Besides the nasty comments towards big celebrities, revealed salaries, vaguely racist comments about President Obama, and an apparent gender bias, this Sony hacking thing hasn't been too bad. Just kidding, it's been downright awful, and it isn't getting any better. The floodgates have been opened and nobody has found the valve to shut it off, and what we're learning the most about are Sony's plans for their tanking Spider-Man franchise, of which there are apparently quite a few.
The Daily Beast did the legwork on this one, digging through the emails and discovering Sony is once again eying another Spidey reboot down the line. Just last month Studio 8's Jeff Robinov began a discussion with Sony's Amy Pascal (she has to hate how her name is ALWAYS out there now) about a new phase for Spider-Man in which the character is treated in much the same way as James Bond. Basically, no matter who is under the suit or who is directing the character is treated the same. No more origin stories, none of that. This would all begin with a complete reboot of the character, and the names he has in mind to direct it is a starry bunch: "Brad Bird, Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (Frozen), Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), Joe Cornish (Attack the Block), Glenn Ficarra & John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love), James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), Don Hall & Chris Williams (Big Hero 6), Phil Lord & Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie), Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg (Kon-Tiki), Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World), Edgar Wright, and David Yates."
Good luck with that. He also proposes iconic Spidy story, "Kraven's Last Hunt", as a potential storyline, and considers the idea of depicting Spider-Man as an adult. Y'know, married and boring Peter Parker. The one Marvel Comics twisted themselves into knots to undo some years back. Again, good luck wit that, Robinov, but this probably isn't going to happen.
Colombia Pictures' Michael de Luca seems to have another idea, though, and that's to use a potential Spidey appearance in Captain America: Civil War to springboard future films. We know Sony and Marvel had talks to share the characters' rights, which would lead to someone other than Andrew Garfield in the suit, but whether those discussions continue remains a mystery. In an email from October, de Luca sounds pretty high on the whole idea...
De Luca: “I really feel, in my heart of hearts, that the new spiderman [sic] in cap 3 could just appear in his own film, be it sinister six or a kick ass spidey film of his own, after that intro in cap 3 and people would be cool with it."
He also confirms a rumor from some months ago that 20th Century Fox hopes to team-up their Fantastic Four and X-men franchises in one gigantic superhero extravaganza ala X-men: Days of Future Past or The Avengers, and De Luca thinks Sony can do the same with the "deep" Spider-Man universe...
De Luca: “[Simon] Kinberg told me fox is steering Xmen and Fantastic Four into an eventual team up film. Seems to me maybe, since the Spider-man universe itself is deep, you guys should look at sinister six, new spidey, female movie and venom as linked pieces leading to eventual mega movie ala Feige and Fox and not stand alone single films. It's early in all these and you can still map out a blueprint for connective tissue.”
Who knows if De Luca's info is accurate here. He says Kinberg told him so he's probably not lying, but doesn't it seem early in the game for Fox to be considering such a move? The Fantastic Four reboot is already a risky venture, and if it flops there most definitely won't be any sequels, much less some huge crossover with the successful X-men franchise.
De Luca also expressed his desire to have Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) direct The Amazing Spider-Man 3 in 2018. They obviously have very close ties with the studio and could be open to it, but they're also supposedly working on an animated Spider-Man comedy series or something. Maybe there's been some miscommunication?
If there's anything these emails prove it's that Sony continues to field just about every idea imaginable to try and get Spider-Man back on track. In a sense that's a good thing because it shows they give a care about it, but until some hard decisions are made the web-head's movies will continue to flounder.
