financial capital of the United States, and as one of the nation’s biggest and most bustling cities, it is almost impossible to film there. Not only is it a tourist hotspot with structures like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty bringing in global crowds, but it is also a working capital, and the logistics of shutting down any road are an absolute nightmare. 

So, Sony and Marvel Studios did something that has become relatively normal in recent years and that’s filming New York City in an entirely different capital. Instead, the production moved to both London and Glasgow to recreate the famous backdrop. There, clever set design and controllable street layouts allowed the creative team to transform the UK destinations into Spider-Man’s hometown. 

Adding The Landmarks 

It was a herculean effort to make these sequences believable on screen, the classic magic of Hollywood being replaced by the hard work of just under 40 construction workers and craftspeople, who had the tough job of making Glasgow and London look like some of New York’s most well-known neighbourhoods. In addition to this, crews built a three-block section of downtown Brooklyn in a studio lot in Buckinghamshire. 

But what about all that incredible architecture like the 77-storey, art deco Chrysler Building or the 22-acre Rockefeller Center? Well, Marvel turned to some computer wizardry to add those landmarks into the film, with carefully scanned digital models creating a realistic construction of those much-needed buildings. 

Evidently, Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s construction team are the MVPs here, transporting audiences into a familiar world through the most unexpected of means.