Spider-Man 5 and 6 News

Spider-Man News. Does Anyone Even Care?

By TK | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (29)

Ugh. I guess someone has to write about Spider-Man sequel news. Might as well be me, given my comic book geekiness.

So, James Vanderbilt, who wrote Zodiac and the forthcoming The Losers, has been tapped by Sony to write a fifth and sixth Spider-Man film. What’s that you say? There’s no fourth Spider-Man film? Well, according to Dark Horizons, Vanderbilt was hired to write Spidey 4, but director Sam Raimi didn’t like his script, and has heavily re-written it. Instead, “if none of the original cast/crew wants to comeback,” he will write an interconnected storyline for the fifth and sixth films, which haven’t even been technically greenlit yet, that might actually end up being more of a reboot than a sequel.

Great. There is zero good news. Raimi, who got back in our good graces with his phenomenal Drag Me To Hell, has a lot to answer for after the absolutely horrid Spider-Man 3. The fact that he’s doctoring scripts, and might not come back for a fifth, all leads to some very murky territory. Frankly, I think that, much as I love Raimi, it’s time for him to give the reins over to someone else. The first two Spider-Man films were good-to-decent, but I’ve got zero faith in the franchise at this point. Seriously, both the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises have successfully devoured themselves after their third entries (and please God, let me forget that Wolverine ever happened). Some fresh blood might be in order, and Vanderbilt clearly is a solid writer, so… we’ll see.

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Comments

Boooooo!

Posted by: Snath at August 19, 2009 10:51 AM

I was all pumped about some Spider-Man musical news. Like, it was coming back. I think I'm the only one in the world that was actually a little excited about it.

Whatever.

I'm gonna go listen to A Chorus Line and imagine it's taking place in the Marvel Universe.

Posted by: Ian at August 19, 2009 11:07 AM

Superhero Fights Bad Guy(s), Superhero Wins IV, V and VI.

Yawn.

Posted by: , (the commenter formerly known as bucdaddy) at August 19, 2009 11:09 AM

It's no coincidence that SM 1 and 2 were relatively close to the source material - that is, to plotlines published in the comics. Sure, they tweaked and massaged and updated, but he fundamental dynamic was there. SM 3 and X Men 3 both strayed pretty far from the source material and they sucked.

Now, this isn't the rant of a purist. My point is far more practical. The bottom line is, comics are FREE MARKET RESEARCH. If a storyline has endured and is beloved and sticks out in the memory of fans, its more likely ceteris paribus that its because its an above-average story, or that it at least has compelling elements. Seriously, duh. Why toss decades of free research by studiously stripping away the elements of the stories as they occurred in the comics?

Fuck Spider Man 3, fuck X Men 3, fuck all these motherfuckers, seriously.

Posted by: Landon at August 19, 2009 11:29 AM

Superhero Fights Bad Guy(s), Superhero Wins IV, V and VI.

Until Superhero dies somewhere down the line in an attempt to jumpstart his/her popularity again by resurrecting them in a flashy crossover special.

Posted by: Snath at August 19, 2009 11:30 AM

On the contrary: That's very good news. The only useful parts of the first three movies were the first hour of Spiderman I and the parts where Alfred Molina had screentime. The rest was worthless shit, littered with incompetent or bored actors.

Posted by: FabMax at August 19, 2009 11:33 AM

As an architect and amateur filmmaker, I'm a huge fan of "making of" books for genre films. Not the decorated screenplays you see sometimes but the ones covering the artwork and the design process that results in what we see on the screen. One of the best I've seen is ironically from a shitty movie: Revenge of the Sith. J. W. Rinzler's "Art of" and "Making of" books together present a surprisingly candid and very detailed timeline of what went into making that film (suck). We joke about Lucas not having a script, but it's there in black and white as a point of pride in the ability to "fix it in post" on the digital backlot, negating any need to lock down or even complete a coherent narrative before shooting began.

The book telling the tale of how Spider-Man 2 was made, however, surprised the hell out of me. I enjoyed the film and felt it was a great improvement over the first Spider-Man picture, which I also liked, but it appears from the book that Raimi got a blank check and a greenlight and was told to go make the Spider-Man 2 that he wanted. And he did, plunging headlong into the feature, creating the Ell train chase scene before fleshing out any of the rest of the story. Now admittedly, that's not a very esoteric sequence that he'd be hard pressed to fit into the narrative later on, but it's odd to see something that great come from such a crazy start, albeit one with a great creative atmosphere.

