Last night the Golden Globes allowed for plenty of updates about the new Spider-Man reboot. Rumored director Marc Webb shared what he'd like to see from Spidey, and we found out yet another reason why Spidey was killed.
New York Magazine's Vulture blog has the inside scoop on the massive chaos happening behind the scenes on Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4, and why it was eventually canned by Sony. We know that Raimi's overall hatred for the current script delayed the filming process — he wanted John Malkovich to play The Vulture, but nobody else wanted the Vulture as the main villain.
Turns out it wasn't just script problems that killed Spidey 4, it was Avatar. After the film came out
Raimi wanted all sorts of envelope-pushing CGI (though not 3-D, which the studio was considering). Such effects would take more money and, just as crucially, more time. But the studio, whose corporate parent Sony must answer to Wall Street, had set a strict May 6, 2011 release date, and missing that date would mean depriving Sony of a billion dollars in revenue. "Every movie is a power struggle," explains one producer on the Sony lot familiar with the fracas. "But the tipping point was that Sam wanted to do certain things that would push the envelope in terms of [special effects] ‘toys' and other visual stimulation, and Sony didn't feel that was essential to the franchise."
And to top it all off, Raimi wanted to end the movie exactly the same as Spider-Man 2. With Tobey quitting his Spider-Man job Yet Again. He breaks up with Mary Jane and falls in love with a new woman — who turns out to be the Vulture's daughter. After Spidey kills the Vulture, she dumps him, and he's so depressed, he quits being Spidey again. I think we can all let out a collective sigh that this film didn't go through.
In other news indie-director darling Marc Webb dropped a little hint to MTV about where he would take the Spider-Man series, if given the chance to direct. The potential Spidey director side stepped questions about whether he's actually doing the film, but responded like so when asked if he was a fan:
"Of course," Webb told MTV News when asked if he was a fan of Spider-Man. "Stan Lee, big fan ... love the 'Ultimate [Spider-Man]' stuff."
We'll have to wait and see, but we'd really love to see what Webb could do with the Ultimate Spider-Man version. Could be lots better than Spidey dating the Vulture's daughter.