The Spider-Man Reboot Round-Up

Yesterday afternoon the news broke, in one of the more shocking developments since I’ve been writing for this site, that Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire were off SPIDER-MAN 4 and Sony Pictures was moving ahead with a reboot of the franchise. With news this big, there’s obviously a lot more news than the initial story (which is covered here) so I thought I’d do a little round-up of all the little tidbits that have leaked out since yesterday’s press release.

– The LA Times reports that one of the main sticking points besides the script was, duh, money. Sony wanted to spend about $230 million on the film, far less than the $300 million SPIDER-MAN 3 cost, but Raimi didn’t feel like he could deliver the film for that budget.

– This was widely feared in a lot of the conversations about the reboot yesterday and Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that Sony is looking for “a more gritty, contemporary redo of the series” not unlike what Christopher Nolan did with BATMAN BEGINS. They also added that, despite how early we are in the process, Marc Webb (500 DAYS OF SUMMER) is one director whose name has apparently “popped up” in connection with the directing gig.

– Raimi issued a statement in yesterday’s press release but we hadn’t heard anything official from Maguire. Deadline Hollywood was able to get a statement from the former Peter Parker who was rather diplomatic. “I am so proud of what we accomplished with the Spider-Man franchise over the last decade. Beyond the films themselves I have formed some deep and lasting friendships. I am excited to see the next chapter unfold in this incredible story.

– Finally, chalk this up as a rumor, but Ain’t It Cool is saying one of the big issues with the many scripts floating around was that Peter Parker and Mary Jane would be having (or would have) a baby in the film. And for that I have to thank Sam Raimi for not going forward with this and walking away.

I’m sure there will be a LOT more news on SPIDER-MAN as the days and weeks go on and, maybe, one of the scrapped scripts will even make its way to the web.