Archive for the ‘Spider-man’ Category

Super Hero Hype! – who is naming their source as ‘Sony Pictures Entertainment’ posted this bit of news earlier today:

Spider-Man will swing into theaters worldwide in 3D beginning July 3, 2012, it was announced today by Jeff Blake, Chairman of Sony Pictures Worldwide Marketing & Distribution. The new film which is still untitled, will begin production later this year directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt. Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin will produce the film from Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios.

Commenting on the announcement, Blake said, “Spider-Man is the ultimate summer movie-going experience, and we’re thrilled the filmmakers are presenting the next installment in 3D. Spider-Man is one of the most popular characters in the world, and we know audiences are eager and excited to discover Marc’s fantastic vision for Peter Parker and the franchise.”

Of course, release dates -especially for movies of this caliber- are always subject to change, but it looks like it’s going to be about 2 1/2 years before we see Spidey back on the big screen, and in 3D apparently.

An incredibly trusted and wise source of Big Shiny Robot!s has consulted his trusted and wise source at the Marvel/Paramount camp about the recent flurry of casting rumours that have plagued the internet in the last week (yes, we’re guilty, too.)

Here is what our good friend had to say:

According to MY studio guy, the rumors about Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill), Ryan McPartlin (Chuck), Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) and other unknowns/television actors reading for Cap are true.

Apparently, when the script came in with World War II sequences (featuring the Invaders), the studio heads decided it was beyond their means to make this movie AND afford A-listers like Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.

Sure sounds like everyone’s high on McPartlin, who evidently just lost out on the Superman role to Brandon Routh.

As for Spidey, the Logan Lerman rumors are just that … rumors. Apparently Sony is waiting for James Vanderbilt’s script to come in (he’s balking on whether Peter Parker is still in school or just out). And they haven’t even come to terms with director Marc Webb yet.

So it seems as though pretty much all the rumours about Cap have been true, and the rumours regarding Spider-Man have been bunk.

In any case, there’s been a lot of news about Captain America coming out of the floodgates from Joe Johnston as well, and his take on the character, the costume, and the story was actually pretty interesting.  He said that the classic Cap costume in the film appears because they use Cap as a USO publicity tool, but Steve has that desire to lead and tries to ditch the costume, but realizes the worth of it when he notices that it’s an effective tool as a symbol of leadership.  So he begins to shape the costume into something more akin to the present-day Cap costume.  It’s a take on the character and the costume I’ve never heard, but I’m actually pretty in love with.

Also, he says the Red Skull is the villain, which isn’t a huge surprise, but interesting to get a confirmation of nonetheless.

In any case, check back here frequently for all the news that’s fit to print!

UPDATE:  A lot of sites are running quotes to our piece here and saying “The top three choices for Cap are these guys”.  This article says no such thing.  These guys read for the part.  That’s all our man said.  We have no idea who’s at the top of the list, but these three have read for it.

Access Hollywood sat down and talked to 18-year-old actor, Logan Lerman, the star of the upcoming Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (he also was in 3:10 to Yuma, Gamer, and The Butterfly Effect). During the interview, Lerman revealed that he is currently “in talks” to play the titular role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the upcoming reboot:

“There have been a few discussions, it’s definitely something I’m looking into,” Logan told Billy on Thursday.

“It’s one of my favorite characters ever and I’m a huge fan of the series,” he continued. “I’d love to have more conversations about it. I’m definitely very interested in it.”

The “Percy Jackson” star explained that the interest in him playing Spider-Man was “vice versa,” and that both he and the studio have expressed interest.

“It’s just, you know, conversations are starting. It’s a long process with the studio and the producers and everything. But it’s definitely a project that I’m really interested in, of course,” he told Billy. “I’d love to focus on the human element a little bit more. It’d be such a fun experience.”

So there you have it folks. I think we may have our first official hat in the ring for our new Spider-Man. I remember him from 3:10 to Yuma and The Butterfly Effect and I don’t remember him being bad by any means. What do all of you think of this potential casting?

