IESB is reporting that Spider-Man 4 (which they say is referred to as Spider-M4n in the production offices) has been halted as of last Thursday. The reason? Sony and Sam Raimi are fighting over the villain. The article claims that Raimi wants The Vulture to be the big baddie while Sony wants… well, anyone but The Vulture.
The site is also reporting that the Spider-Man 4 script is unfinished, largely because of the debate over the villain. I have to tell you that this sounds totally insane to me – why wouldn’t this have been hashed out earlier in the year, when writers like David Lindsay-Abaire and Gary Ross were, you know, writing the fucking movie? Sadly the level of insanity doesn’t debunk the story – I have heard way crazier pre-production stories on other films.
So what now? If this story is true, and I’m leaning towards really believing it is, this won’t get resolved before the Christmas break. Maybe when everybody gets back to town in January we’ll end up with a solution, but in the meantime the fate of Spider-Man 4 hangs in the balance. I wonder if this could be what finally gets Raimi off the series.
22 comments
surely they can do a deal? Raimi gets the vulture on 4 and then does as he's fucking told in 5?
Which is how we ended up with Venom in 3.
I'm sure there's more going on than just that. Raimi should just walk away at this point, he'll never stop getting screwed by the studio.
@Richard Dickson. You're absolutely right. This is what sank Spider-man 3. However, if Raimi is fighting it I guess that means that he doesn't want the same to happen again.
"I have heard way crazier pre-production stories on other films." I think this topic should be your next Devin's Advocate.
The Spider-man movie franchise has already been driven into the ground. REBOOT.
Raimi = Hey I think Vulture would make for a pretty formidable foe
Studio = no, our research says that the women were put off by the demise of James Franco in the last film, and Gwen Stacy's character didnt ignite the love triangle angle that we had hoped for.
Raimi = hmmm…
Which leads me to believe we'll see Black Cat for Spidey 4 SIGH
The Vulture sucks. Kraven the Hunter rules… How about actually having Doc Conners turn into the Lizard, Kraven comes to hunt him and Spidey isn't the center of the story?
Classic! Gonna have a whole new Venom debacle all over again. I can't wait to see the new trainwreck. I hope we get full on group dance numbers this time.
Why don't we all agree that the villain should be the one and only Nazi made of bees known as The Swarm!!
Don't we remember what happened last time they lessened Raimi's freedom on Spidey? Number 3, motherfuckers! Which wasn't anything more than half good! Learn for chrissakes!
… and here I thought Raimi and the cast were only returning so they could at least finish with the Lizard which had been hinted at for so long. It really ought to be a Lizard movie with maybe a bit of Black Cat subploting…
The vulture's a shitty villain. Are you sure you want Raimi to have complete freedom? Green Goblin seemed alright until he ended up looking like a power ranger. Doc Ock is a lame villain but he actually managed to make him pretty cool. But Vulture? Jesus, c'mon! It's an old dude who flies around. Does every villain have to fly around? Also, isn't there a chance he'll have a heart attack before Spidey catches him?
Just to reiterate the above – listening to what Sony and Arad wanted got us fucking Venom. Vulture would be great because he's a pure nasty bastard rather than fucked over by serum, or doing it for his daughter or science. Would be good to see Spidey vs someone who's just out and out a bastard.
Lizzard!
I just don't understand Raimi`s boner for the Vulture. He tried to work the character into SPIDER-MAN 3 too. Out of Spidey's entire rogue gallery, Vulture is second only to Electro in the Supreme Lameness Department. Like others have suggested, a Kraven/Lizard combo would be ideal. Hell, if all else fails, just resurrect Willem Dafoe. The return of Green Goblin Sr. might be a bad idea, but not nearly as bad as a goofy bald guy.
Am I the only person scratching their head that nobody is gunning for a Lizard & Kraven combo? I know Spider-man 3 botched the two villain thing but this is such a natural! Kraven hunts the Lizard but it could also lead into his whole replacing Spider-man and buring him alive deal that really messed with Spidey back in the day.
^ Agreed, Kraven/Lizard Combo would be amazing. And why the Vulture love? So one dimensional and boring. I wouldn't mind 2 villains, Rhino would be bad ass, hell I would love a sinister 6 storyline, but unfortunately they probably couldn't fit that much awesome in one movie.
People keep kvetching over how bad 3 was, but seem to forget the part where it made $336 million in domestic box office and had the highest opening weekend of all three films thus far. Clearly, the studio doesn't care whether it's good or not. They care about getting asses in seats.
If Transformers 2 can be the highest grossing movie of 2009, Spider-Man 4 could probably break $400 million at the domestic box office. Clearly the general public goes to see these movies anyway.
LOL
They should just end the series, wait a few years, and reboot. Sort of like how Batman Begins rebooted the Batman film franchise…you had one good movie, one decent movie, one borderline awful movie, and one completely horrific trainwreck.
With SM, you had one good, one decent, and one completely horrific trainwreck.
They should just let Raimi do what he wants – quality is the key to longevity, and if his heart is in it he gets great results. (ie, Spiderman 2.)
The BIG question…what does Sony want? Are they behind the "Vultress" garbage? While I don't care for The Vulture, god only knows what the studio wants…and to waste Malkovich on The Vulture when the man was born to play Osborne shows how half-ass the entire approach to this franchise has been. Reboot.
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