The third Spider-Man to me suffered mostly from taking the villains too far out of the realm of believability. I agree that maybe they tried to do too much in the third one, but that could have worked if the story had been easier to swallow. I haven't had the heart to rad the Making of book for Spider-Man 3, but I'm grudgingly curious to find out if it yields any more insight into why this film went wrong.

It's perhaps telling that Mark Cotta Vaz didn't return to write the third book, and instead one of the producers did. I remember thumbing through it and thinking it read a little too much like a promo piece and not nearly as much like the McVaz books as it should have.

I hope there's a chapter in the next one called "bringing the Lizard to life" and I hope I actually want to read it after I've seen the film.

Posted by: laredo at August 19, 2009 11:51 AM

Please no reboots! Just make another movie and press on.

Posted by: John W at August 19, 2009 12:26 PM

The first two Spider-Man films were good-to-decent...

That is bullshit, and you know it TK, they were good movies. Yeah, they weren't as good as The Dark Knight, but they're still the best superhero movies of all time that weren't made by Christopher Nolan.

As for Spider-Man 3, that wasn't even a film, it's a synonym for disappointment. There couldn't possibly be another film ever made as disappointing as Spider-Man 3, never.

Posted by: George at August 19, 2009 12:55 PM

I think Spider Man and Superman suffer from the same thing and that is the lead actors couldn’t act their way out of a wet paper bag, with “Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” you had far superior actors in the lead roles. At best Tobey Maguire should be doing after school specials, and Brandon Routh don’t get me started on that guy. Routh’s talents would be better utilized as some woman’s love interest in a movie on the Lifetime network. You can have all the special effects you want but if the acting isn’t top notch it just won’t work.

Posted by: Guess Who! at August 19, 2009 1:03 PM

George, I was gonna let that go, but I've changed my mind.

I'm getting a little fucking tired of you taking your opinion and stating it as fact, and then bashing everyone who disagrees. Yes, I know everyone does it, but your constant, childish ranting is starting to get on my goddamn nerves.

Knock it the fuck off.

Posted by: TK at August 19, 2009 1:06 PM

*TK holds George's head as George does the I-can't-reach-you air punches.

Posted by: Ian at August 19, 2009 1:13 PM

i can wait to play another round of 'how bad can they eff up a spidey movie'.

wake me when final destination 4 is out.
*yawn*

Posted by: gp at August 19, 2009 2:12 PM

All of the Spiderman movies Fuuuhhh Ccckkhhhhing Suuuuuuck.

Posted by: Jackseppelin at August 19, 2009 2:41 PM

TK,

I gotta side with the kid on this one. If you are going to call SM 1 & 2 merely decent then what constitutes good in this genre? Besides the Batman Begins movies and The Incredibles, I can't name anything in the genre that is clearly better. Here are some movies I might put in the same class as SM1 & 2 (call it very good to excellent):

Superman 1&2
X-Men 1&2
Iron Man
Tim Burton Batman movies

Here are some that might fall just a notch below (good):

Darkman
Sky High (seriously!)
Unbreakable
Hellboy movies
Blade 2

and "decent" or better than average adaptations would include stuff like

Blade
The Incredible Hulk
The Crow

Anything below this would be more or less shit, though perhaps with some redeeming qualities.

Posted by: ed newman at August 19, 2009 3:21 PM

The fuckin’ balls on this kid.

Posted by: Guess Who! at August 19, 2009 3:45 PM

George, I see your Spiderman 3 and raise it by The Phantom Menance. Now there lies disappointment.

Posted by: Quorren at August 19, 2009 4:47 PM

George vs TK

Ooooooooo.

*grabs beer, popcorn, and a lawn chair*

This is about to get good. Or at least I hope it gets good. Someone do something already!!

Posted by: Deistbrawler at August 19, 2009 5:39 PM

I would put in both Fantastic Four films, but it would be an insult to real superhero films.

P.s. Jessica Alba's best performance could be to play a mannequin (I smell an Oscar).

Posted by: Corey W. at August 19, 2009 7:14 PM

But that's the thing, ed newman. You can argue it (and I do mean you and not me, because I'm not a fan of any of these movies). It's not definitely one way or the other. I think it's more the attitude behind the opinion as opposed to the opinion itself.

Besides, TK did say good-to-decent. As in, that includes good.

