Sony has just axed McGuire and Sam Raimi in favor of rebooting the franchise. This includes sending Peter Parker back to his high school days. Release date set for 2012.
This makes absolutely zero sense to me. I understand there are script disagreements going on right now, but this is utter BS.
...But upon reflection - you realize it was going to happen someday. Tobey was eventually going to be too old, and what not.
And I would like to see what a Spider Man film would look like without Sam Raimi's hypercaffeniated style. We have seen reboots work almost without fail for years now - it saved the Batman franchise.
So now Harry Osborn & Eddie Brock can get handled differently, in some new films.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
Yeah, it was bound to happen someday. Almost every franchise out there goes through a reboot at somepoint, there's just a few key problems here.
1. The franchise isn't even 10 years old yet, in fact, it's not even 8 years old. Now I know there's no rule that states there needs to be a certain amount time, but really? McGuire hasn't "outgrown" the role. He's still young.
2. What's the point? In all seriousness, wiping out the last 3 films now destroys the progression that has been made over the last 8 years.
Do we pretend that GG, Doctor Ock, Sandman, Venom, Harry, MJ, Aunt May, do we pretend this never happened now?
I know Spider-Man 3 wasn't the best film ever. The first 2 were far better, but it was still better than the bulk of superhero movies they are putting out there today. The fact is, this franchise has so much potentital to build upon. For example, Peter/MJ....honestly, after 8 years of investing interest in these characters, their last scene is a make up dance at a club????? If I felt like Spider-Man 3 brought closure, than fine. No big deal, but we have a franchise that has ended on such a weak note that it feels like any investment we've made is completely lost. The 3 movies Raimi did are now a trilogy, and one that is incomplete. We don't know how MJ and Peter end off, we'll never see Dylan Baker as the Lizard, we'll never see when Peter is forced to bury Aunt May...so many things left untold, and in my mind, you can't tell the untold things from this franchise in a completely rebooted one. Everything starts from scratch. Technically you can, but it doesn't bring closure to these set of characters.
If the studio would have let Raimi do his job, he could have put out a spectacular 4th installment, but they needed to have another zillion villians so they can manufacter more action figures. When Raimi finally wised up and said "that's it, I'm done" the studio does a major cop out by saying, lets just ignore these last 3 movies that Raimi did and restart.
In that case, JJ Abrahms should say "forget the last Star Trek, the next one is a redo." God almighty. And yeah, I know the last Star Trek was a reboot, but Star Trek has had years and years without movies with a running cast and crew.
I'm sure not all were pleased with Raimi's depiction of the Spider-Man series. Some are probably very happy about the reboot, and I respect your opinions 100 percent. I'm just stating how I feel.
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I like George.
Last edited by Sith Master X on Jan 12th, 2010 at 06:32 AM
Spiderman 1 and 2 were good movies. But still I felt that Spiderman wasnst funny enough. Part 3 was bad imo. Sometimes reboots are not a bad idea. Hulk was a good one in my eyes.
But there are reboots that are completely BS like Brand New Day
The fourth instalment of Spider-Man has been cancelled after its main star Tobey Maguire and director Sam Raimi quit over reported problems with the script.
Their decision is forcing Columbia Pictures to rewrite the script and, instead of being a continuation of the films created by Raimi, the next Spider-Man movie will be a reboot of the franchise.
A new director and main actor are yet to be revealed, but James Vanderbilt has already written a possible script, reports Variety.
Despite denials over the last couple of months that the film was in trouble after the shooting date kept getting pushed back, it was clear to many that there were disagreements behind the scenes. Rumours had surfaced that Columbia Pictures wasn’t happy with Raimi’s choice of the film’s main villain – Spider-Man’s classic arch nemesis The Vulture.
It isn’t the first time that Raimi has clashed with the studio over villain choices. It’s well known that Raimi never wanted to include modern-day favourite Venom in the series, preferring to use characters from the ‘60s comic books. However, he compromised in the third Spider-Man film by cramming in Sandman, Venom and the Green Goblin. Despite it being a massive box office hit, Raimi was particularly hurt by the critical mauling of the film and conceded he wouldn’t attempt to include as many villains in the fourth film.
Following his exit he said in a statement, “While we (Maguire and I) 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 is now expected to begin work on the big screen adaptation of the video game World of Warcraft.
Raimi was pushing hard on doing the Vulture in SP 4 - something I was lukewarm about. I wanted to see the Lizard finally get his turn - and it could have opened the door for a character like Kraven the Hunter, if it becomes about hunting down and capturing Curt Conners/Lizard.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
Gender: Male Location: Welfare Kingdom of California
It was pretty obvious that Raimi was NOT going to change the pace of the Man-Spider Movie (tribute to Mr Parker) and that fourth film with the same formula, new villains, and cheesy scenes would have driven this franchise down the pipes of the toilet.