Spider-Man 4 Now On Its 3rd Writer. ITS 3RD WRITER. Is That Poo I Smell?

By George 'El Guapo' Roush on July 08, 2009
Spider-Man 4 Now On Its 3rd Writer. ITS 3RD WRITER. Is That Poo I Smell? I knew this would happen and I've talked about this multiple times.

With Raimi and company completely fucking up the obvious Venom/Carnage storyline, it left Spider-Man 4 in limbo as to the direction it should go in and the villains to use. I mean, the plot was simple - Venom as the main villain in 3 and then carried over into the 4th film with Carnage being the main villain and Spidey and Venom having to team up to take him down, thus introducing Venom as a sort of anti-hero for his own film. (I go into more detail HERE.)

With nobody at Sony giving any thought as to Spider-Man's cinematic future, we had the horrible mess that was Spider-Man 3. And now it seems like they still don't know what they're doing having hired another writer for a third rewrite for Spider-Man 4:

Gary Ross is back in the saddle with his “Seabiscuit” star Tobey Maguire.

Ross has come aboard to rewrite the script for “Spider-Man 4,” the Sam Raimi-directed film that Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios will put into production early next year.

While Maguire has toplined both of the films Ross has directed (“Pleasantville” is the other), the “Spider-Man 4” deal comes more from Ross’s growing relationship with Sony.

Ross is rewriting to direct a Columbia Pictures film about cyclist Lance Armstrong. Though the film's focus is on Armstrong's recovery from testicular cancer to the triumph of winning seven Tour de France titles, the project has gained new relevance after Armstrong un-retired, returned to the Tour, and zoomed from back in the pack to second place this week.

Ross had also worked closely with the studio on “Tokyo Suckerpunch,” the film he expected to direct next. That picture got postponed when Anne Hathaway -- who planned to star with Maguire -- developed a scheduling problem.

The “Spider-Man 4” script was originally written by James Vanderbilt, and then rewritten by David Lindsay-Abaire.

Nothing against Ross, but what makes him qualified to write a Spider-Man movie? I'm sure he'll do great at focusing on the human aspects of the story, but fuck all of that Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson bullshit we had to endure for three movies. It's time to move on and make a kick-ass balls out action Spider-Man film. The one that should have been with Venom/Spidey and Carnage. Hell, that storyline could have also introduced the villan(s) for the 5th movie.

With a third writer now on board I'm burned out on even speculating what it will be about. Am I overreacting? Perhaps. But this doesn't give me a ton of confidence in the project. Not after what fans had to suffer through with the 3rd movie. Maybe Gary will not give in to Raimi asking for another dance number.

What do you guys think? Doomed or a sign of hope?

Swing on over and
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Source: The trades
Tags: Spider-Man 4, News