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SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed - Update: Raimi/Maguire out, reboot in

JacksonArcher

JacksonArcher

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There was speculation, but now it is confirmed.

Variety has confirmed reports that Sony Pictures has indeed postponed production on Spider-Man 4 so that more work can be done on the script.

Gary Ross, David Lindsay-Abaire and James Vanderbilt previously wrote drafts of the screenplay, and the trade says that Alvin Sargent is now "retooling the story." Sargent worked on the scripts for both the second and third Spidey movies.

Back in December, ComingSoon.net's SuperHeroHype was told by the studio that the production was not on hold but that they were simply on hiatus for the holidays and that production would resume in the new year. Obviously, that is not the case.

Sony still has the movie scheduled for a May 5, 2011 release (not May 6 or May 11 as some sites are reporting), but Variety adds "that date has become highly unlikely."

"We'll try, but I think making May is a real question," a source told the trade. "We will not start until we have it right. The feeling is we are not going to rush it to make the date."
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http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=62126

I'm all for this if that means Sony & Raimi can get it right.
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

Most movies don't have enough time spent on the script, so this sounds like good news to me.
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

I wonder what Raimi's deal on Warcraft is and whether he's locked into a time frame.
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

Jesus. I never realized how hard it was for them to write a decent script. They should just avoid doing the things that happened with Spider-man 3. ;)
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

No suprise. If the writers and studio are still feuding over who the villains might be, the movie is obviously nowhere near ready to start filming.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

T'Baio said:
I wonder what Raimi's deal on Warcraft is and whether he's locked into a time frame.
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If he's locked into a time frame with Warcraft it would likely be to deliver the film for a summer 2013 release at the earliest, so if Spider-Man 4 is pushed back a few months and released in July 2011 rather than May then it wouldn't interfere with Warcraft. And if the next shoe to drop with Spider-Man 4 is that it's being delayed a full year to summer 2012 then I suspect Raimi will walk away from the franchise and a new director will take over.
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

Come on Star Trek get that script done (good one) and we can have May again to ourselves mostly...Nikki Finke reports says July 2011 earliest for Spidy 4.
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

This is from Drew McWeeny at Hitfix (formerly Moriarty at AICN):

It was IESB that first ran the story that there was something wrong with the development on "Spider-Man 4." I picked the story up because I was hearing the same thing from some of the FX guys who were supposed to work on the film, but I couldn't source it past them. Since that first story ran, I've been hearing some really terrible things about what's going on between Sam Raimi, the studio, and the writers, and I've been starting to wonder if there's any chance they can reach an agreement that will make all involved parties happy.

Today, Nikki Finke is running the story, along with a copy of the internal memo that was sent to all the FX guys when they were told that there was an indefinite delay on the film.

Here's the thing... they'll make another "Spider-Man" film. No doubt about it. But that doesn't mean it'll be a sequel to the films we've already seen, and there's no guarantee it will involve Sam Raimi or Tobey Maguire or anyone connected to the first three films. There may come a point where the studio realizes it's not going to happen, and they make the choice to move on and simply reboot the whole thing. There were talks about doing exactly that, far from the ears of Raimi and company, before they even started to develop scripts this time around, and I would imagine some of those conversations are starting to happen again as they reject draft after draft.
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Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

"We'll try, but I think making May is a real question," a source told the trade. "We will not start until we have it right. The feeling is we are not going to rush it to make the date."
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I wonder if FOX STUDIOS will take note of statements like this? Doubtful.

I hope the delay is short lived. I'd like to see another Spidey by at least 2012. Maybe it'll come out around the time Marvel Studios has an Avengers film out. Now that would be a summer!
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

I wonder if they almost would be better served by doing sort of what Favreau did with Iron Man and get a few of the comics writers on board to help out. Even though I dislike some of what he did, JMS wouldn't be a bad guy to have on board at least he's one of the few spider-man writers who has written for movies and knows how to make something filmable.

