Movie News: More on Spider-Man 4, Green Lantern Starts Filming, Avatar's Grossing Continuation, And Wolverine Two

Post-Production Blues For Spider-Man 4
Things haven't been looking great for Spider-Man 4 recently.  According to comicbookmovie.com, the script has been met with less than enthusiastic criticism.  Below come from an e-mail sent to the script writers....

- More of the same campy, tired scenes by Raimi including starting off with a musical number (while Spidey fights terrorists). Ugh! Raimi wanted "Walkin' on Sunshine" whereas the studio wanted Taylor Swift. Double Ugh!

- Vulture WAS the villain only, get this, Malkovich was set to control the a Vulture 'robot' ala Avatar by laying in a pod and fusing his mind with the Vulture Avatar. The 'Vulture' was set to be 10-ft tall and blue.

- The Pascal and Raimi are battling over where or not JJJ should yell at Peter over his being discontented at his pay to "Go start a blog" vs. "Go tweet a tweet."

- A scene where Peter is in his room watching a youtube clip of a Vulture attack, imagining how he'd fight him when he accidentally shoots out webs. Aunt May comes in and Peter has to hide the mess. Sigh
Additionally, it appears that the personal battle between Raimi and the Studio execs been allowed to affect the script with Raimi deliberately planting ludicrous things in the script just to piss the studio off such as:

- A scene involving full frontal nudity of Peter/Toby.

- A villain named the "Meddler" who gives bad advice to Peter and always butts into his life who is modeled after Pascal.

Now this came from a source that isn't the most reliable.  However, I did happen to stumble upon a qoute from Toby McGuire himself which supports this claim that Spider-Man 4 production is not up to par....

"Like anything, it's a process," Maguire said, "We're just in the midst of the process. We have a lot of great stuff in terms of story and script. We're just trying to dial it in and get it ready as quickly as possible. Of course, these movies are a very big undertaking and take a lot more time than a drama or something more straightforward.  Not only do I have specific ideas, but the ideas are evolving on the page. It's all happening right now. It's all sort of coming together. It's very exciting to me. I think the evolution of the character is really exciting, to be rooted in the history of what we've done already and to have a continuity, yet have a progression or evolution."

However, it is now official that Spider-Man 4 is now scrapped from production. And now a reboot of the entire Spider-Man franchise is being put into motion.  What does that mean?  Exactly what it sounds like, Spider-Man will be taken back to its roots with an all new cast and take on the origin story.

I find this relieving yet awful.  Sam Raimi took the Spider-Man franchise by storm which helped to redefine the comic book movie genre.  It was a daunting task and Raimi did all he could with it.  However, to be honest, the Spider-Man films, while still a lot of fun, aren't great films.  They are exceptionally hokey and painfully over-the-top.  It would be nice to see a reboot of the whole story that takes a much more serious and more mature approach to the hero.

Green Lantern Has The Green Light!

On the 7th of January, Green Lantern was given the green light to begin production!  Filming is to begin sometime in March. This is nice to hear since there have been nothing but delays in getting this film underway.

I'm certainly glad to hear the film is finally going, however I wonder how long it will take to get casting set.  Martin Campbell is not known for his timeliness.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Avatar Keeps Topping The Box Office

It's no surprise that Avatar continually racks up in the cash at the box office, but currently it's going above and beyond expectations.  It's only been out for approximately 4 weeks, only having a 26% decrease in sales, but still grossing a $50 million income.  I would say that's pretty darn impressive if you were to ask me.  Of course this now brings it to the second highest grossing film in history, next to Titanic.

I am, of course, not surprised by this bit of news.  The general public all seem to go for the flashy, more predictable films rather than enjoying the more intelligently written films.  I'm not trying to imply that Avatar is not worth seeing, but it's the visual aspect of the film that makes it worth the price of admission.  The story however, not so much. Films like Lord of the rings, V for Vendetta, From Hell, The Spirit and Sin City are much better films than Avatar purely on how well the script is written.  If you were to take the story in Avatar, and remove the incredible visual effects, you would have a bad film.

