Sorry Tobey Maguire fans, The Amazing Spider-man 3 will NOT feature a recasting of Sony’s latest franchise for the webhead. Andrew Garfield is here to stay. This confirmation actually comes from a casting call that released the starring roles for the film. It shows that both Andrew Garfield and Dane DeHaan will be reprising their roles as Peter Parker and Harry Osborne, respectively.
The above is a piece I wrote for Moviepilot upon hearing the news. In a nutshell, it highlights how Sony, after rumors of straying, has apparently decided to stick with Andrew Garfield, rather than going back to Maguire.
Honestly, I feel like I’m writing a gossip column about superheroes at this point.
A few years ago, David Fincher (Fight Club, Seven, Gone Girl) was one of a handful of directors considered for revamping the Spider-man franchise. Of course, Marc Webb was ultimately the final decision, but did you know that Fincher was also considered to launch the franchise back in 1999?
Though Sam Raimi did a brilliant job with at least two movies from that trilogy, a lot of people (like me) believe new blood would be a great start to rebooting Spider-man for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (you know, with the Avengers in the background).
Most of you already know that I despise 2011’s The Amazing Spider-man and moderately enjoyed this past year’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. That said, I still think a new Spider-man franchise is worth exploring, whether it conserve Andrew Garfield or toss him.
Back to David Fincher. If he was the man behind the camera behind the cowl, we already know some of his vision for telling Peter Parker’s story. Here’s an excerpt from a 2011 interview he did concerning the last Spider-man reboot:
My impression what Spider-Man could be is very different from what Sam [Raimi] did or what Sam wanted to do. I think the reason he directed that movie was because he wanted to do the Marvel comic superhero. I was never interested in the genesis story. I couldn’t get past a guy getting bit by a red and blue spider. It was just a problem… It was not something that I felt I could do straight-faced. I wanted to start with Gwen Stacy and the Green Goblin, and I wanted to kill Gwen Stacy.
The title sequence of the movie that I was going to do was going to be a ten minute — basically a music video, an opera, which was going to be the one shot that took you through the entire Peter Parker [backstory]. Bit by a radio-active spider, the death of Uncle Ben, the loss of Mary Jane, and [then the movie] was going to begin with Peter meeting Gwen Stacy. It was a very different thing, it wasn’t the teenager story. It was much more of the guy who’s settled into being a freak.
Sounds a lot like the beginning of Spider-man 2 (2004) right? Only it would be ten minutes long and resemble more of an opera than comic book pages.
I doubt Fincher will ever be taking on Spider-man anytime soon, though it would be crazy for his first superhero film to be about the webhead. For now, we just have to assume that Marc Webb and Avi Arad still hold all the cards to Spidey’s future.
The head of the censorship board said these included the film’s depiction of Jews as having built the Pyramids (the Pyramids are believed to have been built about 1,000 years before the story of the Exodus), and that an earthquake, not a miracle by Moses, caused the Red Sea to part.
There have also been reports that the film is banned in Morocco.
I’m honestly worried that this is just a ploy to generate interest in a failing movie, akin to how the Sony hack ended up being “good” for The Interview (at least in terms of popularity).
I know it’s a baseless theory, but some things about this whole thing don’t add up. It seems strange that the movie would be banned outright like this, despite some inconsistencies that are frankly not that big of a deal.
And the timing is suspicious too. Exodus has been out for a few weeks now, and it’s not doing well. The film has only gone on to collect about $100 million worldwide, which isn’t close to the production budget alone. Once you add marketing expenses, Exodus is in big trouble of flopping.
I’m currently researching to find out if there’s a precedent for this in Egypt and Morocco. Is it normal for them to ban an inaccurate adaptation of a true story? That’s what I want to find out ASAP.
This week on the Now Conspiring podcast, Maria and I try our hardest to determine the “best” Lord of the Rings/Hobbit movie. It might get heated.
We also review and discuss The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies and the 2014 remake of Annie.
Stick around for the end of the show when we discuss the new movies coming out Christmas Day and which ones we recommend, PLUS we talk about the controversy surrounding the pulling of The Interview from theaters.
The chilling effect of the Sony Pictures hack and terrorist threats against The Interview are reverberating. New Regency has scrapped another project that was to be set in North Korea. The untitled thriller, set up in October, was being developed by director Gore Verbinski as a star vehicle for Foxcatcher star Steve Carell. The paranoid thriller written by Steve Conrad was going to start production in March. Insiders tell me that under the current circumstances, it just makes no sense to move forward. The location won’t be transplanted. Fox declined to distribute it, per a spokesman.
This entire debacle makes we wonder how we managed to get away with a Red Dawn remake andTeam America.
The good news, however, is that not everyone is taking this lightly. President Obama publicly encouraged we “go to the movies,” and George R.R. Martin (author of Game of Thrones) has offered to show The Interview in his own theater to anyone who wants to see it.
And if you’re wondering if The Interview is even any good, you can read Richard Corliss’s review of the film on Time, as he is one of the few outside Sony to have already watched it.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, an email as recent as October 30th from Sony Pictures president Doug Belgrad to Sony motion pictures president Amy Pascal revealed that the two studios were in talks to work out a deal where Marvel would oversee and produce a new (and hopefully better) trilogy of Spider-Man films that would still allow Sony to retain creative control, along with the marketing and distribution for the trilogy.
Pretty fair deal and one that Sony should take, if you ask me.
But it was another email from Pascal that got my Spidey senses tingling, as it was revealed that Marvel absolutely wanted to include Spider-Man in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
But before you get excited and start planning the “WELCOME HOME, SPIDEY” party, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the fact that according to sources connected with the situation, unfortunately the talks have broken down between the studios. At the moment, Sony is planning on going it alone with Spider-Man, with an ominous-sounding “Spidey summit” planned for January.
I almost feel bad for Sony at this point. This whole mess makes them look even worse in the eyes of Spider-Man fans who desperately want him in the MCU. In a way, this hack seems strategic.
Look, you guys know me pretty well at this point. You know that Spider-man is my favorite superhero ever, and I haven’t been pleased with a single Spidey film since Spider-man 2 seized my heart with mechanical tentacles.
I haven’t been looking forward to TASM2, despite how “action-packed” and “colorful” the trailers have promised it to be. I’ve seen this trickery before courtesy of Spider-man 3, and we all know how that turned out – too many villains and not enough Sam Raimi.
But I’ve decided to be almost optimistic for a minute upon the release of these new featurettes that are currently being shown in the pre-previews for Robocop. They actually show what TASM was lacking: someone who actually resembles Spider-man.
It’s not just about the funny quips and frenetic web-slinging. Spider-man only works as a character when you display his struggle with the price of being a hero. Naturally, the first featurette is titled “The Price Of Being A Hero,” and it addresses the concept pretty gracefully.
Let’s check it out first:
We see Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey’s budding relationship being strained by both Peter’s responsibilities and his promise to Gwen’s father. We’re also teased about Aunt May’s “secrets” concerning Peter’s parents (yeah yeah, we’ve all heard that before).
Oh, and Stacey points out that she’ll be going to London? How many problems does this guy have to deal with?
Well, the next featurette shies away from the drama in favor of the action. And it actually looks pretty good at the moment:
As you can see, we get a glimpse into some of the stunt work being done for the film. They claim that they’re cutting back on the CGI, but I’m skeptical considering they only really showed off one scene…
I will say, however, that the soundtrack here worked for me. It’s no Spider-man 2, but I guess we’ll have to make do.
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