ROTTEN TOMATOES: Sam Raimi Drops a Little Hint on "Spider-Man 4"

Sam Raimi Drops a Little Hint on "Spider-Man 4"

by Scott Weinberg | January 08, 2007

"Spider-Man 3" is still over four months away, but that hasn't prevented the fans and filmmakers from discussing the possibility of a fourth wall-climbing adventure...

IGN Movies shares a brief snippet from a Sam Raimi interview over at Premiere Magazine: ""Amy [Pascal, Sony co-chairman] told me that she would [keep making Spidey movies]. I love Spider-Man. And I love working with Kirsten [Dunst], Tobey [Maguire], James [Franco]," the director said. "I don't know if Thomas [Haden Church] and Topher [Grace] will be around in the next one, but probably Bryce [Dallas Howard] will be."

Hmm, very interesting. Could the "Spidey" series end up like the Bond flicks? New cast, new adventures each time out? Hell, as long as the screenplays are solid (and they hire a worthy director once Mr. Raimi bows out), I'm all for it.

Just be sure to keep J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson!

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(1-20 of 28 posts) | Reply

dagreenman18 writes:
on Jan 08 2007 01:16 PM

end it at 4. just convince everyone to come back for one final Spiderman to end all Spidermans at let it go out in one hell of a bang. thats what everyone wants.

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lrm8 writes:
on Jan 08 2007 01:31 PM

thats the problem with superhero franchises, nobody wants them to end, but at the same time artistically its real hard to keep it going. i present to you the batman and superman franchises, which started out tremendously but got worse and worse, until the last ones were very very sad.

i doubt spiderman will be so terribly botched as batman and robin or superman 4, and i realize spidey is a huge cash cow, but arent all the great spidey villains already used up? dont say mysterio, because that would devolve into "arnold as freeze" camp.

only one i could think of is lizard, but apparently they are going for jekyl and hyde in the third one with venom. maybe they could keep venom alive and do venom/lizard, or maybe even carnage/lizard if they want to go out on a limb... but dagreenman is right. end it at 4 if you have to, anything further than that is simply asinine

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cardow writes:
on Jan 08 2007 01:39 PM

Personally, I think they should just end it with part 3 and keep it as a solid trilogy.

If they absolutely feel compelled to make more, they need to end the Norman/Harry storyline and wrap just about everything up in 3. Then, wait 5 or 6 years, and come out with a brand new storyline to span 3 films giving spidey a second trilogy (preferably with Tobey and Kirsten still on board). Making a fourth installment before waiting at least five years is simply overkill and will botch the entire series. Play it smart, Sony.

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lonechicken writes:
on Jan 08 2007 01:51 PM

The problem with the Batman movies (pre-Nolan) were that they kept killing off the villains. Painting themselves into a corner with needing to use crappier villains the next time out. Well okay, those movies stunk regardless, but I've never thought of Joker as a "one and done" type of villain, yet he was just that in the first Batman.

It'd be like the X-Men killing off Magneto in the first movie.

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FireflyFan4evr writes:
on Jan 08 2007 01:52 PM

Really, what do all of these actors have going on that's more important than making Spiderman films? These films have pretty much given them a wider career. Sure, I don't like any of the Spiderman films but the actors should wake up.

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arpeggio191 writes:
on Jan 08 2007 03:00 PM

In reply to this comment (#852481)
I agree with you about the batman and superman movies. Batman ended with nipples on the suit and Superman threw all the nuclear missles into the sun. Lame.

But at the same time, the most recent ones (batman begins and superman returns) were very well done. And good superhero movies call for good sequels. The comics never (ok, rarely) die, so why should the movies? - as long as they are done right.

I think the spiderman films have been great throughout... but you're right, the 4th ones tend to be super disasters. Let's just hope the batman and superman failures were because of stupid directors and produces (shumacker sucks!)

I'm ok with it just as long as we don't see another elektra, or daredevil, cause holy crap those movies suuuuuuuuuuuuuucked. Oh, and so did the punisher, and catwoman, and any other shitty ones i can't remember...

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Bear45 writes:
on Jan 08 2007 04:13 PM

In reply to this comment (#852485)
Pssshhh! I'd rather watch an Elektra sequel than a Superman Returns sequel.

MY FEMALE co-worker: "I liked Superman Returns. There wasn't a lot of action. It was more of a love story..."

That sums up the crappiness that is Superman Returns.

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Banana Kid writes:
on Jan 08 2007 04:36 PM

I totally agree. Nobody buy J.K. Simmons should be JJJ.

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Sputnik99 writes:
on Jan 08 2007 04:52 PM

I've learned that it doesn't matter if a movie is an original or a sequel. As long as it is well-made and entertaining, people will like it and accept it. Spider 2 was slighlty better than 1 and X-men two was way better than 1. Why? They were better productions. Almost every number 3 stinks, but Star Wars 3 was better than 1 or 2. Who knows what may happen? Remember, James Bond's number 3 was Goldfinger, and that movie is a classic!

Who cares where a movie falls in the great scheme of things. If it has the characters I like and a good story to it, I'll watch it.