I will accept the fact that most people will rant and rave about this film and how "awesome" it is.  But truly, this film is only doing as well as it is because of its visual originality and genius, not because of it's story.

Wolverine the 2nd???

It looks like fan based demand is going to be met.  Hugh Jackman hinted at a sequel to the X-Men Origins: Wolverine film.  At the people's choice award ceremony, Jackman received the award of "actor favorite" by fans.  During his acceptance speech, he mention a film he will be shooting this summer called "Real Steel," following by this qoute, "Wolverine will be back."

According to some sources, the film will focus on his travels in Japan.  This could mean the relationship between Logan and Yoriko will be revealed.  But I certainly hope it is a step up from the below average Wolverine film Marvel Studios put out.

Movie News: Sandman film Possibility, New Star Wars Film, and The Hobbit

Sam Liu on "The Sandman" Film Possibility
Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths director Sam Liu mentioned he would love to make an animated feature film of The Sandman.

"I'd love to do Sandman from the Vertigo line. I don't know what kind of story that would be, but I'd love to work with Neil Gaiman because I really loved those comics." 

Sam Liu, who worked on animated films such as Green Lantern: First Flight, Wonder Woman, Batman/Superman: Public Enemies, any many more as director and as animator, (shuffling back and forth as each) seems to show great enthusiasm for said animated project.


I've enjoyed most of the films Liu has been a part of, even the poorly written animated film "Superman/Batman: Public enemies, and highly respect his urge to bring the Sandman to life on the animated realm.  However, I wonder how daunting of a task this would be as an animated feature.


First off, as all fans know, Sandman is not for the squeamish or who have weak constitutions.  It's an incredibly violent and intelligently written series of graphic novels.  By making in animated, would the story have to be dumbed down for a younger audience, or would Liu keep it exactly like it is to please the adult crowds and make it as accurate as possible?  I personally think it could work as an animated film, but I wouldn't want it to be done by the Japanese animation studios or by the Warner Bros. animation studios.  Yeah they put out good work, but Sandman needs to be handled by a different group of people.  Yeah, Warner Bros. wont let it go, but I hope they could hire a different studio to take care of the animation quality.  And of course, I would hope Neil Gaiman would be consulted, like Liu said, in creating a GOOD Sandman film.

New Star Wars Films

According to comicbookmovie.com, some certain people have been leaking out the possibility of a new Star Wars film in the making...

"..My host is friend and former collaborator Paul Sebastien, who over the years has worked for Xbox, Playstation, and now LucasArts. Last night he was telling me a little about the forthcoming Star Wars-related TV show, movie and online games—very cool indeed.
...it sounds like Mr Lucas has got his head into a good place. I met him several times when I was working on a movie in the 80s called [name suppressed to protect credibility!] and he’s a decent chap, but I could have done without the last three SW movies."

 Now who knows how reliable this source is seeing as how the quot comes from a personal blog of someone who knows the people high up on the food chain, and some fan who writes blog on comicbookmovie.com just embedded it into his section of the site, but there is potential.  The animated film was a success and cartoon series is doing quite well.  Maybe Lucas has changed his mind about making more films.  I personally would love to see another film as long as it is a step away from the crappy last three films.

More News on The Hobbit

Casting for The Hobbit will begin his coming Monday (12/14) and it looks as if Andy Serkis will be getting ready to return as the famed Gollum.  Del Torro, who is directing the film, has stated he can't see anyone else returning as Gollum.  If you wish to audition as a mainline actor or an extra for the film, the following information will help you...

Principal Actor Casting:
Liz Mullane Casting
17 Taipakupaku Road
Karaka Bay
Wellington, New Zealand 6022

Extras Casting:
Miranda Rivers
PO Box 6479
Marion Square
Wellington, New Zealand 6022

Yes, Casting is in New Zealand, so you'll have to do some traveling.

The film is planned in coming out in two installments, much like the LOTR trilogy was done, where all three movies were filmed at the same time but distributed to theaters in a three year time span.

To find out more on what Director Guillermo del Toro says on the latest development of the film, go to theonering.net and read his blub.