As we all know by now, (500) Days of Summer director, Marc Webb, is taking on the Spider-Man reboot from Sony. However, The Risky Business Blog over at THR had a little bit more to add to this news surrounding some possible details about what form the reboot will take:

Webb, who has options on two sequels, will now tackle a Jamie Vanderbilt script that sees a “Spider-Man” movie that will look and feel very different from the big movies that went before it.

The plan for the movie is to be in the $80 million range and feature a cast of relative unknowns (so you can quash those Rob Pattinson or Gordon-Levitt rumors at this point). And the story will be pared down to center on a high school kid who is dealing with the knowledge that his uncle died even though the teen had the power to stop it.

The touchstone for the new movie will not be the 1960s comics, which were the inspiration behind the movies by Raimi, who grew on up on them, but rather this past decade’s “Ultimate Spider-Man” comics by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley where the villain-fighting took a back seat to the high school angst.

Even though (500) Days of Summer is all we have to judge Webb on right now I remain optimistic because frankly, that film was one of the best things I saw in all of 2009. On top of that now, some news that they might be heading in the ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ direction is even more good news in my opinion. Bendis has done amazing things with the Ultimate version of our wall-crawler and I think a lot of them would work well on the big screen – at least more-so than some of the campy 60’s Spider-Man stuff Raimi was trying to translate (which, don’t get me wrong, for the most part he did very well).

As you read, production will start this year, so I have a feeling we are going to be getting quite a bit of news and rumors off and on about this reboot throughout the year.

And I thought I’d get a break after Spider-Man 4 was cancelled….

It has been confirmed that (500) Days of Summer director, Marc Webb will direct a reboot of Spider-Man.

As much of a bummer as it is that the same creative team that helmed the first three films won’t be back for a fourth, at least the franchise is in good hands. Webb should have the ability to bring a great amount of humanity to the beloved Marvel characters.

It might prove to be interesting to see a retooled version of the mythos in film, perhaps this reboot will be what Ultimate Spider-Man was to The Amazing Spider-Man books and even integrate the characters in Marvel Studios’ interconnecting Iron Man, Thor and Incredible Hulk. Hell, if the studios were smart they’d have Brian Michael Bendis either write or produce the damned thing.

Though, with only one flick under his belt, does Webb have the experience to pull it off?  Let’s hope so, no one wants another Spider-Man 3.

Of course since the news dropped Big Shiny Robot -just like all the other nerd and geek sites out there- has been a buzz about the cancellation of Spider-Man 4. Some are happy about the announcement of a reboot, some are upset, some are right down the middle.

A regular reader of ours, “Jerk-Bot” sent us an e-mail the other day. The e-mail included a link to an article on moviehole.com that talks about the reasons behind the cancellation, the direction Spider-Man 4 was heading, and the fact that a reboot was already on deck in the event that this breakdown happened. I really encourage you to go read the rather lengthy article over at Moviehole; essentially all of these “rumors” about The Vulture, The Vulturess, Pete and MJ having a kid – they may have actually been true after all. I’m not quite sure who or what this guy’s sources are, but he seems to have some insight.

“Jerk-bot” was nice enought to list the main points of the article that you can check out right below. You can read the full thing at Moviehole!

*Raimi, Maquire, and Dunst were all on-board and committed to the fourth movie. John Malcovitch and Anne Hathaway were already cast as the father-daughter villains of Adrian Toomes and Felicia Hardy respectively.

*Raimi believed he was allowed to have complete creative control and Sony apparently agreed.

*However, the studio then insisted that Anne Hathaway’s character of Felicia Hardy be “The Vultress,”–yes, that was indeed true, apparently–even though, by this point, Hathaway already walked out of the project.

*There were FIVE different writers working on this script.

*Peter and MJ were, I guess, married and have a baby when the film begins.

*Adrian Toomes, as the Vulture, was going to be the new Editor at the Daily Bugle.

