-
When Mickey Rourke officially signed on for Iron Man 2, there were reports that Rourke was also being considered for Spider-Man 4. According to MTV, Spider-Man 4 director Sam Raimi was not aware of it. Said Raimi:
Other people [involved in the film] could have been considering Mickey Rourke for a villain, talking about the Spider-Man films, and maybe they didn't tell me. That could be true. Maybe they asked an agent foravailability and hadn't yet come to me and said, ‘Sam, this guy's available, would you like to work with him?' I love Mickey Rourke, by the way, but they hadn't yet come to me about that.
So those of you writing Raimi hate mail, you can stop now.
Posted 03.23.09 by Ryan -
At the SXSW festival, director Sam Raimi was showing versions of his upcoming Drag Me to Hell but dropped some info on 2011's summer-headliner, Spider-Man 4 to MTV:
I can't imagine making a Spider-Man movie without Kirsten [Dunst]. Of course it can be done because Spider Man has existed without the character of Mary-Jane, but she's one of my favorite parts and it would be a shame not to have her in the picture. I'm hoping she'll be in it and I'm planning on having a story with her in it.
As for whether Raimi and company will shoot Spider-Man 4 and 5 at the same time, Raimi said:
The writers, producers and I are working out what the story will be, but we haven't been talking in terms of Part 4 and 5. I've read that [about Spider-Man 5] also, but right now we're just working on the story for Spider-Man 4, just that one film.
Raimi did not confirm whether Morbius the Vampire would be the villain in Spider-Man 4. Raimi told IGN:
I'm in the earliest stages of working with the writer, trying to work out a story. We're closing in on Spider-Man's adversary or adversaries... but I think Sony is going to want to release the Spider-Man announcements themselves.
The "writer" Raimi mentioned is Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire, who is set to write the screenplay.
Posted 03.17.09 by Ryan -
While it's now official that Mickey Rourke will play the villain Whiplash in Iron Man 2, Deadline Hollywood reports that Rourke's agent was also talking to Spider-Man 4 director Sam Raimi to get Rourke cast as a villain in the movie.
While the next Spidey villain is unconfirmed, Raimi has hinted that it could be Morbius the Vampire, which if true, might have been played by Rourke. Oh, what could have been!
Posted 03.13.09 by Ryan -
Marvel has announced some new release dates for several of its movies, pushing The Avengers off for another year, while anchoring the summer of 2011 with three different movies.
The first of the three, Spider-Man 4, was announced to open on May 6, 2011. Thor, which was to follow a summer after Iron Man 2 in 2010, will now follow Spider-Man 4 and open June 17, 2011, with First Avenger: Captain America set for release on July 22, 2011. The Avengers will now follow the next summer, opening May 4, 2012 instead of its previous summer 2011 release date.
2011 now features a Marvel-dominated summer, with many studios yet to announce release dates for that period. No word if a similar release date announcement from Warner Bros., in which Warner pitted its own high-profile movies against Marvel's, had any impact on the decision.
No change was made to Iron Man 2's release date of May 7, 2010.
Posted 03.12.09 by Ryan -
Well, some background shots maybe. But, hey, we're in the middle of a depression, the American auto industry is tanking, so you take what you can get, right? And give whatever it takes. Right now, Michigan is offering filmmakers the highest tax rebates in the country to shoot there. And apparently a potential 42% tax rebate is enough to convince Hollywood bigwigs that Detroit really does look more like New York (where they would be shooting if it wasn't so expensive to shoot in New York) than Cleveland or Vancouver. The latest to express interest in the Wolverine state is Michigan native Sam Raimi, who tells a local newspaper that some second-unit photography may be shot there as he takes Spider-Man IV, which is scheduled for a 2010 shoot. Raimi is also planning to shoot a low-budget horror movie, Room 205, entirely in Michigan this summer.
Posted 02.02.09 by reelz -
Kirsten Dunst's return may be uncertain, but J.K. Simmons, the man behind J. Jonah Jameson's infamous mustache will be back for Spider-Man 4.
Simmons seems pretty content with the size of the Bugle Chief role: "We've definitely brainstormed ideas for Triple-J, but I have no desire to make Triple-J more of the focus of those movies," he told MTV, "The amount that I did in 1, 2 and 3, is just exactly right. Like be the wolf. Come in, blow in, do a week, blow out, be the comic relief, and hit the road. And let Tobey and everybody else do the heavy lifting."
Spider-Man 4 is set to start filming in 2010, with a May 2011 release date, the same month that First Avenger: Captain America hits theaters (May 6), and before the July release of The Avengers.
Posted 01.19.09 by Ryan -
It's been awhile since Sam Raimi spoke up about Spider-Man 4, back when Raimi didn't want to confirm that Dylan Baker as Lizard would be the next villain to fight Spidey. Now MTV reports Raimi told Empire Magazine: "I like it in the Marvel comics when Spider-Man fights Morbius. He's really cool. A vampire! I like that combination of superhero plus supernatural."
Morbius the Vampire instead of the Lizard? Considering Raimi's horror roots, and some Spider-Man comic book history -- a 1971 issue of Amazing Spider-Man had the Lizard and Spidey team up against Morbius -- and Morbius seems like a very plausible choice.
Posted 01.09.09 by Ryan -
It will happen some day, he tells IFC, but not anytime soon. "I don't think there's even a doubt that we won't one day," he tells IFC, but since Sam Raimi just signed on to do Spider-Man 4, Campbell will have plenty of time for his Old Spice ads and other projects for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, there's My Name is Bruce, the story of a fan who kidnaps a B-list actor in the hope that the actor can save the fan's town from a resurrected Chinese warlord. Campbell stars and directs, and is making personal appearances at every showing of the movie as it plays around the country.
Posted 11.05.08 by reelz -
Spider-Man 4 is finally coming together. Director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire have signed on and rumors are building that Spidey's gal, Kirsten Dunst, will return as well.
Looking to rebound from the disappointing Spider-Man 3, Sony has brought in Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Lindsay-Abaire to write the script. The author won the 2007 Pulitzer for his Broadway play Rabbit Hole. He's also working on a Broadway musical adaptation of Shrek and his first feature, Inkheart, opens in January and stars Brendan Fraser.
Still no official word on plot details or who the villains will be, but we'll bring that news to you as soon as we hear more.
Source: Empire Movies
Posted 10.31.08 by reelz -
Our friends over at MTV Movies recently spoke with the notoriously dodgy Sam Raimi about the many rumors surrounding plans for the upcoming Spider-Man sequels.
Raimi says that he'd "love to work with [Kirsten Dunst] again" but seems to leave the prospect of replacing the actress very open.
As to the rumors that Spider-Man 4 and 5 will be shot back-to-back, Raimi says it has been "talked about" and will ultimately be up to Sony head honcho Amy Pascal. "Production would likely start by March of 2010," adds Raimi.
Although Raimi remained cagey on who the villain might be, he did admit that Dylan Baker's beloved Lizard story "will be told" one day, adding that he didn't know whether it would be for the next one or not. Fans might remember Raimi's response to the Venom speculation before Spider-Man 3 was quite similar.
You can read the full MTV interview with Raimi on MTV's Splashpage.
Posted 10.16.08 by reelz