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Sam Raimi Willing to Return for Spider-Man 4 and Beyond

by Kevin Powers
June 6, 2008
Source: SuperHeroHype, IESB

With the bitchin'-ness of Iron Man, tremors from the upcoming Hulk, and the masterpiece that will be The Dark Knight in July, Spider-Man is a comic book character that is desperately trying to achieve some relevance, especially given Marvel's standalone success as of late. Waving its hand like a short kid in school, Spider-Man continues to pop up on the radar with various bits of news. So, as we must do, here is the latest: Sam Raimi spoke to SuperHeroHype about the franchise's sequels. Yes, the plural is intended. As we've heard before, screenwriter James Vanderbilt is putting together such a hefty script for the Spider-Man 3 follow-up that two additional films could be mined from it. Considering Raimi's crackpot work on Spider-Man 3, are we as hopeful as he is?

Of course we are! It's Spider-Man after all! But man if the third installment didn't plummet to the ground like it broke free from Spidey's web. In talking about Vanderbilt's upcoming script, Raimi said, "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." There's a lot of hoping going on in that short statement. As news goes, this is pretty soft - not unlike the recent, rampant rumorsx about Tobey Maguire not returning.

Fans of Maguire can rest easy, because Raimi wants him back as well. "I'd hate to re-cast anybody in the future, I can't imagine that." J.K. Simmons, who plays The Daily Bugle's J. Jonah Jameson, spoke to IESB about Maguire's likely return. "I spoke to Tobey in, I guess it was February... he's certainly amenable to doing some more and hopefully we'll be able to get everybody back and make another good one." For me, this is an inescapable negative. I definitely agree that recasting would be a bad idea and too jarring for the series. But, personally, Maguire was nearly unbearable in Spider-Man 3 and Kirsten Dunst - all I'll say is that I think she peaked in Interview with the Vampire.

So does this groundbreaking news get anyone excited? I'm thinking not really. News on the sequels virtually limps across our desk as of late. I'm waiting for Sony to step up with some more concrete info on the project's status, not just that they made their hefty rights payment to Marvel.

Filed under Hype, Movie News

From around the web:

Skeeter

This is somewhat exciting news. It's going to be hard to get me back into the series of Spider-Man with the lackluster film of Spider-Man 3. I will be pulling for this movie, but will always have the third film in the back of my mind. As for the cast it doesn’t really matter to me as long as they have the wherewithal to know a horrible script when they see one.
Darrin

seriously, the only good spiderman flick was part 2 and its wasnt even that good besides for the fight scene on the train. My suggestion is that they do over the entire franchise like hulk. I really hope the incredible hulk is as great as ironman but with more action.
David

I personally would like to see the studios try and pull off a "Spectacular Spiderman" movie. It has been running as a cartoon for the past few months on the CW and it is incredible! Although it does differ from the original "Amazing Spiderman" I think it would be enough to reboot the series into success. The last thing any Spidey fan wants, including me, is for their precious superhero to be defamed any more than Spiderman 3 did for the character. And if they do decide to push forward with more sequels they should keep to the comics, they are what made the superheroes famous to begin with, right?
http://www.modelmayhem.com/kevjohnphotography kevjohn

It's good news to me. The third film may not have been great, but let's not throw the series off the rails and go crazy just yet. Different director, different actors, script from left field... that sounds like a recipe for a mess if you ask me. Marvel should follow the wisdom of the saying "dance with who brung ya" and trust that Raimi et crew can get the series back on track. Nothing preventing them from initiating a completely seperate Spectacular Spder-man or Ultimate Spidey franchise at the same time though. Not like they'd lose money doing that, unless the films hit new lows in terribleness. Even the lousy Daredevil and Ghost Rider movies made money.
Josh

I'm excited Although, I feel like I'm the ONLY one who loved the third movie, despite the problems with the script (I also love the jazz club scene and Spidey's transformation because of the symbiote.
Reza

