Spider-Man 4 Looking For a New Direction
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Perhaps Sony listened to some of the criticism leveled at Spider-Man 3, that despite its historic opening day numbers (it's still nearly $1 billion behind Titanic, overall), it was a bit of a letdown. I can't say, I haven't seen it yet, but clearly some people were disappointed with what was brought to the table. For whatever reason you choose to believe, Sam Raimi told MTV News that they are looking for new writers for the fourth installment in the overwhelmingly popular franchise and he is still noncommittal towards directing it.Raimi won't have a hand in the script, although he apparently has confirmed that he'll be returning as a producer regardless of anything else. I like that Sony is open to keeping things fresh by bringing in new talent every once in a while, and that goes for writers more than directors and actors, because a different script can give the other two groups an entirely new playground.
Good guys can be evil, dark flicks can find hope and give you something to laugh at, all without sacrificing the visual style or having to invest in an entirely new cast.
Other things Raimi touches on are his lack of interest in a spin-off for the Venom character (wise choice by him, retarded greed on the part of Sony and Marvel) as well as more Evil Dead and 30 Days of Night, the latter of which was made through Rami's own production company.
Perhaps of interest to most, Raimi gave his thoughts about the dust-up between New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson over profit sharing for Lord of the Rings. Jackson thinks he is owned by New Line, and New Line won't let Jackson helm The Hobbit unless he drops his lawsuit. There are no good guys in this despite what many people think, unless and until the suit has been decided by the courts. It may very well be that New Line cheated Jackson, and if they did, he'll get what's coming to him.
It could also be that New Line did nothing wrong and Jackson will both lose this lawsuit, and the opportunity to direct The Hobbit. I don't think it'd be such a disaster to have somebody else direct that flick - there are plenty of other talented directors out there that could do as good of a job as Peter. Jackson is talented, but people give him too much credit for LOTR. Jackson and his writers walked into a made story, and not to take away from the fantastic job they did bringing it to life, but it's not like they had original unknown material to begin with.
All they could do was screw it up, even a mediocre job probably would have made a ton of money. Personally, I'd love to see what Raimi could do with it. We already know he can direct challenging projects and make great films out of them, but can Jackson? He hasn't proven that ability yet. He's still the first choice, though.
'Tis a good, lengthy story. I highly recommend it.
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