Topic: Spider-Man 4 movie - Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire QUIT...

[MysterD]

Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire quit Spider-Man 4 (movie).

Hollywood is seeking a new Spider-Man after Sony Pictures made the shock announcement that Tobey Maguire would no longer take the lead role in the £2 billion franchise.

After reports that production on Spider-Man 4 had stalled amid disagreements over the script, Sony said that Maguire, who plays Peter Parker, and Sam Raimi, the director, had both left the film.

Sony said that a new Spider-Man film would appear in 2012 focusing on Parker, a teenager “grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing superhuman crises”. Although Maguire is hugely popular with young filmgoers, he would be 36 by the time the new film was released.

When the first film was released, in 2002, his performance as the student bitten by a genetically modified spider won praise and the opening weekend broke box-office records.

Only this week Maguire had said he was looking forward to shooting Spider-Man 4. “We have a lot of great stuff in terms of story and script,” he said. “We’re just trying to dial it in and get it ready as quickly as possible. Of course, these movies are a very big undertaking and take a lot more time than a drama or something more straightforward.”

But the fourth film has been dogged by trouble and is expected to miss a projected release date of May 2011. There were reports that Raimi wanted to cast John Malkovich as a winged, flying baddie, against the wishes of Sony. The studio, it was claimed, wanted a more cute villain who would also be the love interest.

Sony is to release more information on the film in the coming weeks.

Raimi acknowledged that the studio was heading in a “new direction”. Raimi said: “While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel [Spider-Man was created for Marvel Comics in 1962] have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job.”

The change gives Sony the opportunity to “reboot” the franchise, following the example of Paramount, which successfully reinvented Star Trek with a young cast last year.

Meanwhile, a Broadway musical based on the Spider-Man character is scheduled to open next month.

Oh, man...WTH, Sony?
I would've liked to seen John Malkovich as a bad-ass villain...

[Quemaqua]

Good riddance.  Raimi needs to go back to making movies that aren't stupid and I always thought Maguire was horrible for the role.  I've seen bits of the movies on TV and thought they were awful.  I can't believe they're making a 4th after as terrible as I heard the 3rd turned out to be.

[ScaryTooth]

I liked the first 2 Spiderman movies. The 3rd was trash. Eh, can't say I care that much anymore about the Spiderman sequels.

[MysterD]

I liked the first 2 Spiderman movies. The 3rd was trash. Eh, can't say I care that much anymore about the Spiderman sequels.

I thought Spider-Man 1 was okay; 2 was great; 3 sucked.

[Pugnate]

I thought Tobey Maguire was born for that role. He was the perfect Peter Parker... ripped straight out of the ultimate series.

What I find stupid about this is that they will do a reboot. You can't do a reboot so fast!

What's next? Cameron doing an Avatar reboot?

[PyroMenace]

Raimi needs to do more movies like Drag Me to Hell, which was totally awesome in the Raimi horror movie way.

[Xessive]

Hmm.. Sony wanted a cute villain who was a love interest? Black Cat!! BLACK CAT!! That was one sexy character.

Still Malkovich as a bad-ass villain is more intriguing.

If Raimi is not doing I doubt I'll be interested at all.

[Cobra951]

Hmm.. Sony wanted a cute villain who was a love interest? Black Cat!! BLACK CAT!! That was one sexy character.

Still Malkovich as a bad-ass villain is more intriguing.

If Raimi is not doing I doubt I'll be interested at all.

I'd bet anything it's the New Moon bullshit.  Now characters that are supposed to be scary are presented instead as pretty pansies.  Malkovich doesn't rate in this bizarro world.

[MysterD]

Still Malkovich as a bad-ass villain is more intriguing.

[PyroMenace]

I just wanted to say that I have no idea what's going on with this new spiderman movie.

[ScaryTooth]

They are "rebooting" it. New cast and all. Pretty much the Spiderman origin story...cause no one really knows how Spiderman came to be....

[PyroMenace]

I thought he got bitten by a radioactive spider, is that what not happened?

[Pugnate]

I thought he got bitten by a radioactive spider, is that what not happened?

[ren]

But what happened to the radioactive spider? Did a bird eat it? Did it lay a radioactive web, infecting other insects which are subsequently eaten by lizards which then morph into dinosaurs? Can Spider-man beat both the dinosaur and the bird?

[ScaryTooth]

I was being sarcastic...

I really like Ren's version though. Hopefully they go with that.

[iPPi]

The new trailer doesn't make this movie look very promising.

[ScaryTooth]

It looks okay. Can't say I'm that interested. But I'm sure I'll watch it at some points.

[Pugnate]

I don't understand why everything has to be 'gritty' now.

[iPPi]

They probably see how successful Nolan's Batman trilogy is turning out and are trying to emulate it for Marvel's characters.

[Xessive]

They probably see how successful Nolan's Batman trilogy is turning out and are trying to emulate it for Marvel's characters.

That's gotta be tough considering Marvel's flamboyant characters. If they had any chance of going "gritty" it would have been with the Wolverine Origins movie but even that was pretty colourful (for lack of a better word).

[Pugnate]

Yup, iPPi, you are correct. They are stupid so obviously are applying the 'one size fits all' strategy.