Although, I for one, hope they don't do a full on reboot. We don't need another origin movie so soon. Spider-Man 1 and even 2 to a lesser extent hold up pretty well and the original Spider-Man captured the origin perfectly. If they did maybe a sort of Incredible Hulk-esque thing and just sort of tell a basic origin in the opening credits and then just pick it up wherever Pete is now. I mean I think they can keep the events of the past 3 movies, retconning only slightly. Harry can still be dead. Gwen can still be alive. Actually really... if they couldn't get Dunst and Maquire back and honestly I DO hope they don't come back. They could even have Pete and Gwen dating and MJ could have gone off to Europe or something. Just keep it basic and yet tell it really well. The number of villans in the piece can be higher I mean you can have him fight more than one super powered nutjob at once, just don't go into a huge origin for each of them. Start out with him beating up say... the Shocker or some other lower tier baddie. Then maybe build up to the main baddie in the piece, Mysterio could be done very well in a movie nowadays. Or even the Chameleon and Kraven the Hunter.. classic Stan Lee bad guys.
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

I've said it before, but I'll repeat it. When Raimi was left to his own devices to do Spider-man as he wanted, we got two great movies. In particular, Spider-man 2, the best of them, is the most Raimi-esque, with its Evil Dead-like scenes where Doc Ock's tentacles fuse with him.

The least good one is no. 3, where Avi Arad imposed a villain Sam always said he didn't want to use (Venom) and they vetoed his original choice of Vulture as the secondary villain. Laura Ziskin came up with the silly jazz club scene (much less entertaining than anything in the Fast Show ...)

You'd think it'd be a no-brainer that Raimi would thus be allowed to do Spidey 4 as he sees fit, but nope, the studio is too arrogant to learn from its mistakes. Thus we have this debacle.

I've actually been thinking for some time that Spidey 4 would be a quasi or semi-reboot. Not so much a Batman Begins, out-and-out new take on the character, more a Batman Forever - new cast (in the leads, at least) and new people behind the cameras, probably a new direction or tone. The new movie, like Batman Forever, could ostensibly be a sequel to its predecessors but not have to refer to the events of the earlier ones (not too explicitly anyway).

Supporting characters might return, especially JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson. But Tobey is heading to his mid-30s now, way too old to be playing a character generally meant to be a teen. Neither he nor Kirsten have voiced any great excitement or anxiety to return to their roles. And the Batman movies, like the Bond, Superman and even the new Star Trek ones, have shown that no actor is irreplaceable in any part. Or any director, for that matter.

One thing's for sure - given the money that the first 3 made, there will definitely be a fourth.
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

Jax said:
Come on Star Trek get that script done (good one) and we can have May again to ourselves mostly...Nikki Finke reports says July 2011 earliest for Spidy 4.
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But what if Spidey 4 gets bumped all the way to May 2012, which is when I would bet that Paramount wants to fit in Trek 2? Or is there already something scheduled this far out for early/mid May 2012?
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

^ He meant that the next nuTrek film is slated for release mid-2011, and having Spiderman 4 out of the way would mean less competition for nuTrek.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

T'Baio said:
I wonder what Raimi's deal on Warcraft is and whether he's locked into a time frame.
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Likewise. I hope this fooling about with Spiderman doen't delay that film overmuch.
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

I don't get SONY on holding up to put there vision in the script. I agree that their meddling gave us the imperfect third entry with a hurried Venom.

Sony executives are awaiting a new version of the script for Spider-Man 4 before committing to a new date for the start of production, Nikki Finke reported on her DeadlineHollywood.com website on Tuesday. She quoted a source as saying that it was unlikely that the film will be ready for release on May 11, 2011 as previously scheduled. Meanwhile, today's (Wednesday) Hollywood Reporter reported that studio execs and director Sam Raimi are at loggerheads over the villain in the movie, with a succession of writers trying to "marry" the viewpoints of the two sides. The trade publication, which did not cite sources, said that production could still begin by this summer and, if so, could make its planned release date by the following May.
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So what I want to know is this:
Do Sam and Sony have different villains?
If so are we repeating the mistake of Spidey 3?
If not is it how the arc is handled? If that how different are the arcs?

Sony and Avi combined did more to mess up Spidey 3. I agree with Captaindemotion that when left to do it his way Sam gave us to really good Spiderman movies. Why the hubris by Sony? I can only assume they dismiss their meddling as the reason(s) that Spidey 3 didn't do better(even though its total was $300m+).
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

Trent Roman said:
^ He meant that the next nuTrek film is slated for release mid-2011, and having Spiderman 4 out of the way would mean less competition for nuTrek.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
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Ah...I was thinking that Trek 2 was almost definitely a 2012 release...
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

It's amazing that after three hugely commercially successful films that Sony just can't leave Raimi alone.
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

Did Sony see Drag Me to Hell?
He did that without any studio interference.
Great movie!
Sony write the checks, step back for 14months then start counting the $$$ as it rolls in. It really should be that simple. The man's track record on Spidey and of late bears that out.
 
Re: SPIDER-MAN 4 officially delayed

Sony has to make this movie soon or the movie rights will revert back to Marvel (Which is now owned by Disney) won't they? Was that just the X-men movies?
 
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