*The reboot script was already written (apparently more “Dark Knight” and without “the fluff”) and was part of Sony’s back-up plan, especially since they believed Raimi, Maquire, and Dunst were still uncertain about returning for a fourth film. Not to mention that, according to Sony’s contract, if they do not continue to make Spider-Man movies, then those rights immediately go to Marvel and also Disney.

*Raimi walked once he realized he wouldn’t make the deadline for the 2011 release (due to all the “creative differences,”), so Sony went ahead with their “Plan B reboot” option.

BSR followed a lot of these rumors but none of them ever got as far as to be “confirmed”. If even half of this is true, then I am that much more glad that Spider-Man is getting the reboot. Seriously?! MJ and Pete have a baby?! Guh.

You know the drill, sound off in the comments!

As almost the entire nerd and geek community are aware, yesterday Sony dropped a bomb. They announced that Spider-Man 4 has been cancelled and that Sony will move forward with a reboot of the franchise, aiming for a Summer 2012 release.

Probably more than most of the bots on this site, I have invested quite a bit of time keeping up with the development of Raimi’s fourth installment of the series – from the resigning of the cast to villain speculation, and more recently, the production hold and Malkovich’s confirmation of the Vulture being Raimi’s villain of choice. Upon hearing the news of the cancellation, I have mixed emotions about it. I’m going to break down my thoughts for you and I want you to share what you think in the comments below.

I want to start with the bad, so hopefully I can end on a fairly positive note. And let me be clear, overall, I do think this can be a positive thing.

So, let’s face it, while Spidey 3 wasn’t fantastic, most fans of Raimi and the franchise seemed to be willing to give it a pass in hopes of a better 4th installment. There were several stories wrapped up in Spider-Man 3, but it also left a lot of things open. A few things I would have like to see come to fruition at the hands of Raimi:

1. Peter and MJ’s relationship status was questionable at best at the end of 3, we will never get a resolution to how bad Peter screwed the pooch on this one.
2. Would have liked to see The Lizard character take form
3. Over the course of three movies, we never got to see Peter truly be Spider-Man. He was always just learning to use his powers, questioning them, or falling to a “dark side”. Aside from the end of Spider-Man 2 I feel we never got to see a confident “I’m Spider-Man and I’m going to fight the bad guy” Peter Parker.
4. Finally, on my abbreviated list, we never saw a good ol’ fashioned purely evil villain. All of the villains from the films had some sob story about them to try to make you feel bad. Not once did we see a villain bent on destroying Spider-Man that didn’t care who or what got in his way. I would have loved to see some villain show up and truly go toe-to-toe with Spider-Man, with Spidey having no choice but to kick his ass into next week.

Perhaps had Spider-Man 3 been better and wrapped more things up I would be a lot more excited about a reboot, but I feel a lack of closure with the current series that even perhaps one more entry from Raimi could have remedied.

Above everything else though, the most negative part about this is this little tidbit from the press-release from Sony:

“Now everything begins anew, and that’s got us all tremendously excited about what comes next. Under the continuing supervision of Avi and Laura, we have a clear vision for the future of Spider-Man and can’t wait to share this exciting new direction with audiences in 2012.”

If any Spider-Man fan could only name one person to blame for the bad of Spider-Man 3 I think most would agree on one man: Avi Arad (now, not to say Raimi wasn’t 100% excused from being part of the problem). Essentially, he forced Raimi’s hand into putting Venom in the film among other aspects. The sheer fact that the reboot is in the hands of Sony and this man makes me weary. Just when I think a lot of people breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Riami will have more control over the major decisions of the fouth installment we hear that Arad and Sony will be again at the helm for a reboot. I doubt even the biggest haters of Spider-Man 3 are at least a little weary about this fact of the reboot.

And finally, just today, EW has published news/rumor/specualtion that Sony may be wanting to go for a more gritty reboot like Batman Begins. Let me be clear, Spider-Man is not that gritty. Spider-Man 2 had just enough light-heartedness and reality to keep it balanced. You turn Spider-Man into a Batman and you will lose some of what’s so great about Spidey.

