TheWallStreetJournal has pointed out a new story coming out of this huge data leak at Sony Pictures. Last night it was revealed that Sony had conversations with Marvel about the future of Spider-Man. There were conversations between Sony producers about Marvel Studios producing a new Spidey trilogy. This happened only two-days after the massive Marvel Phase Three announcements dominating the news cycle.
Sounds great, but Sony's stipulation was they wanted to keep creative control and marketing rights. This gives the impression Sony only wanted money and Marvel's brand attached to new films. It's glaring that Sony wouldn't be willing to give Marvel control of the direction of the character, since Marvel has been making genre landmarks. Avengers being the third biggest film of all time, and Guardians having one of the biggest debuts for Marvel film.
There is also an email exchange that Marvel had asked about using Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. While some are quick to think that this means Spidey would have replaced Black Panther. We have no idea the time frame of this Civil War email, but it's possible it was after they locked-in the main cast. Meaning, Panther was already in the Spider-Man role in the story, which will help promote Panther's solo film and introduce the character to the world.
Talks towards both ideas apparently broke-down, and Sony will move forward with their own slate.
Another potential project was an animated film produced by Chris Miller and Philip Lord, best known for Cloudy With Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie and 21-22 Jump Street. I'm sure Disney's Big Hero 6, might have helped push that idea.
Apparently, there is a "Spidey Summit" in January where producers will try to figure-out the future of the franchise. The company has been losing billions, and Spider-Man installments have been seeing slowly decreasing box office. We know that Disney has been eagerly trying to buy back the rest of the Marvel character catalog, ever since they bought Marvel. If Sony can't find a way to make these films work, it's extremely likely they'll just sell back the rights.
It's mind-boggling that Sony is really thinking about Marvel taking-over the reigns of the franchise, but not contributing to the creative-side of the films. They've obviously have done more damage with each installment since Raimi's Spider-Man 2. The Marvel-Disney produced Ultimate Spider-Man series has been so popular, that Disney changed the look/direction of their Avengers show to crossover to the Spidey toon. Rumors of projects like an Aunt May movie and delays of projects like Amazing Spider-Man 3/Venom give the impression the studio have no idea how to move forward. The Venom movie has been killed twice, and is now stuck in limbo.
Drew Goddard (mastermind behind Marvel's Daredevil Netflix series) was convinced to write-direct Sinister Six for Sony. He would be the kind of filmmaker that could spearhead a new trilogy. There had been rumors from BadassDigest that Spider-Man could be given a soft reboot in Six. This likely means a new actor and reworking the world to be cohesive to the MCU. Sorry Andrew Garfield, you are the face of a terrible franchise.
There is also some backlash recently from Amazing Spider-Man 2 composer James Horner, about the film. Sparking even brighter picture of the nightmare production. Sony, and producers including Avi Arad wanted zero input from director Marc Webb. Horner knew the film would be a disaster and wanted nothing to do with it. We rarely have a composer speaking-out about productions like this, but he obviously felt Marc Webb was treated poorly.
You'd think the director would be allowed to have a vision for the film. Instead, it's creative side was micro-managed by producers and Sony executives. We all know that leads to disaster and now after their meddling they are scrambling to figure-out how to un-fuck the franchise they've all had a hand in ruining.
Why not just give the franchise to Marvel Studios and share profits with them?
SOURCE: WSJ
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