February 6th, 2008, posted by FofR | Digg This
The hour and a half show, Movie Geeks United, hosted at Blog Talk Radio, has a new episode discussing the latest movie release, Fanboy, and the upcoming Zodiac director’s cut - in which they interview the screenwriter James Vanderbilt. Of note to us Spidey fans, he talks about coming into the next Spiderman movie. Here are some choice quotes via Comics2Film:
“I went in on that. I really loved the films,” Vanderbilt said. “It’s sort of an odd process because you’re sitting down with the people who made the first three and going, ‘Well let me tell you what to do.’
But I was lucky enough that they were interested in me and I’m a huge fan of those movies, so we closed that up right before the strike. Once the strike’s over I get to go to work.”
November 28th, 2007, posted by FofR | Digg This
Comic Book Resource have been talking with Sam Raimi. I have extracted the Spiderman 4 parts of the interview for you here, though I recommend reading the full article as it gives an interesting insight into the thoughts and processes behind Raimi himself.
Do you have any inclination yet towards whether you’d like to produce or direct the next Spider-Man movie, or is too early to call?
Sam: I think that’s going to be up to Sony Pictures, and I think that it’s too early for them to say, actually. But currently I’m working on… well, not now, but as soon as the writers strike’s over… I’m going to begin working with a writer on the screenplay.
Is it important to you that the story follows on from the first three? I mean, how important is internal continuity to you? Can you go Evil Dead-style and change details a little bit, maybe change the story up a little bit?
Sam: If I was writing it I would have a very strong opinion about that, but we’re hiring a writer to come up with his own take. Sony was willing to go either way, we’ll just have to wait and see what the writer comes up with. I think anything’s possible, though.
I mean, there’s been so many different versions, it doesn’t have to follow the movies that we’ve made. I’d very much like to see Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, so I have a personal interest in that, but certainly anything’s possible. Spider-Man’s such a big character in the comic books that he could endure a lot of different interpretations. You could start over or you could start with a different aspect of the story than I’ve focused on in the pictures I’ve made, we’ll just have to wait and see what the writer comes up with.
Do you think the story will still be interesting if Spider-Man moves on and gets married? Because within the world of comics, a lot of writers complain that once he got married the stories weren’t as interesting, and the movies seem to be heading towards that. As someone who’s a married man and has a family, what do you think of this idea that he can’t be interesting once he’s married?
Sam: He’s most powerful to me as an adolescent. The thing that Stan Lee created that was so special was that he was a very young character, and he’s a kid trying to deal with these fantastic powers. The idea of being married counters that a little bit. It’s a place of accepted responsibility versus being on the road to learning responsibility. It’s associated with adulthood versus being the ultimate kid who’s a superhero. So it’s not that you couldn’t tell a good story with a married Spider-Man, but my favorite Spider-Man is the unmarried one.
November 12th, 2007, posted by FofR | Digg This
Wizard recently sat down with Sam Raimi to talk with him about the Spider-man trilogy, the DVD release and most importantly, what the future holds for himself and the spidey franchise:
Looking back, you’ve worked on Spider-Man in some way for nearly eight years. Has the excitement stayed with you?
RAIMI: I’m just as excited about the character, and so in that sense, yes. Although the physical energy level between how I felt before I started shooting versus what was left of me on the last day of photography, I was so exhausted at the end of “Spider-Man 3″ I can’t tell you. My love for the characters and my passion for the stories are the same, but I was just a shell of the person that I was after all of those movies.
If you had to take a break and pick a director to replace you on the franchise, is there anyone at the top of your list?
RAIMI: Because I love Spider-Man I would just say—I don’t want to pick someone. I don’t know if I’ll be directing the picture or not, but I’d like to say that it would be somebody that was the best gift I could give to Spider-Man—someone who understands him and loves him and could bring his passion and love to the character. A character director probably; no one else.
October 31st, 2007, posted by FofR | Digg This
Writer James Vanderbilt is, at the moment, frantically working on “flipping” David Benioff’s Wolverine movie script into a film-able format before the WGA contract deadline arrives at midnight tonight (31st October):
Fox’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which is being penned by James Vanderbilt (”Zodiac”), [... is] among dozens of scripts that are being flipped, a process that actually is uniting execs and scribes in one goal: to get a script that is filmable. - Hollywood Reporter
Whilst looking towards the future, it is reported that Vanderbilt has been chosen by Sony executives to pen the fourth Spider-man feature:
Several writers were being considered for the fourth installment, and Vanderbilt apparently was chosen by Sony executives for his character-driven approach to the story rather than a focus on special effects. - Coming Soon
August 3rd, 2007, posted by FofR | Digg This
In an interview with Dark Horizons, Avi Arad, producer of Spider-man one to three and every Marvel film in-between, mentioned that he would be working on two new projects: Venom AND Spider-man.
