The big news of the day is - Sam Raimi, out. Tobey McGuire, out. Presumably Kirsten Dunst and James Franco are gone too (although rumour was Dunst was going to be written out of the script in #4 anyway).
That's the state of play for the as-yet-unnamed Spiderman: Reboot film. Both Raimi and McGuire apparently quit of their own accord, but in Raimi's case it was innevitable as there was conflict between himself and Sony that has been simmering for some years. In Spiderman 3 Raimi wanted to use the Vulture while Sony pushed him to use Venom, which in hindsight if Raimi had his way he could've saved the emo-fest that the film degenerated into. This time around he again wanted to use the Vulture as played by John Malkovich, but Sony wants to use Black Cat and several other villains.
Sony has now opted to make a prequel film, but to be honest I really don't know how that's going to work. Sony have said that the current script "focuses on a teenager dealing with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises" (rolls eyes). But seriously, how do you make a prequel film unless you slate it between films 1 & 2 and hope nobody notices the change in actors? Spiderman gave the origin of how Peter Parker became Spiderman, so an origin story is out of the question.
Maybe this film will make more sense when we have a theatrical trailer, but right now I just can't see any openings in the Spiderman franchise where you can slot in a full-blown story.
Not prequel, reboot (think Batman Begins after the disaster that was Batman & Robin).
So the new film they're planning will have no connection to the previous 3 films that were directed by Sam Raimi. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a connection made between the reboot and the current slate of Marvel films (Iron Man 1 and 2, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and The Avengers).
I agree, its probably the same thing they did with "The Incredible Hulk" so they can add some sort of reference to nick fury, SHIELD or the Avengers. Im really glad they redid hulk, the first one with Bana was absolute crap, nortons hulk was alot better imo. Hopefully they do the same thing and make spiderman better, the first one was ok but the last 2 were pretty lame.
Cant wait for Cap! they had better do a good job or i will go supersoldier on their asses!
Yeah, I was thinking along the lines of the Incredible Hulk reboot.... or maybe Superman, which kinda ignored the latter Christopher Reeve movies, but iirc still treated events from the first couple of movies as being part of Superman's past.
The mother of all reboots has to be Bats though, which thankfully disregarded the entire quadralogy... Even though the first two were both good movies, looking back at them they seem really bad compared to the reboot franchise.
As has been said, a prequel wouldn't work.. how can you do prequels when most of these superhero movies show the origin in the first movie?... especially as Peter is still in school to begin with... The last time I watched a prequel superhero movie (Wolverine), it really didn't work for me.
There are a few key differences though between other reboots that don't work in Spiderman's favour:
Why it's different to Batman: Well, the Chris Nolan Batman films came about a long time after Batman & Robin, Batman Begins came out 8 years later, which was enough time for people to forget Batman. Before you point out that the new Spiderman will come out 11 years after the first Spiderman and 5 years after Spiderman 3, you have to remember that Batman went in a whole new direction from those camp 90's films. Batman became more serious and culturally-relevent, in that Batman was a plausible superhero in a plausible city, aided certainly by the dropping of Robin. A lot of people tend to credit the latest Batman films as the definitive Batman films, whereas I tend to feel certainly at this point in time and in two years time that the Toby McGuire trilogy will be the definitive Spiderman films. You also have to take Visual effects into account, unless they shoot the thing in 3D it probably will not look visually superior to Spiderman 3
Why it's different to the Hulk: The Incredible Hulk was a reboot, but it didn't exactly undo the work of Bana's Hulk. It opens with a montage of his breakout from the research laboratories, living overseas trying to find a cure for his ailment, something I guess that works with Bana's Hulk. Spidey isn't rebooting in a continuing-on kind of way, it's rebooting by wallpapering over the top, which could have implications as I said in my Batman spiel.
Well, there wasn't really much time between Hulk and its reboot, 5 years to be precise. By the time the Spider-Man reboot is released, that exact same amount of time will have passed between it and Spider-Man 3.
As long as they don't rehash the origin of Spidey again; we don't need the first 45 minutes or an hour of the film being wasted on going over it again. I think they'd be better off doing what they did with The Incredible Hulk and just cover the origin during the opening credits.
Website ©2011 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
All content, game titles, trade names and/or trade dress, trademarks, artwork and associated imagery are trademarks and/or copyright material of their respective owners. All rights reserved. [more info]
