No sooner had I posted news that John Malkovich had been cast as the villain for Spider-Man 4 than I get word that the entire troubled production has been shut down for good.
Spider-Man 4 has been plagued with serious script and scheduling problems, and Sony Pictures, reacting to the production's revelation that it would miss its scheduled start date and release date, has finally thrown up its hands and pulled the plug. In fact, in a startling case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, Sony has dumped not only Sam Raimi, director of the three hugely successful Spider-Man films, but stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst as well.
Instead, according to news reports, Sony Pictures wants to reboot the franchise, with Peter Parker back to being a high school student -- something Maguire was too old to pull off in the first movie. This may mean that anyone and everyone will be recast, from Harry to Aunt May to J. Jonah Jameson.
Parting of the Ways
Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal said this reboot would enliven the franchise and offer another opportunity to make box office history, which they evidently doubted would happen with the current Spider-Man 4. "We're very excited about the creative possibilities that come from returning to Peter's roots," she said, "and we look forward to working once again with Marvel Studios, Avi Arad, and Laura Ziskin on this new beginning."
In his public statement, Raimi was accommodating. "Working on the Spider-Man movies was the experience of a lifetime for me," he said. "While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job."
Raimi had reportedly been unsatisfied about the current state of the screenplay by Alvin Sargent, the third writer brought on by Sony to tackle the storyline, so perhaps he and Sony realized jointly that the the whole thing wasn't working. Sony, meanwhile, is eating a great deal of money invested already in abandoned scripts, preproduction, and initial CGI work.
Growing Dissatisfaction
Only 15 months ago Marvel and Sony, thrilled with the success of Iron Man, went ahead and signed Maguire to an extended Spider-Man deal involving at least a fourth and fifth picture. But even then there were rumors that Maguire was chafing at the role, and that the studio was pondering other possibilities.
In fact the latest word was the fifth movie was already going to be a reboot. According to EW, the studio had a script from James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) in hand. Vanderbilt's story is said to be a grittier, more contemporary retelling of Spider-Man's origins. That film would probably never have involved Raimi or Maguire anyway.
From this perspective, the failure of Spider-Man 4 simply means that the reboot is now being moved up.
The most alarming piece of news related to the reboot may be the rumor that one of the directors being considered is Michael Bay, who's once again a hot property in Hollywood thanks to the success of the Transformers movies.
Franchise in Trouble
It's certainly true that the last Raimi/Maguire film, Spider-Man 3, was by far the weakest the the three, thanks to the wedging in of Venom (Topher Grace) and Raimi indulging in more than his usual quantity of melodrama (Maguire sobbing over Harry's dead body was the easily most wince-inducing moment in the entire franchise). A new angle was definitely necessary. But does it follow that the entire franchise had to be scrapped and rebooted?
The blogosphere is reacting with a great deal of curiosity about the new direction. Some had written of the Raimi/Maguire franchise after Spider-Man 3, despite the pair's obvious talent and commitment. One writer, Peter Vonder Haar of the Houston Press, responded to the news by counting down, tongue in cheek, the five "real reasons" why Spider-Man 4 collapsed. Number 5 is actually true -- the fact that the franchise has already used up Spidey's best villains (though Carnage has potential, and we've been waiting for the Lizard since Dylan Baker's Curt Connors showed up in the second movie). Number 1, that cinematic perfection has already been achieved in Raimi's rendition of Emo Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3, was a little more facetious.
More details have yet to be made clear: for example, whether this new teenage Peter Parker will have any connection to the Maguire Peter (hard to see happening, since there will be a new origin story), or whether the Maguire pictures will be wiped from continuity.
The new Spider-Man movie has been postponed from 2011 to 2012.