Now, for the positive.

The set-up. For as much of a lack of closure there is after Spider-Man 3, there is a fact that the writers had kind of written themselves into a corner. Were they going to flesh out the Stacy’s? What kind of leap of faith would MJ have to take to stay with Peter? While there are a lot of directions we would have really liked to see the next installment go, realistically there were only a few roads they could take without asking the audience to either just ignore some of the movie’s continuity or take a leap of faith with some plot holes. So with a reboot, we have a fresh start to hopefully learn from mistakes and create a continuity and story that can feasibly be carried across multiple movies.

The cast. I really like the idea of a new cast. I’ve never been a huge fan of Toby being Peter, I hated Dunst as MJ, and the fact that Franco went back to do some soap opera episodes says a lot. In fact, I think the best casting that was done was JK Simmons in the part of J. Jonah Jameson – and he was at best a supporting role! So bring in a new cast, do a better job at casting the parts. I am actually excited about this.

A new beginning. Sony explicitly stated in their press release they want to explore Peter’s roots. I would love to see perhaps a little younger Peter, perhaps Ultimate Spider-Man style? Keep him in high school longer, let him deal with that aspect of beeing a teenager, high school student, and superhero. I would also love to see Gwen Stacy played out and have MJ come in later.

Finally, fanboy speculation. Remember before the first movie came out? All the excitement and wonder about how Spidey would be handled on the big screen? Well, we get to experience that again. All the hopes, ideas, fanboy lists of demands – it’s all back at square one and even with all of the concerns from the first time around, anything is possible at this point!

Overall, while I would have liked to see some closure and another entry that was more in Raimi’s control, this reboot will probably have more positive than good. Hopefully, Sony will see the success Marvel has had with their own movies and allow for more input from them. There are a lot of good up and coming writers and directors out there that I’m sure will be able to do this franchise justice, and I for one am looking forward to the next interpretation of everyone’s favorite wall-crawler! If anything, we not longer have to be forced to watch Kirsten Dunst’s horrid interpretation of MJ anymore! Rejoice!

Now that we can lay all of this Spider-Man 4 drama to rest, start watching for Spider-Man reboot news and rumors!

Sound off in the comments! What are you all excited/concerned about with a reboot!?

I was happy about the reboot. A new cast, the old one sucked. A new story, the other was painted into a corner without a lot of room to move. A whole new Spidey, but now…Someone had to throw out the word Gritty. Do we really need another dark realistic superhero?? This is from Entertainment Weekly, and I hope its speculation and not fact.

The next Spider-Man film will be a reboot of the franchise, not a continuation of series Sam Raimi created back in 2002 — in a move similar to Batman Begins restarting the Batman franchise seven years after Batman and Robin underwhelmed fans and critics.

This time around, the series will place Peter Parker in a more contemporary setting, as a teenager battling today’s issues. The decision to go with an origin story stemmed from Sony developing two Spidey projects simultaneously. According to studio insiders, Sony was working on both Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 and the new origin story from James Vanderbilt, who wrote Zodiac. The original plan was to keep the Spider-Man gang together for one last film in 2011 before rebooting the series in 2012. When it became clear that Raimi would not be able to make the summer 2011 release date planned for Spider-Man 4, the studio opted to scrap Spider-Man 4 altogether, and focus solely on the series reboot.

Who will helm the new film is anyone’s guess but with the studio interested in a more gritty, contemporary redo of the series, they are certainly focused on younger directors making waves in Hollywood. One name that has popped up is Marc Webb, the man behind (500) Day of Summer. He was previously in discussions with the studio to take over Moneyball, but that job went to Bennett Miller. Michael Bay has also previously expressed interest in taking over the Spider-Man franchise and Seabiscuit director Gary Ross worked on one of the drafts of Spider-Man 4 and is said to be a huge fan of the comic book series.

I swear to Robot Jesus that if Michael Bay takes over Spider-Man I will start an organization dedicated to his downfall.