Question: And the other thing of course is you haven’t really left Marvel behind completely right? I mean you’re still personally involved in Hulk and Iron Man …
Arad: ..and Spiderman. And I’m making Venom.
Question: So what’s different about you doing those movies now as against when you were directly in charge of Marvel?
August 1st, 2007, posted by FofR | Digg This
Who knows which villains will star in the fourth feature film, but there are a few hints out there as to which characters will be favoured. First up, in January this year, Dylan Baker, who portrays Dr. Curt Connor, said this in an interview with IGN:
IGN: Have they talked to you about becoming The Lizard in a future sequel?
Baker: Only Sam [Raimi]. Only Sam. And, of course, the whole thing is in his head. So as long as his brilliant ideas keep coming, I’ll go with him.
IGN: When Sam hired you for Spider-Man 2, did he talk to you about the character in the comics and what happens to him?
Baker: Yeah, but only in broad strokes. We’re getting a little more specific now, but it’s still pretty broad.
IGN: So you’d be up for a lot of hours in the makeup chair to add the green skin and scales?
Baker: Absolutely!
And in a more recent MTV article concerning the next movie, Raimi talked about some of the villains he would like to see:
“I would love to see Electro, Vulture, maybe the Sinister Six as a team”
Slash Film have a great feature discussing the odds and likelihood of seeing each of Spider-man’s foes. They gave The Lizard a 95% chance, Electro 73%, Hydro-man 68%, etc. with lonely Rhino at the bottom with a measly 9%.
August 1st, 2007, posted by FofR | Digg This
Back in August 2006 - nearly a year ago now, we had our first insight into what lies in wait for the future of both Marvel films and the Spider-man franchise. In an interview with MTV, Marvel producer Kevin Feige had this to say,
“There will be many more Spider-Man films to come,” he promised. “We already have stacks of ideas for the next one because of the wealth of stories in the comics. We could be making Spider-Man movies for the next 20 years, based on the 50 years of Spider-Man history we have.”
That doesn’t necessarily guarantee, however, that Tobey Maguire will continue as the man under the mask.
“When you’re concentrating on one movie at a time, there’s a beginning and a middle and an end to that process,” Feige reasoned. “We’ve been topping each one as they go, [and if that happens again], that’s the time for those discussions.”
And when it comes to Tobey Maguire’s involvement, he denied rumors that he would not be participating and instead had this to say (via Yahoo Movies),
“I feel like the stories all deserve to be told, and, you know, if… the whole team wants to get back together, and we feel like we can make a good movie that’s worth making, then I’m up for it.”
In an article at SciFi.com these sentiments were uttered again,
“Well, it’s possible that we make another movie,” Maguire said in an interview. “It all depends on if there’s a story worth telling. I feel very proud of the three movies that we’ve made. I feel like the stories all deserve to be told, and, you know, if they come up with a good movie, and the whole team wants to get back together, and we feel like we can make a good movie that’s worth making, then I’m up for it.”
The article continues, stating that co-star Kirsten Dunst would also be interested in reprising her role as Mary Jane Watson;
“There’s an openness at the end [of Spider-Man 3], which I like, but … I feel like this is a trilogy unto itself,” she said. “And I think if we venture into a fourth, it will be some time from now and in a new way. Because I don’t think Sam can do that: continuing on this same course. I think he needs to venture as an artist and do other things; otherwise, none of us will have anything good to bring to the fourth. So I think we all need to venture out a little bit, and then maybe we’ll come back together one day and do another one.”
This brings us very nicely to the projected involvement of Spider-man director Sam Raimi. In April 2007 he announced that Sony had plans to produce another 3 Spider-man films, whether he shall direct these is at the moment unknown. Raimi had this to say in an Empire interview in July this year,
“I want to help contribute to the production,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll just be a producer on it but if I can work with the writer in such a way so that directing would be right for me, I don’t know. We’ve had our first meeting on Spider-Man 4 and we’re looking for the writer.”
As for who is currently working on the illustrious project, in January 2007 a deal with screenwriter David Koepp was sought, though it seems as of July a new writer may be involved.
August 1st, 2007, posted by FofR | Digg This
Alas, today, August 1st 2007, we launch our documentation of the progression, developments and story behind the fourth instalment in the Spider-man franchise. It’s all in the early stages at the moment, but we’ll be here, ready, when the news begins to break.
