Sam Raimi Leaves Spider-Man 4; Sony to Reboot Franchise
Posted 01.11.10 by Ryan
Forget all that you knew about Spider-Man 4. There's no rewrite on the way. John Malkovich won't be playing The Vulture, and no one will play The Black Cat because there won't another Spider-Man movie made with director Sam Raimi or Tobey Maguire in the lead role.
Deadline Hollywood reported earlier this morning that Raimi left Spider-Man 4, citing that he could not make the movie in the timetable that Sony required. Once Raimi left, Sony decide to scrap Spider-Man 4 and start over. Sony released a press release that explained the change.
Culver City, CA (January 11, 2010) — Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012. Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.
The new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.
"Working on the Spider-Man movies was the experience of a lifetime for me. While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the
studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job," said Sam Raimi.
According to the report, Maguire learned of the news through a phone call and was not upset, but would have continued with the project had Raimi stayed on board. Meanwhile, Raimi could start work on his World of Warcraft adaptation.
More news of the Spider-Man reboot will arrive in the coming weeks as production begins on the movie.