Well it seems a surprise but maybe it shouldn’t be. Rumours seem to be circulating that Sony is intending to give Spider-Man another reboot. The fact that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 made less box-office than its predecessor seems to have gotten the executives nervous.
For myself, well, I had problems with the film (as my review last month will testify) but there was still much to like in the film, particularly Andrew Garfield’s performance and the films take on Spidey in action (especially in the first half). The problem with the film was its mad fascination with franchise-building, simply unnecessary back-story and seeding numerous villains for a Sinister Six spin-off. If only Sony had tried to just make a single good movie rather than a launchpad into other films/stories. No doubt they were enviously looking at what Marvel Studios have been up to and wanted more of the same. This is the most irritating thing about trilogies/sagas- if they end up aborted (Golden Compass, I’m looking at you) then it undermines the individual films and all that went into them.
I find it extremely irritating that rather than own up to their mistakes and make a good ‘proper’ Amazing Spider-Man 3 with maybe one genuine villain (Dr Octopus, please stand up) and the good things from the second film (i.e. Garfield), it looks like we are going to be getting another reboot, complete with yet another tiresome origin story and romance arc (this time Mary Jane again?).
Nothing has been confirmed as yet, but signs do look ominous for anyone who wanted to see what happened next after the second Amazing film. Maybe a Spectacular Spider-Man trilogy instead? Poor Spidey- he deserves so much better…
the ghost of 82 
One rumour I heard was they were planning a “soft reboot” — i.e. go ahead as planned but recast Spidey in Sinister Six, and then presumably ASM3 wouldn’t be a 3 — but that seems to miss the point.
I think the problem with all these studios scrabbling to copy Marvel is they haven’t paid attention to how Marvel actually did it. They didn’t dive in with half-a-dozen movies already scheduled, but grew it gradually. In fact, if you look back on it, the only first-phase films that were universally well received were Iron Man and The Avengers! Marvel then and now (to an extent) roll things out gradually and announce them in response to public demand, not schedule 10 movies before the first one even has a trailer, like Warner have done with DC.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next two or three years, when all these multi-franchise plans really kick in. Marvel are the Pixar of the 2010s right now — unassailable and able to do what they want. But surely audience saturation is getting close?
I thought the bubble was going to burst a few years ago, but instead it just seemed to go from strength to strength (the turning point was the Thor movie, oddly enough- I thought it was a fringe title, shows what I know). It can’t go on forever, surely, but Warner do seem to be struggling with the DC universe. Maybe the public are OK with one comic universe but two is too much?
This is horrible. I hated the second film in all honesty…
…but I don’t see how yet another reboot will be the answer. The only way to slightly catch my interest in that regard is if they use Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker. Because hey, at least it is something new.
The sooner studios stop treating feature films like television – the better.
That comment should be printed on tee-shirts and sold at film conventions. The revolution starts here!
Viva la revolution! 🙂
Sony needs to recruit better filmmakers. I personally would like to see a Wes Anderson Spiderman film. Ok, I’m kidding but wouldn’t it be awesome?
No, it would not.
I used to get annoyed 10 years ago when interesting film-makers started getting hired to make franchise films (Raimi, Singer, Nolan, Ang Lee), but it’s getting ridiculous now. And the problem is, once they’ve played with the studio’s big toys, they rarely come back to the kind of film they used to make.
So no, the last thing I ever want to see is a Wes Anderson Spider-Man film.
You raise a good point there Matt regards the choice of the ‘unlikely’ directors such as Ang Lee for these blockbusters. It used to seem quite daring but it rarely seems to work (Tim Burton had two stabs at Batman, but never really made a ‘proper’ Batman movie). I do wonder though if they even have much choice about it; if you can’t get your personal ‘arty’ project greenlit, but the Studio is crazy enough to offer you a fortune to sell-out on one of its blockbusters, what do you do? Its akin to winning the Lottery, surely, being offered millions to play with such a big Hollywood toyset (the money directors are getting paid to make movies these days, tens of millions, must be a major temptation/pension pot). The alternative is quite scary too- if all we had were blockbusters by Bay and McG and company… oh dear…