Yeah, it's all very political. Peter's a high-schooler again? That might not be a bad thing... I just swear to God I'm going to scream if we have another hour of origin story to sit through.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Nikke Finke's a hard one to pin down. With the hiring of Variety's chief scoop-hunter Mike Fleming it'd be hard to argue that duo is anything but a juggernaut of Hollywood insider information. They've been wrong before... Finke recently made a mistake in a recent scoop about a film called NORTHERN LIGHTS where she said Tom Cruise was to play Taylor Lautner's father... Cruise is not involved and she promptly (and without mention) removed the Tom Cruise part of it.
But everybody makes mistakes and sometimes things that look like mistakes are really not mistakes, just changes in direction or misinformation (a lot of times intentional). It happens.
Finke and Fleming's first big scoop together is a doozy. They're claiming there was a big meeting at Sony today where it was decided to halt Spider-Man 4 after Sam Raimi told them he can't make the release date and make the movie he wants to. Sony decided to reboot the series instead of wait, it seems.
What it sounds like to us here at AICN is that Raimi learned a big lesson with the reaction to Spider-Man 3 and he wasn't going to be forced into doing a sequel that wasn't ready and his cast stood behind him. And now it appears Sony thinks the brand is more valuable than Raimi and Tobey Maguire.
Yeah, it kind of sucks and I hope that a "reboot" doesn't mean we have to get yet another origin story told, but honestly... if the studio was forcing Raimi in unreasonable ways I'd rather see him and Maguire leave the series than do another Spider-Man 3.
Finke and Fleming says James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) will script the reboot. Vanderbilt also did a pass on an earlier draft of Spidey 4 and is attached for further sequels.
So, what does this mean? If the studio is smart they'll go after someone like Neill Blomkamp and do for Spider-Man what Warner Bros did for Batman. Blomkamp in particular has proven he can balance visual effects, drama and comedy, which is kind of the perfect match for Spider-Man's adventures. However if Raimi left over creative differences and his inability to compromise with the suits I can't imagine they'd be willing to give an up and comer the freedom he'd need to make a real honest to God awesome Spider-Man movie.
Also... please, just continue the series. Don't give us a new Green Goblin/origin retelling. The Incredible Hulk had the right idea, I think. The character is iconic, we just want a good movie. Kraven's Last Hunt, perhaps? Or something totally new... Just no retreads.
So, what do you folks think about this development? It might be the best thing for the series or when it goes past the point of no return for the franchise. If they hire a working director that'll just pump out a product (an X3 or Wolverine: Origins comes to mind) it could be a disaster, but if this reboot opens the door for a visionary to reinvent this series then it could be just the shot in the arm these movies need.
And I don't know about you, but I'd much rather see Sam Raimi making movies he's passionate about, where he has a level of creative freedom he's comfortable with.
We'll keep an ear to the ground on this one and let you know what develops over the next weeks.
-Quint
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