Thursday, January 7, 2010

"Spider-Man 4" Gets Delayed


With Sony Pictures and director Sam Raimi still fighting over the direction to go with the villains for the latest "Spider-Man" installment, not only has the scheduled spring production start been delayed but now there's talk of the film possibly delaying its May 2011 release, reports Deadline Hollywood.

According to Deadline: Director Sam Raimi has been exceedingly vocal about his hatred for the current Spidey script, and it is now being sent back for more rewrites and that, according to a Sony insider, “it is unlikely that May 11, 2011, date will be made. It depends on how quickly the script can get in."

The source admits that the cast is still "firmly" committed to the film, but they are all waiting on this new script, so yet again everything has been put on hold.

Raimi has been pushing for the criminal Vulture as the primary antagonist in the film, while the studio is against it and wants both a different villain and a romantic sub-plot with the Black Cat.

Several writers have tried to deliver a script to appease both parties' wishes without much success. Alvin Sargent is the latest scribe to come onboard and both parties are awaiting his draft. James Vanderbilt (“Zodiac”) and Gary Ross (“Seabiscuit”) both have submitted drafts as well.

Although delays and script trouble are never good signs for a film, especially one of this caliber, I think this is actually a positive move for the web-crawling franchise.

If anyone saw “Spider-Man 3”, they know that things should have turned out a lot better (and that the singing montage should have never seen the light of day). Raimi complained that the studio forced him to include the villain Venom, and that story line dragged down the entire film.

Maybe for once the studio should listen to its director instead of dictate orders. The first two Spider-Man films were some of the best superhero films that have been made, and Raimi is an extremely smart and creative filmmaker.

“Spider-Man 4” is slated for a May 11, 2011 release, which is likely to change in the near future unless the script problems are cleared up.

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