SPIDER-MAN 4: Sony Pictures,' Disney Fear' To Blame For Franchise Murder

Although we're not happy in the least to have been right,Dabbler's predictions on Friday have now all but proved correct for the tormented Spider-Man4. 

Sony Pictures confirmed  yesterday afternoon that there will be no Spider-Man4, and that both Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire have been removed from the project.  Hints that Sony might resolve their storyline and casting disputes with Raimi in this way surfaced early Friday when a leaked email from a Sony executive suggested the film's visual special effects crew seek work elsewhere. 

Apparently, Raimi's concerns with the film's script, which we accurately interpreted to mean that  there was no script, also meant that he wouldn't be able to meet the Sony's projected 2011 summer release date for the Spidey-sequel.  Instead of delaying the  movie, Sony scrapped the project instead, and is moving forward with its plans to reboot the entire Spider-Man franchise.

While plans of a reboot have never been clearly outlined before today's earthshaking news, Sony has previously announced that in addition to Spider-Man4, future sequels -- Spider-Man5 and Spider-Man6 - were also in development and already had completed scripts written by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac).  In light of today's changes, these projected sequels will lose their numbering, but otherwise comprise the reboot of Sony's intentions. 

It's interesting to note that Vanderbilt was the first writer to tackle Sam Raimi's Spider-Man4, too. Raimi didn't care for the writer's approach, however, and replaced him.   Vanderbilt was then rehired by Sony and Marvel Studios to draft the fifth and sixth films, again taking things in a direction Raimi wasn't at all happy about. [link] Both sequels were intended to keep Raimi in the director's chair, although it was known that a new cast would be chosen those films, essentially becoming the reboots they've been confirmed now to be.

It's also interesting -- and just as frustrating - that, over the weekend, John Malkovich confirmed his role as the Vulture in Spider-Man4 .

Fresh off Tobey Maguire's flimsy statements on Friday, we took Malkovich's with the same grain of sand; as of now, one has to wonder if he was being completely untruthful, or if perhaps there's a Vulture circling between the pages of Vanderbilt's future script.

Sony's reboot of the Spider-Man franchise is hugely premature, considering reboots are the result of failed properties or those, as in Star Trek's case, where the cast no longer fits the project.  Aside from preventing Sam Raimi from redeeming himself with a film that measures up to his artistic merits, Sony's reboots will also allow them to hire a new director with far less clout than Raimi commands.  

According to Entertainment Weekly, Sony's intentions for the future Spider-franchise are rather well-established, which leads us to conclude that dropping Raimi had been a possibility they'd already considered.  The next Spider-Man will be more contemporarily set, be darker and grittier in tone a la    The Dark Knight, and will be an updated -  if not unnecessary - origin story featuring a high school age Peter Parker. We read those plans to mean   'New' Spider-Man will be a direct appeal to the Twilight-set, skewing for a complete storyline revamp rather than a further exploration of the wall-crawler's saga from the bountiful material available.  Dabblers, does that sound about right to you??

The extent of Sam Raimi's conflict with Sony may never be revealed, although we foresee a few dirty details will surface amid the spin before long. Although Maguire's stated he's all right to leave the role,  similar words from Sam Raimi present in Sony's press release yesterday just can't be believed.  Neither can the words of  Sony Pictures' Chairman and CE Michael Lynton:  "We have always believed that story comes first.”  Not only does his statement deign poorly on Raimi's abilities, but indeed the whole turn of events, which together suggest Sony's more concerned about making money than treating Spider-Man with the hero's characteristic responsibility. 

Prior to Disney's August 31st announcement to buy Marvel, Variety reported that rejuvenating Spider-Man was crucial for Sony lest it loose the franchise.  Now with Disney on stage, Sony is hyper-aware that a failure to keep Spider-Man fresh will result in their superhero's migration to the Mouse.  We've got no doubt that the fear of a 'Disney World' is one Sony, and now Spider-Man, won't shake -- at least until 'New' Spider-Man scores at the box office. And even then, not completely.

Speaking of that future box, the Spider-reboot is on the calendar for a Summer 2012 release.  Sony expects to have its tween-aged Peter Parker  -- and a new director  -- within the next several weeks, and promises more announcements to come. 

What we've got coming for you is the entirety of Sony's Press Release from Monday. [link] Give it a read then leave us your Back Issues! We want to know what you're thinking about 'Next' Spider-Man -- thumb's up or thumb's way, way down?  Are we abbracadabbling on target,  or have we been unnecessarily negative?? We can't meet your needs if you don't talk to us, so get spinning, guys. We'll keep you posted as news is invented by powers that be. Excelsior! 

GREAT POWER, ZERO RESPONSIBILITY: SPIDER-MAN 4 IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL

Our Spidey-sense has been going ape-@#%! all week, and even a Friday night can't keep the Wallcrawler's  sticky situation from getting even stickier.  We should say that superficial scans of the the last two days' Spider-press would make it seem so; but cut through all that layered webbing, and things are far more dire.

