01.12.10 By: John Gholson
After butting heads over Spider-Man 4 for what seems like the better part of the last month, Sony/Columbia Pictures and director Sam Raimi have parted ways on the project. The shift is so dynamic that the Spider-Man 4 movie has been canceled altogether in favor of a wholesale reboot of the entire franchise.From Sony's official press release: "Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012. Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises. The new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team."
Not long ago, Chud reported that Sony wasn't keen on the Vulture as the main threat for Spider-Man 4, but, today, Harry Knowles' sources at AICN told him the disagreements between Raimi and the studio may have had something to do with a storyline that would've seen Peter Parker and Mary Jane having a baby together. It certainly makes Peter and MJ a very adult couple, which, based on Sony's desire to kick Parker all the way back into his high school years, is not the direction Sony wanted to go at all. In Hollywood, teens are the epitome of sexy; parents, not so much.
/film reports that the new script is ready to go and features, in Entertainment Weekly's words, a "gritty, contemporary" spin on Ol' Webhead. EW also speculates on a short list of directors for the re-launch that includes Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer), Gary Ross (Seabiscuit), and, heaven help us, Michael Bay.
Geeks need not worry about Sam Raimi -- he's probably going to get started on that live-action Warcraft movie now. My secret bit of advice to Marvel Studios that I will share with them and only them? Sign Raimi for that Avengers flick while you still can. It's the only film in the Avengers cycle missing a director (Kenneth Branagh's on Thor, Joe Johnston's on Captain America, Jon Favreau's on the Iron Man flicks), and Raimi has the experience necessary to handle a crowd-pleasing superhero ensemble action film.
Filed under: News/Reactions
Tags: avengers, Marvel, reboot, Sam Raimi, SamRaimi, spider-man, Spider-Man 4, Spider-man4, warcraft
Al Creedat 1-12-2010
God help us all if Michael Bay takes the reigns. Do we really need a Joel Schumacher for this generation?
Goofat 1-12-2010
Paraphrased from article: "Sony(Hollywood) thinks teens are the epitome of sexy;
For the past decade teens have been sexed up more and more (Twilight) is just the latest example.
I'd rather see the characters moving forward like they have been doing. Everyone grows up, its part of life, don't be afraid of it embrace it. Being grown up is where the sex should be, not in highschool.