Posted by: S5aB8rina at August 19, 2009 8:39 PM

P.s. Jessica Alba's best performance could be to play a mannequin (I smell an Oscar).

Oh yeah, because that worked so well for Kim Cattrall. And Buffy The First. Mmm Swanson dinner...

Posted by: S5aB8rina at August 19, 2009 8:43 PM

George, I see your Spiderman 3 and raise it by The Phantom Menance. Now there lies disappointment.

This could be fun. I raise you this as a challenge Quorren.

The Phantom Menace was a fourth movie, something no one has ever done well, and George Lucas had never tackled at any point in his life. We were lucky he didn't cast Sly Stallone with the track record fourth movies have

Spider-Man 3 was a third movie, something that isn't done well often, but not only do great third movies exist (Return of the Jedi), but the film was directed by the high priest of the craft (Raimi directed Army of Darkness). Not only that, but the villain of the story was Venom, something that should have guaranteed an awesome film. Alas, Spider-Man 3 ended up pulling a... well Spider-Man 3.

Plus, the worst character in Phantom Menace, Jar Jar Binks, was never someone we cared about, whereas the worst character in Spider-Man 3, Emo Spidey, was the character we spent 2 films caring about, and had grown to like, now turned into a whiny little bitch that completely missed the point of what the symbiote was supp- osed to do to you in the first place.

Although, in fairness, I still totally love Raimi, and I understand Lucas hate, since Spider-Man 3 was redeemed by Drag Me to Hell, and Lucas disappointed his fans at least 5 times after Return of the Jedi, and with the sixth time coming up (Indy 5 was announced recently), I won't get in the way of your hatred. Feel free to keep up your wrath.

Posted by: George at August 19, 2009 9:10 PM

Posted by: S5aB8rina at August 19, 2009 8:39 PM

I'm really just more interested in TK's opinion of the top of the genre then in arguing. Because if SM 1&2 are merely decent to good that leaves very little room at the top, because there simply aren't many films that most folks will agree are better.

Basically he is saying the whole genre is shit, which is a valid opinion, but I just don't think that is what he meant to imply.

Posted by: ed newman at August 19, 2009 9:47 PM

George - many of the same points re: disappointment could be made about X-Men 3. I was never much of a fan of the first two Spider-man films - I never read the comics or liked the cartoons or cared that much about him, and nothing in the movies captured my interest, for some reason. Possibly because Tobey Maguire is annoying as hell.

The X-Men franchise, on the other hand, I loved - I was addicted to the 90s cartoon, I loved the first two films, and the third one looked at first glance like it could be amazing. I mean, they were finally tackling the Phoenix saga! And then...then, it just crapped out. They killed off or de-powered most of the central characters while making them wildly unsympathetic (Magneto is too stupid to realise that cruelly ditching Mystique might have some repurcussions? Professor X goes from nurturing leader to "Whatever, Logan, I don't have to explain my actions to any of you"?) and not only ruined that film, but left it so that the only continuation possible was the "Origins" films. Plus, they turned the whole Phoenix storyline into 30 seconds of particle-inducing rage. I mean, Jesus.

Posted by: Shay at August 20, 2009 6:05 AM

There couldn't possibly be another film ever made as disappointing as Spider-Man 3, never.

George, the above statement invalidates your opinion. Clearly you missed the major, life-altering disappointment that was The Phantom Menace. Ask any hard core Star Wars fan how they felt about that one.

Posted by: Melody at August 20, 2009 12:56 PM

Melody, I would hazard that statements like that are what separates George from our generation (I'm assuming you're in/near my age group of near 30-ish).

Posted by: Skewicide Blonde at August 20, 2009 1:00 PM

Spot on, Skewicide. I'm not a Star Wars freak, but I remember the masses sleeping outside the theater for days all dressed up like stromtroopers and stuff. I'd say that the disappointment of those people is far greater than that of Emo-Spider-Man.

Posted by: Melody at August 20, 2009 4:31 PM

not the best example to use with George, Melody. he wrote the book on phantom menace love.

Posted by: gp at August 20, 2009 7:00 PM

Nothing will ever be more disappointing to me than G.I. Joe. The 80's cartoon movie (and series)was more damaging than the current movie, but they all left me depressed for much longer than they should have,and skewed public perceptions of what G.I. Joe really is.

Posted by: AmbroseKalifornia at August 21, 2009 12:48 PM

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Spider-Man News. Does Anyone Even Care?

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