While most reports have boiled the film's main conflict down to, well, what the movie's real story is or should, could, or needs to be, the one commonality among them all is that Spider-Man 4 has no story.  That's The Dabbler reading between the lines, which is more than one could do with 4's non-existent script.  

Getting beyond that 'concern', an email from Josh R. Jaggars, Spider-Man 4's Senior VFX Producer, was brought to the media's attention yesterday afternoon, in which the executive encourages his VFX crew "...to look for other work.  If/when the situation changes, either Rachelle, Spencer, or I will be in touch..." Forgive us if we're wrong, but that sounds like those folks have been laid off -- probably the motive for the email leak in the first place.  This at the same time Sony Pictures is engaging in the Spider-spin one might expect.

In our opinion, matters were made only worse today by two people whose intentions were exactly the opposite -- namely, 'Spider-Man' himself, Tobey Maguire, and actor Willem Dafoe, the first movie's 'Green Goblin'.   Promoting his current movie, Daybreakers, Dafoe commented he'd be very willing to reprise his role as Spider-Man's foremost nemesis, the subtext then being that a storyline -- and script - would both be easier to (a) write and (b) agree upon by using a more tried-and-true approach.  Dafoe's gesture is well-meant, but it conjures pictures of someone offering chewing gum to patch a hole in the Titanic.  Spider-Man 4 is way beyond an easy fix; if it wasn't, we wouldn't be blogging right now.

In mid-December, when the Spider-Man rumor mill was working overtime about the casting rumors of 4's villains, Maguire was coy and had this to say: "In terms of Spidey 4, I will plead the Fifth and not say anything."  While interpreted to be keeping secrets, Maguire was really just being smart.  Today, however, Maguire addressed his film's delays as just being part of a (natural) process, one that, to paraphrase Tobey, is simply just more involved than those of other movies. 

Unfortunately, he then went on to dig himself in deeper:  "...the actor insists that there are great ideas coming from the Spider-Man creative team, including himself. Not only do I have specific ideas, but the ideas are evolving on the page, he said.  It's all happening right now. It's all sort of coming together. It's very exciting to me. I think the evolution of the character is really exciting, to be rooted in the history of what we've done already and to have a continuity, yet have a progression or evolution."

Assuming the disagreements between Raimi and Sony over the story and script are true -- which we have no reason to believe they're not -- we have to think that Sony's proverbial kitchen has  too many cooks in it without Tobey -- not to mention that same kitchen isn't just hot, it's on fire.  We also can't conceive the movie's 'creative team' can solve disputes previous screenwriters have been dismissed over; few directors -- even likable Sam Raimi -- would get talent involved in a dispute of this caliber.  It's not wise, and it's certainly not in Tobey Maguire's job description.  

Ultimately, Maguire said a lot today while somehow not really saying anything at all.  We didn't think we had this much to say about Spider-Man 4 today, either.  Perhaps everyone involved, for least to greatest, should consider what their 'great responsibility' is in this matter.  For Spider-Man 4 tonight,those two words are sounding hollow, indeed.

Spider-Man 4: A Tangled Web of Rumors and News

With everyone's attention focused on next May's Iron Man 2 as well as Thor, Marvel's leading big-budget franchise, Spider-Man, has quietly moved behind the current Hollywood hysteria. Now, there are hints that may be changing. However, hard facts are still as tough to come by as they've been since Sony Pictures made the announcement last March that Spider-Man 4 would indeed be made, and that the film's scheduled premiere date would be May 6th, 2011.  

Both the studio and Spider-Man director, Sam Raimi, were quick to confirm that Tobey McGuire and Kirsten Dunst would be reprising their roles as Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson, respectively, as early rumors floated for a good month after the film was announced that both actors may not actually sign for a fourth film. But once news that the primary cast members had sealed the deal, the Spider-camp again fell rather quiet, while speculation bubbled about which villains Spidey would face his fourth time at bat.

The Springfield Home Office watched Spider-Man 3 again this afternoon, and we, like most Spider-fans, have pegged the 2007 film as the worst of the bunch, leagues beneath the quite exceptional second installment. The movie was over-zealous at best; while trying to meet fans head-on by including the extremely popular Venom in the cast, the film quickly became over-saturated with villains -- four, to be exact. This stretched the movie's storytelling too thin, and the film lost what Spider-Man, on the screen or the page, does best -- character. Spider-Man's universal appeal stems from his personal struggles of duty and responsibility while trying to live a normal, teenage life, and these necessarily fell to the wayside to make room for Hollywood wide-screen action.

Raimi himself has openly acknowledged Spider-Man 3's short-comings, and has admitted that the third film taught him much about the importance of having limitations and of getting to the point in his movies. 

In interviews with First Showing.net as well as The Los Angeles Times, Raimi has mentioned that his fourth movie will again focus on the one thing he loves most about Spider-Man - his uniquely touching character. "I'd like to really make a great picture with him and bring the character to life at a level of detail that I've never realized before," Raimi told The Times. A concurrent interview with SciFiWire added the fact that Raimi's long wanted to keep Spider-Man more of a character-driven film than the action-driven movie 3 was, and that this factor was what convinced McGuire to reprise his wall-crawling role. For Raimi, Spider-Man 4 is, first and foremost, about getting back to basics.