This is the thing I find troubling: we, as people who regular comment and go onto sites like FirstShowing.net, have such a high standard for the kind of movies we want to watch that we lose sight of what is truly good, and what has let our expectations down. Spider-Man 2 was such a high-caliber movie, from such a high-caliber director, that Spider-Man 3 was given an enormous amount of buzz and hype from the very get go. But if anyone had paid attention to the teaser trailers, they would have seen that the movie wasn't meant for the greatness of Spider-Man 2. But despite this setback, the first half of the movie was truly brilliant, sans Tobey Maguire's transformation scene. His murdering Sandman, his fight with Harry, his relationship breakdown with Mary Jane were all fantastic pieces of storytelling. The problem was the second half with the introduction of Venom. Therein lay the movie's disappointment, as I'm sure all of you can attest to. BUT COME ON GUYS, let's give Sam Raimi and Co. a break! They made a great movie with a lot of good stuff in it, it just didn't meet our expectations. And that might be the problem with Dark Knight. We're all calling it the best thing to happen to comic-book movies, and I myself am guilty of it. But what happens when it doesn't meet our expectations? Will we call it a disaster? When it just may be a decent movie? We all want a masterpiece, but sometimes, movies that are decent, but are expected to be masterpieces, are never remembered for what they truly were. I just wanted to say that maybe a lot of the Spider-Man bashing is blinded by the fact that we all had such high expectations for it. Personally, I hope they do a revision of the Venom storyline. And cast someone else to play the character. (Oh, and by the way, anyone else remember Raimi saying how he was pressured by the producer Avi Arad to bring Venom into the movie? How he didn't like the character, because he was a part of the '80s cast of villains in Spider-Man, not one of the Classics? Yeah, that might explain the Venom treatment!!! )
Scorpio

You can't blame Raimi for Spiderman 3. He did what he had to do with Sony breathing down his neck, to make sure to "add more Venom". His original concept was Sandman and Vulture. Raimi hated Venom, who was never part of the old school Spiderman he grew up reading. I thought Spiderman 3 wasn't that bad, they were able to show some humanity to Sandman, but Topher Grace as Venom?? come on. All Sony and Marvel needs to do is let Sam Raimi just do it, and don't meddle with his ideas, "KevJohn" is right. Mr Raimi shouldn't be forced to add some modern villan because some idiot executive's son want to see a Venom on screen.
Scorpio

Renza you took the words out of my mouth as soon as I hit "Submit Comment".
The Shoes Dude

Reza, don't worry, The Dark Knight is AWESOME. No one is going to be disappointed with that one. I had the privilege of viewing one of the only screenings during an internship I had in LA a couple months back, and I was blown away. It topped Batman Begins, hands down. And I think a lot of people will put it over Iron Man (as BADASS and AMAZING as Iron Man was). And ditto to all you said about Spidey 3 and possible future films. Let's give Raimi a chance.
Curtis

Im really glad Raimi wants to come back for a fourth and fifth film of Spider-man i thought he did a great job on the series so far except the bump in the road being Spider-man 3 but that wasn't his fault and it wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be the first half was great but then went down hill after that but i can forgive him for making one mediocre movie when he has made two amazing spider-mans before that. I really hope Tobey comes back for them i dont really care to much about Dunst she can be re-casted, but im really looking forward to Spider-man 4 and really hope Sony lets Raimi come back....
Sinbad

Reboot reboot reboot. It's the perfect time, find a spiderman that can do funny and a Mary-Jane that people actually care about. As for Raimi, i like the guy when he's out working on a film in a shack with no budget, but when a filmmaker phones it in as badly as he did on Spidey 3 then he deserves to be punished... i know the studios interfered but they weren't the ones who put his brother on script duties and filmed that whole awful 'Spiderdance' routine. This team's had three shots at the character one was poor, two was good (but overrated) and three was terrible. Reboot reboot reboot
J.D.

Telegram to Sam Raimi: stop directing. Telegram to Sony: stop putting a story like Spiderman's in the hands of some schlock director. And hire a better writer.
http://yellowrebel.blogspot.com Yellow Rebel

I agree with rebooting the series. I been saying it for a hot second--they need to wait 10 years and just revamp it. At the rate they're going the Spider Man franchise is turning into what the Superman franchise became (back in the 80's). I'll even go far as to speculate that even if Spiderman 4 &5 are phenomenal, they are going to face heavy criticism because cats weren't feeling part 3. And yes Raimi was pressured into introducing Venom, but I actually thought of a better way to incorporate Venom into the movie than just a some random particle from space falling to Earth. Does anyone ever feel they should let fans vote on scripts? I'll have an extensive piece on what I feel the direction should be for the sequels, what spiderman 3 shouldve been over @ blogger. it'll be up soon. check me out
jason_md2020

Big question marks: Who is the villian this time and who will play him? One & Two had DaFoe & Molina two great actors. Three? Well...no offence to Topher Grace but I just really don't see him as all that threatening. Thomas Haden Church, could have probably pulled off the whole move by himself but they had to shoehorn the whole symbiote-venom-goblin jr. story line in. If they make another one, use one villian and get a actor that canplay the part. P.S. If they want to make it really interesting, use The Black Cat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cat_(comics) A female villian would be interesting...