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Veteran Writer Alvin Sargent Polishing the Spider-Man Reboot

by Ethan Anderton
May 14, 2010

It must be a good week for news focusing on big name screenwriters doing "punch-ups" on major projects. Just yesterday we heard about Charlie Kaufman spending a couple weeks on Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom, and now Heat Vision is back with yet another punch-up scoop as they report veteran screenwriter Alvin Sargent (Ordinary People) is putting some finishing touches on the screenplay, written by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) for Marc Webb's reboot of Sony's Spider-Man franchise. Sargent has been involved with all of the past Spider-Man films and is apparently Sony's "go-to-guy for punching up weighty scenes."

This is likely only good news for the franchise and it means we're probably getting closer to finally getting some official casting announcements on the horizon now that a completed script is in sight. Heat Vision says this new Spider-Man is rumored to be more emotionally anchored and realistic than the previous films so bringing in someone who has great dramatic experience with an Oscar winning film like Ordinary People, is definitely a smart move. Word is that Peter Parker will be a 17-year-old high school kid struggling with shifting hormones and an outsider status and though it doesn't seem like an 83 year-old screenwriter would be the right guy for tackling a young character like that, his work on the first few Spider-Man movies should speak for itself (well, maybe not the third film with the jazz hands and whatnot, but you still get the idea).

Explore tags: Hype, Movie News, Opinions

Xerxex

I have high hopes for the screenplay...but I'm just annoyed that this is gonna be in 3-D. Also this is happening too fast...it needs to be delayed like another year to let fans of Raimi's spidey films move on.
The movie man

This have a feeling this movie is set for FAIL. The 3-D better suck my balls off good.
dude...

I have high hopes for nothing in this movie. Rebooting within a few years of Raimi's $2BILLION+ franchise is insane.
Spider94

damn you sony!!! stupid fucking spiderman reboot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :@
Jimmy Love

Yeah Sony just let the rights revert back to Marvel, so Marvel can make a great spiderman with Raimi
http://www.gumball-machine.com Gumball Machines

omg i really can't do another spider man.... i'd rather watch paint dry after spray painting my gumball machines
subs

The good thing is we get to see the all time great villains again and this time without Macy Gray singin, i want Venom in this movie and i think we won't have to wait till a 3rd to see him back and more badass than ever. Raimi killed off every character he could find in his movies which prob rubbed sony the wrong way , only die hard fans know of the vulture an morbious an so on, so goin with the lesser known characters might not be as profitable for sony. Maybe the Lizard will be in one of these , i just want Venom and Carnage and i think the tendrals in 3D could be quite amazing. Sony is a powerhouse and i think they can get the 3D right , it seems to be maturing slowly but surely. Just be happy George Lucas isn't directing this .
Hattori Hanzo

I'd just as soon get a reboot in the gonads than see a Spidey reboot because both would suck.
Greta

#7 said: Just be happy George Lucas isn't directing this. Say what you want about Lucas, he wouldn't even joke about having Justin Bieber play the part Spidey in this tweenie version of Spiderman that they are planning.
Johnnie Walker

"Emotionally anchored and realistic"? I just re-watched them recently, and wasn't that the WHOLE POINT of Raimi's first two films? Hey Sony, Tom Rothman called...he wants his playbook back. Ugh.
ray

man i wish Marvel would get the rights to do the spidey movies, sony lost it after 2....
ray

#9 yea but he sure made an awesome selection for anakin right?
blasphemer

hard to raise the dead...the money would be better spent on a new project.....
the slayer

#5 you got it right...Marvel needs to get all of it's rights back to Spiderman as well as the Fantastic Four to get those stories back on track with the rest of the Marvel universe...Iron Man, Incredible Hulk and the soon to be released Thor, Cap and Avengers movies will only create more demand for a Marvel-controlled Spiderman
rblitz7

@10 AHAHAHA exactly I was thinking same thing. I thought first two were very emotionally anchored and realistic (I mean as realistic as a spiderman movie can get) I guess it can always get a little more realistic. It's just there walking a fine line.
Keanu Reeves

This sounds like Twilight. Prepare for Peter Parker to just state angrily at Mary-Jane and waffle into pretentiousness.
Sony Bot 3000

The Sony corporation has decided to anchor it's next project in human emotion. As a thinking machinery of decision makers collating data from marketing, demographics, and various blockbuster film production / merchandising arms, we have decided as a single mind that Spider Man needs more e... Spider M* ... Spi ... ee .. eeds ... mor ... e... mo... tzzzzzzzz*** (Syntax error. Sony Corporation.2000 does not compute "emotion")
subs

Honestly i think because of the success of the dark knight being as gritty and dark as it was and close to realism than all comic movies i've seen, alot of company execs want that success . TDK i believed raised the bar very high so goin back an makin campy superhero movies isn't what a majority of what people want anymore, its like Avatar and 3D , everything is goin 3D even tv's now ,i'm not sayin thats a good thing cause alot of the 3D bein pushed out is just for extra $ for ticket sales and to sell the new tv's but these reboots might be tryin to follow TDK'S mold , that also doesn't mean it will work well either. I like Raimi and the evil dead 2 army of darkness etc...but i think his best movies of the 3 were in this order spidey 2 then 3 than 1.
Voice of Reason

"STAY OFF MY LAWN!!!!....And go see my new Spiderman movie!!!"
Edward C.

I am rather disappointed that they are going the reboot route, and am very skeptical about doing it so soon after the last Raimi movie. I enjoyed all 3 of Raimi's Spider-films to some degree, and have them all on DVD. It's a shame that he couldn't come to terms with Sony on a fourth film in the series. Also, the difference between this and the reboot of Batman is that the Caped Crusader did not have a true "origin story" feature film until Chris Nolan did "Batman Begins". Do we REALLY want to do the Spidey origin over again, only 10 years out from Raimi's?
imdb

Alvin Sargent is a long time companion of Laura Ziskin, a producer of the Spider-Man films. Nepotism at it's worst. Just a form of money laundering. How can we pocket some of that money for ourselves? How the F' is an old man like that going to write teenage dialogue? Answer: He doesn't. He hires interns.