Raimi has mentioned little about which members of Spider-Man's well-stocked Rogue's Gallery would be popping up in 4, and perhaps understandably so. On the one hand, some believe that Raimi was pressured by Marvel Studios CEO and founder Avi Arad to include the super-popular Venom, which has caused the movie's ratings to plummet and the overall appeal of Spider-Man to suffer ever since. Most notably, Spider-Man 3 earned less domestically than either of the first two movies, and was panned by most critics.

S,o villains may have been a somewhat touchy subject for Raimi from the outset. On the other hand, Spider-Man has to reclaim respect from fans, and after being dethroned in 2008 by Jon Favreau's Iron Man as Marvel's box office champ, it makes sense for Raimi to play cards close to the chest. If anything, he's got to do things right from the start, and leaking news to the rumor mill is not the way to do business.

(Also possible is that Disney's acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, first announced August 31st and now scheduled to be a done-deal come New Year's Eve, may have complicated matters somewhat. Disney's a powerhouse studio, and its sudden ownership of Marvel properties would be understandably threatening to Sony and any other studio already having pre-existing agreements with Marvel Entertainment. Sony did reassert its rights to the Spider-Man film franchise shortly after the Disney deal was publicized, and earlier this month, Disney officials stated that they're agreeable to Sony's Spider-Man movie rights.)

Since the end of August, Spider-Man 4 has moved well into its pre-production phase, with filming expected to begin this March. Bruce Campbell, who has enjoyed small cameos in every Spider-film to date, has been confirmed as returning for 4, and speculation later surfaced that he'd have a larger role in it, cast by several fan-driven websites in the part of Spider-Man nemesis, Mysterio. Also confirmed for 4 is Dylan Baker, whose minor role as Dr. Curt Connors has kept fandom wondering if his character will transform into its villainous alter-ego of The Lizard since the franchise began. Baker's only stated that while he will be in the next movie, his character will, as before, 'be keeping to the background'.

Actor Dylan Baker and his reptilian alter-ego, The Lizard

That may have been nothing more than deflection, as the groundwork has been laid for Baker's alter-ego to finally come front and center in Spider-Man. Not according to Movieline, a movie news and rumor web site that claimed December 9th that Sony has rethought any Lizard plans they might have had entertained, citing that the character's non-human appearance would be too much of a stretch for Spider-Man 4. Your favorite comicsblog would have to agree with Sony's new position, which likely stems from the lessons Venom taught the film's producers. Still, as it's never been clear that the Lizard had been green-lighted in the first place, Movieline's statement may be nothing more than damage control for the media-fueled rumor mill.

Being The Vulture: Will John Malkovich Get His Chance?

But the bigger news from Movieline's same Spider-Man report is that John Malkovich is now in negotiations with Sony for the role of the Vulture, one of Spider-Man's oldest enemies. The Vulture, who wears a exo-suit with wings and other gimmicks that, among other things, allows him to fly, made his first appearance in 1963, in Amazing Spider-Man #2. Unattractive and not as physically imposing as many of Spidey's other Rogues, the Vulture's been a mainstay comic book villain, yet one never taken all-too-seriously. But based on history alone, and the fact that Malkovich looks a perfect candidate for the character, Movieline's claims have the ring of truth -- at least, to us.

The website also reviewed recent rumors that Anne Hathaway is Sony's top contender for the role of the Black Cat aka Felicia Hardy, a sexy cat burglar and sometimes ally of Spider-Man's. It seems like Sony's been courting every starlet in Los Angeles for the role, from Julia Stiles to Rachel McAdams. But according to Movieline, the Felicia Hardy wouldn't be a 'Black Cat' on film, but a sidekick of sorts to Malkovich's Vulture. While such character tweaking wouldn't be unexpected, there's no comic book precedent for it, and the Black Cat is too much of a fan boy fave to be screwed with to the extent Movieline's reported.

Felicia Hardy aka The Black Cat and potential contender Anne Hathaway

Other than a mountain of unsubstantiated and mostly implausible rumors, Sam Raimi's interviews are all that exist to support any claims about what audiences should expect to see in Spider-Man 4. There's no reason not to believe what the director's said to date, and his intentions for his next film should be weighed against all outside claims. Some, like John Malkovich's role, ring true, while a drastic re-write of Felicia Hardy seems to conflict with Raimi's intentions of being more faithful to the characters his next time around. With all the Marvel movie news we've been hearing lately, none of us will likely have to wait long before Spider-Man's most dangerous rumors are finally put to rest.

Or will they? Is John Malkovich going to be flying after Tobey McGuire in 2011, and will Anne be at his side? Or have the rumors just gotten way, way out of control? And what about Sam Raimi -- do we believe him? Does he have the clout to make the movie he wants, or will someone else really be calling the shots? Dabblers, abbracadabbling wants to hear from you -- so let's get the conversation going! Share your Back Issues with us today!