'Amazing Spider-Man' costume designer keen to work in India

New Delhi, June 21 (IANS) Hollywood costume designer Kym Barrett, who had a major hand in redesigning the webslinger's costume for "The Amazing Spider-Man", says she would love to visit India, but not as a tourist. She wants to explore work options in the country.

"I would love to shoot a film in India. I don't want to travel to India as a tourist," Barrett told IANS in an email interview.

"I like to live and work in different countries where I can really experience life and the culture of the country," she added.

Her body of work includes projects as varied as romantic drama "Romeo + Juliet", sci-fi classic "The Matrix", supernatural thriller "Gothika", rom-com "Monster-in-Law" and superhero project "The Amazing Spider-Man".

How difficult is it to come up with innovative designs for iconic characters like Spiderman, who has a fan following stretching back decades?

"These characters are difficult to design as they are already so dear to the people's hearts," admits Barrett, who designed a slicker and smarter spandex-based attire for actor Andrew Garfield, the on-screen Spiderman.

"You need to re-imagine the costume and then try to create a new atmosphere around the character - a design that retains his or her original characteristics, but lives a new life in context with the new story," she added.

The 2012 film "The Amazing Spiderman", which will be aired on Sony Pix June 26, was a character Barrett enjoyed working on because she likes "projects that are adventurous and full of fascinating characters".

Barrett was just 28 when filmmaker Baz Luhrmann asked her to design costumes for the 1996 film "Romeo + Juliet". Before that, she had studied costume and set design at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.

Barrett's first tryst with costume designing was in the world of theatre. How different is it to design for the cinema and theatre?

"Theatre is very immediate and everything evolves constantly through rehearsals and into the run of the show, the costume, the character and the makeup. (It is) different in film, where once a scene is shot, you must adapt your continuity around that first scene," she explained.

Click the Movie button below for more info:
The Amazing Spider-Man