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southfrisco writes:
on Jan 08 2007 05:00 PM

In reply to this comment (#852484)
Firefly:

Tobey has a decent film career and Kirsten continues to get roles for some reason. James needs this series to keep his career alive.

They are not like a David Duchovny where you are only known for one role. Tobey and Kirsten had film careers started long before Spiderman came along.

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killermonkey8822 writes:
on Jan 08 2007 05:36 PM

make like a clash with mysterio,venom,carnage,sandman,and hob goblin in spider man 3 and make that the end and kill off spider man. i dunno just a shity idea

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interplanetaryspy writes:
on Jan 08 2007 07:41 PM

[b]Hard to keep a comic book franchise going?[/b]
It's based on a COMIC BOOK! How many story lines are there available to use just in the comics, if you didn't want to come up with something original? Hundreds. Comic book franchises are the easiest to keep going, because they are based on a medium that has an infinite life span. You can change the artists and the writers, but if you pick good people, the comic goes on. Just because Schumacher ruined Batman, doesn't mean there were no more Batman story ideas. The problem is that studios eventually screw it all up. As long as Raimi, Nolan, or other equally talented and dedicated directors are willing to be involved, keep making them! You know that every one of you would go to see Spider-Man 15 if the right people were still making good movies.

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ZiGyStRdUsT writes:
on Jan 08 2007 09:39 PM

[b]venom[/b]
Gah! I'm just afraid venom is going to be in S3 for like 10 minutes. If they do that I DEFINATELY NEED a spiderman 4, if on the other hand venom gets decent screen time I'd be ok with it ending.

Hey, when Raimi says that he is not sure if haden church and topher will return for the fourth did he inadvertedly give a hint that they both dont die?

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TortillaSoup writes:
on Jan 08 2007 10:08 PM

wow...way to give away that sandman doesn't die... *rolls eyes*

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AstroZombie138 writes:
on Jan 09 2007 06:25 AM

As long as the quality of the films doesn't decline, I'd love to see more. It's not like there isn't a wealth of material to draw from. I just wish they hadn't killed off Doc Ock. Now we'll never get the real Sinister Six.

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taran72 writes:
on Jan 09 2007 11:50 AM

They should quit at three, four MAX if they get everyone back and it's already planned. Please don't compare this to the Bond series - this is a completely different animal. For one thing, Connery hung around for six Bond films. Second, Bond was more of a cypher - never really a fully fleshed character in the movies (arguably until the recent Casino Royale).

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Bigbrother writes:
on Jan 09 2007 01:20 PM

In reply to this comment (#852493)
He didn't give anything away. He said "may" doesn't mean he will doesn't mean he won't. Perhaps he's being deliberately cagey to keep us guessing. Plus whoever said Jedi was better than both New Hope and Empire needs their critic credentials checked. Everyone knows Empire is the best of the series.

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lrm8 writes:
on Jan 09 2007 01:42 PM

interplanetary:

you're right about comics having a billion story lines and the like, but in movies, like someone mentioned before, the villains die off and cant be brought back. think of the batman movies 1-4, it would be extremely hard to make batman 5 with different villains (i know, i know, batman begins used villains that were not featured in batman 1-4). but comics also have alot of one-shot graphic novels, and different time lines and alternate universes and all that crap that cant be put in a movie trilogy.

as pertaining directly to spiderman, i honestly wouldnt watch a movie in which the main villains were say, rhino and scorpion. or mysterio, because they arent villains that can be menacing AND add drama to the story, like for example you could with batman and two face and you could bring up the duality issue of batman/bruce wayne harvey/two face, blah blah blah

i feel like there has to be a reason to make another spidey to explore a different side of him. they explored the "im a new superhero" in one, "i dont want to be a superhero anymore" in two, and appear to be mining the "im such a powerful superhero its going to affect my moral judgement" in three. admittedly im no sam raimi, but i dont know what else they can do with spidey...

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Merlin235 writes:
on Jan 09 2007 02:42 PM

In reply to this comment (#852497)
There is still quite a few places they can take the character. How about how being married affects being a superhero? How do you balance your primary responsibility to your family with your responsibility of being a hero? Besides, they've still got the Lizard, which is a close friend of Spiderman. If they keep Kurt Connors in this one (which they might.....is he the one who helps Spiderman figure out what the symbiote is doing to him in SP3?), they could easily adapt him for another movie. Or take the comic storyline of how Norman Osborn didn't actually die, that the Goblin Formula enhanced his healing abilities? Or the whole Secret Wars storyline. Or Morbeus. They could also just do a normal caper type movie, with Hammerhead and the Kingpin. Or pay Fox big bucks and do a crossover movie with the X-men. There are a billion different storylines they could do, and they could all be interesting.
Peter is the main focus, but you could kill Aunt May, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, or any other character close to peter and see how he deals with that. Or show the downside of his fights with supervillians. Say some bystander gets hurt, how does Peter deal with that? You'd have to extrapolate these ideas out of course, but there are definetely more storylines.

(Reply to this)

mojodaddy writes:
on Jan 09 2007 05:04 PM

I personally think Mysterio can be done well for a fourth movie.

(Reply to this)

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