Interviews
June 7th, 2008 | Digg This
Coming Soon have spoken to Sam Raimi about his future involvement in Spider-man 4 - things are looking up, though the future is still uncertain:
“James Vanderbilt is writing the script and I’m excited to read it. I think it’s going to be done in a few months. I’m hoping it’s as great as our discussions were about it and I’m hoping it feels right for me because I love Spider-Man. I’m hoping I’m well rested enough to embrace it and I’m hoping Sony wants me to do it. If all of those things come together, I would love to do it. There are a lot of unknowns about the future.”
Thanks Robin!
J.K. Simmons has also been speaking about is role in Spidey sequels on the set of “I Love You Man”,
SHH!: So we know that James Vanderbilt is close to turning in a script for “Spider-Man 4.” Have they reached out to you yet?
J.K. Simmons: We sort of check in once in a while. They say, you know, we want J.K. to do it. We don’t know where. We don’t know when. We don’t know who. We don’t know anything, you know? They signed all of us for the first three films. Sam, Tobey, all the way down the line to me and we’ll see where it goes. I mean its all conjecture and you guys probably know more than I do at this point. There was talk of doing four and five concurrently and I don’t know if they’re still considering that or not and I spoke to Tobey in I guess it was February, sort of awards season time and he’s certainly amenable to doing some more and hopefully we’ll be able to get everybody back and make another good one.SHH!: Or a couple of ‘em?
Simmons: Couple, three, four, five! Whatever. You know, I could buy a bigger house.SHH!: What if Sam decides not to come back as a director but stays as a producer, would you guys still be…
Simmons: Well…SHH!: Would you and the rest of the gang still come back?
Simmons: Well, I can only speak for myself, but if Sam were not the director but still had a hand in it then I would certainly have a reasonable amount of faith in it. Obviously if he’s the director I’m there 100%. If he’s not involved at all, which I think is VERY unlikely, then it would be a situation that I would have to think about. But if he’s involved, hopefully directing or at least as a producer then, I’m pretty confident that it would be something that I wanna do. Plus they pay money.
November 28th, 2007 | 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 | 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.
August 1st, 2007 | 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.
