Spider-man revisited

[Gaumer]

They should treat his origin like Batman Begins treated Batman's. Showcase is in the first half hour than use it to build on the entire movie.

It would be better if they did it all within the opening credits and then we got right into the movie.

Ala the latest Hulk movie? Both good ideas, but thats what I meant. In the first movie they DID spend a lot of time with origin, and it made sense. Not so much this soon. Its going to be a fine line they walk, but knowing Sony they will throw their hands in the air and do Spider-Man 1 with Peter being 2 years younger.

[Navarre]

Rumors always abound but I have heard about people like Rob Pattison from Twilight being considered for the role. Although I don't believe that for a second, it does add more to my unease that part of the plan is to create a Peter Parker story that the tweeny set will enjoy, leading to more teen angst in the high school hallway and mooning over the girl than a focus on the elements that really make Peter a hero.

[MaximusRift]

I hate to say it, but it's possible. Twilight is really popular and studio exec love to overuse anything popular.  I hope they don't go the teen angst route, but if they do I'll probably still see it and kick the nearest teenager in the head screaming the last lines of Planet of the Apes Heston-style.

[Navarre]

and kick the nearest teenager in the head screaming the last lines of Planet of the Apes Heston-style.

  Made me laugh.

Twilight and the Vampire Diaries and all those similar shows on tv have such a hold on the slice of the demographic who generates all the real buzz and who has the most disposable income. Disney has influence at Marvel and also hits the same demographic, a la Miley Cyrus and such.

I can see red carpet events with a thousand screaming teen girls and millions screaming at home, all fawning over the pseudo-nerdy but oh-so-adorable Peter Parker to be.

[Einsteinic-Rocket]

Obviously they are going to have to do Spider-Man's origin in this movie if its going to be set during his high school career.  I think the best way to do it would be to start the movie similarly to the recent Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon...where Peter Parker has already been Spider-Man for a little while.  From there they could show flashbacks to Spider-Man's origin....similar to how we see Thomas and Martha Wayne's deaths and that aftermath in Batman Begins.

But honestly I don't understand why they need a reboot.  Why can't they make a movie that jdoesn't directly link to Spider-Man 3?  It would be easy enough to set Spiderman 4 some time after 3, maybe a year or so, and with the whole sha-bang with 3 in the past Peter Parker is  moving on to a new adventure (preferably with the already well established Curt Conners turning into the Lizard).

I wish the series success, and I'll certainly check out whatever is made...but this whole fiasco just frustrates me.

[Gaumer]

I think the movie series has been played out so much and Sony has such a little imagination and such little faith and such little scope, that they have no other option but to do the reboot.

I, mean, where do you go from where Spidey 3 left off? The relationships are sort of played out and the way they introed Gwen is laughable and completly dead-ended because of it. Most of us can see the complexities of some lesser known Spidey villains and we also can see how they can be used effectively in the movie, but its freakin' Sony people. They have the imagination of a color-blind rutabaga. Even if they got a fantastic script featuring Lizard or Rhino or Electro or Shocker or Mysterio, they would turn it down because they don't have the faith in the audience to "get" a B-list Spidey villain.

Just my opinion really, but I really feel like this movie is going to be Spidey 1 (I guess we should start referring to it as Spider-Man (2002)) with new actors playing the same roles only 2 years younger than before. But I also think that that is OK.

[Navarre]

They have the imagination of a color-blind rutabaga.

heh Dat make me laff.

So much of any movie comes down to script and director. If they go back and start with a younger Peter and go through the high school origin story, which I suspect they will, it can still be a great movie.

It isn't what I prefer. I think the motivation is as I've expressed above, along with rutabagas making scripts.

But it would be presumptuous of me to entirely dismiss the franchise until I see where it goes. I mean, even Smallville could have been good if it had better writers and some solid direction.

[The_Julian]

One of my favorite comments on the news post:

Obsidian:

I have to say that if “confusing the audience” is anyone’s primary concern with why a reboot shouldn’t be done, then you’re missing the point of acting and movies in general. I have little faith in the general movie-going population considering what ends up on the silver screen but I don’t think that people will be confused by having a different actor portraying a comic book characters that is routinely drawn (and portrayed) differently by different creative teams. Maybe looking at this as a reboot is the problem. Try thinking of it as having a new creative team working on the film and perhaps people will feel better.

As it stands, we’re at the beginning stages so all we can do is speculate. Someone above mentioned that they thought that the “hurry up play” was due to the contractual structure surrounding Spider-Man films. That might be on the money. It sounds like a reasonable cause to me.

At the end of the day, what matters to me is being provided with a SOLID movie that doesn’t bypass story and plot for visual distractions. Let’s just hope that Sony’s choice allows that to happen.

Oh, and something tells me that “reboot” doesn’t have to equate with “origin” story. I expect Sony is smart enough to know that enough people know his origins and that there’s more than one way to include exposition for the sake of those who don’t know.

Oh, and another article on what could make the next spidey work:
http://movies.ign.com/articles/106/1060521p1.html

[Navarre]

I'm not concerned that a reboot demands an origin. I don't want to see an origin story again but it won't kill it for me.

My concern is that they are going to pander to the Twilight/Vampire Diarie/90210 demographic and give us more teen angst and love drama than anything else. But it is way to early to know anything.

[Navarre]

If this hasn't already been posted somewhere:

Sony has announced that Mark Webb will be the new director of Spider-Man.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni1438804/

[MaximusRift]

Not a bad choice for a director. But it does concern me that he's only really directed one movie.

Oh and ItsJustSomeRandomGuy has weighed in on the reboot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg6v1dgTcxw

Comments?

[The_Julian]

I really like 500 days of summer so I'm interested.  I think we can expect to see thousands of headlines reading "Spider-Man is Stuck in the Webb" or "What a Tangled Webb Spidey Weaves" in the coming weeks

Nav, I really doubt that the drama would be so over played in that sense that it would completely alienate the already humongous established fan base that Spider-Man already has. But at the same time, the teen drama has always been a huge part of Spider-man mythos and it's done right more often than not (see "Ultimate Spider-Man" and "Spectacular Spider-Man" for plenty of examples on how it could be done well without taking away from the super heroics).

Maximus, I'm not too concerned with the one movie thing when you consider that Zack Sneider had only one film when "300" was made.

[Navarre]

I agree that Peter has always had his fair share of angst. This will be especially true if we return to his high school days, a time of less experience and maturity coupled with his newfound challenges.

I am not against the idea. I am only commenting that the decision coincidentally coincides (odd phrase choice) with the current teen drama craze.

I am most certainly going to see the movie because it deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt, just like Star Trek did when everyone was all torn up over that so-called "reboot".

[Gaumer]

Rumor has it that Zooey DeChanel will be playing Betty Brant in the new Spidey flick.

Just sharing

[Navarre]

Zooey is very pretty. I haven't seen enough of her movies to know much of her acting ability.

So we have Betty and Gwen but no M.J.? That works for me, based on my understanding of the time period.