Deadline Hollywood has run a press release from Sony saying that Spider-Man 4 is cancelled.

Here is the press release:

Culver City, CA (January 11, 2010) — 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. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.

“A decade ago we set out on this journey with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire and together we made three Spider-Man films that set a new bar for the genre. When we began, no one ever imagined that we would make history at the box-office and now we have a rare opportunity to make history once again with this franchise. Peter Parker as an ordinary young adult grappling with extraordinary powers has always been the foundation that has made this character so timeless and compelling for generations of fans. We’re very excited about the creative possibilities that come from returning to Peter’s roots and we look forward to working once again with Marvel Studios, Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin on this new beginning,” said Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

“Working on the Spider-Man movies was the experience of a lifetime for me. While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job,” said Sam Raimi.

“We have had a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration and friendship with Sam and Tobey and they have given us their best for the better part of the last decade.This is a bittersweet moment for us because while it is hard to imagine Spider-Man in anyone else’s hands, I know that this was a day that was inevitable,” said Matt Tolmach, president of Columbia Pictures, who has served as the studio’s chief production executive since the beginning of the franchise. “Now everything begins anew, and that’s got us all tremendously excited about what comes next. Under the continuing supervision of Avi and Laura, we have a clear vision for the future of Spider-Man and can’t wait to share this exciting new direction with audiences in 2012.”

“Spider-Man will always be an important franchise for Sony Pictures and a fresh start like this is a responsibility that we all take very seriously,” said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures. “We have always believed that story comes first and story guides the direction of these films and as we move onto the next chapter, we will stay true to that principle and will do so with the highest respect for the source material and the fans and moviegoers who deserve nothing but the best when it comes to bringing these stories and characters to life on the big screen.”

The studio will have more news about Spider-Man in 2012 in the coming weeks as it prepares for production of the film.

This should be pretty upsetting to a Spider-Man fans in a lot of ways. It was that different direction the studio wants to take that forced Sam Raimi to ruin the third Spider-Man picture. With the 2nd film we got to see what Raimi wanted to do and it was perfect, the 3rd film showed us what studio meddling can do and now, this 4th outing of the franchise (in reboot form) will show us how bad things can get.

You can see in the press release a few things that should have us scared as well. The biggest red flag?

“Spider-Man will always be an important franchise for Sony Pictures and a fresh start like this is a responsibility that we all take very seriously,” said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures.

I’ve been saying this for a long time, but Sony is never going to let Marvel regain control of this property. They’re going to reboot it over and over and over again, like James Bond. Hopefully, we’re not entering a Roger Moore-like era for the character.

If they were smart, they’d join forces with Marvel studios, keep Raimi on and let him do what they want.

Unfortunately they’re not, and this press release is what we get.

UPDATE: The Hollywood Reporter is reporting it, as is everyone else.  Looks like this is the case.

This probably won’t come as a surprise to most, but amidst all the news about Spidey 4 delays, Raimi hating the script and Sony unsure about a villain, Malkovich visited an Italian sports show (for some reason) called “Quelli Che il Calcio” and was asked about playing the Vulture in Spider-Man 4. The interview is in Italian, but BadTaste.it sent Super Hero Hype the “overall idea” of what was said:

“When conductor Simona Ventura asked him about his role of Vulture in the movie, he not only didn’t deny his involvement, but confirmed that he’s waiting for the final script to be sent to him, and that the movie has been delayed. He also hopes that shooting will begin as soon as possible.”

I am a big supporter of this “Malkovich as the Vulture” idea and I hope Raimi gets his way and this is the direction the movie goes. But of course, none of this matters while production is on hold.

UPDATE: Swankmotron here.  A film critic and friend of the site asked me to stress the following on our reporting of this story:

It’s still not official. According to the flacks, Sony has not announced anything in regards to Malkovich, and if and when they do they’ll send out a press release to the trades (Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter).

It’s good advice.  I still think this story strongly indicates that they’re at least talking to him.