Raimi Walks on 'Spidey 4', Sony to Reboot Franchise

It appears that the Sam Raimi era is over for Spider-Man. Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Spider-Man 4, which has been twisting in the wind for months, has been pulled off the table by Sony. Raimi walks away from the franchise, as do the stars, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. "Sony Pictures co-chairman [Amy Pascal] and Columbia Pictures' Matt Tolmach decided they didn't want to replace [Raimi] and instead chose to reboot the franchise," writes Nikki Finke. "Insiders also tell me that Tobey Maguire heard the news in a phone call with Amy today. I'm told Tobey wasn't upset." There are a couple of considerations now. The first is, obviously, what happens with the franchise? Deadline says Sony will work from the script provided by James Vanderbilt and shoot for summer 2012. That was the first draft of Spidey 4, and Raimi farmed it out two additional times, which probably didn't help matters much from the studio side. Sony, in fact, had offered Vanderbilt (Zodiac) the job for the two follow-up movies once upon a time, so clearly, the money liked what it had out of the gate. But if that's the case, what happens to the advancement of the characters? "Reboot" has a certain connotation, and it's not "pick up where you left off." In addition to leaving a giant hole in 2011 for Sony (paging Ghostbusters), this also sets back the studio's plan for future installments in this series, unless a concurrent shooting schedule can be made for a couple of the installments. This is a big, big hit to Sony for the next couple of years. However, that's only part of the problem. In addition to finding a new director for a series most fans already thought was slipping and introducing a new Peter Parker to replace a damn good Peter Parker, there is still this whole Disney-Marvel arrangement. How long does Sony have the rights to this property? Is it an agreement for six films total, can Sony re-up each time, or does it have a certain period of time and then that's it? Obviously, Disney didn't buy Marvel without wanting to grab this character, so there could be more behind-the-scenes stuff here in the next few months. I simply can't fathom how a property with seemingly endless potential - for my money, it's one of the premiere franchise opportunities - falls apart like this. Granted, nobody wants another movie like Spider-Man 3, but whether it's Raimi or Sony who's to blame for that blunder (still a very profitable one, mind you), both of them should be big enough to let each side do its job. If anything, this just proves that both sides can lose a tug of war.

Comments

[Nelson]

just end this series

[Josh]

This seems like an odd business move. Yeah, the third movie was crap for the series, but it was still a gold mine for Sony and all involved. I've liked just about everything Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire have done, and felt that they had a chance to redeem this franchise. Like most successful franchises, I figured Spidey 4 through 6 was almost a done deal.

[Lillian James]

Thank God. Spidey 3 was bad enough. Not that I think a whole reboot is a good idea either. But whatever.

[rount rount]

yesss, all three were junk movies and this is wonderful news. Now maybe they can actually bring in something a little darker, cut out all that useless comic relief and make a good movie. Tobey and Kirsten were terrible casting choices and the directing was horrible. Spider-man was my favorite growing up, and this destroyed it for me.

[nick soapdish]

I liked maguire as peter parker, he did a good job, but there are other people who could pull it off. The stupid comic relief should definitely go. Spiderman could be a much darker character, he isn't dark like batman, but there are a lot of directions you can go to make spiderman a more interesting character. I'm ok with Sam Raimi walking.

[Tjei]

Just let Albert Pyun have his second go on this.

[Ramsay]

I've always wanted a darker Spiderman series, so this could be good news for us Spidey fans. I've always like Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, but I think they could find a better replacement if they go the darker route.

My concern is this: how can they call it a reboot if they are still using the original script from SM4? Probably not the direction I was hoping a reboot would go, and probably not a reboot I would enjoy.

[Psyko Tek]

a little darker?
A LITTLE DARKER?

you want dark get the bat
get wolvie
get sin city

spidey ain't dark
spidey's a smart ass
spidey is a guy with self doubts that fights crime and tries to pay rent

enough of the it needs to be darker
just find a great series arc and story board it
just like rodrigez did in sin city

but enough of this dark gritty shit
use the character as what made him popular

not for the next Spirit