Movie Morsels 37 - Bourne & Spider-Man 4

First up: The Bourne _____ (basically, just the 4th Bourne movie. Also known as The Bourne Who Cares Just Give Us Your Money. Well, according to TunaFlix, anyway.) Variety is reporting that Universal is moving ahead with the 4th installment, having just secured a writer:

...George Nolfi [will] write the script.

Nolfi was co-writer of the third film, which was based on a story by Tony Gilroy.

Though the series is based on the Robert Ludlum novels, the new film won't be based on a Ludlum title, but rather an original story. (Lauren's note: And this makes the movie different from the other movies how exactly?!)

Studio toppers Marc Shmuger, David Linde and Donna Langley are making the continuation of the Bourne franchise a top priority in their effort to mount tentpoles, and they've secured director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon to attach themselves to a new film (Variety, February 22, 2008).

Robert will be tickled pink. Me? I think you already know my feelings about a fourth Bourne...

Moving on! (To yet another needless sequel... grr...) MTV posted a little blurb with Spider-Man director Sam Raimi yesterday and it sheds a little light on his thought processes for #4 (and 5...):

Although things weren’t looking too good for awhile, Spider-Man has overcome adversities tougher than a Green Goblin-Doc Ock team-up, and now once again has Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi in his corner. But what about Kirsten Dunst?

“Kirsten, I’d love to work with her again,” Raimi explained to us this week, making it sound as if current plans to include Dunst for “Spider-Man 4” and “Spider-Man 5” are still up in the air, despite recent statements that she wants to remain with the franchise. “I hope she’ll be written into it. I couldn’t imagine making one without her, and I think she’s an important part of the movies.”

Nevertheless, Raimi admitted that the very nature of an episodic series requires that characters come and go. “I wish I could work with James Franco again,” said the man who directed the first three hit movies. “But his character died in the last one; same with Uncle Ben. Fortunately, we’ve been able to bring back all the dead characters [like Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn or Cliff Robertson as Ben Parker]. I can’t let them go, in each and every picture; but it gets harder and harder.”

Now things are about to get hard yet again for Raimi, as he’s making plans to continue the cinematic tale of Peter Parker. “I’m really excited about Spider-Man, and I’m hoping to direct it,” he cautioned. “I don’t have a script yet, but production would start probably by March of 2010, I’m guessing. It sounds like a long time away, but we need a script first, and a lot of pre-production has to take place.”

The filmmaking legend also revealed to us that there is a lot of truth behind rumors that he might shoot the next two “Spider-Man” films at the same time. “That had been talked about,” he said, deferring to the head of his studio. “It’s Amy Pascal’s decision. I don’t think it has been decided yet, and she’s the one that’s really going to make that decision; I’m really curious myself.”

By his own admission, “Spider-Man 3” was an exhaustive film to shoot, but Raimi is confident he can handle the double duty. “It would be a real endurance test, probably only Peter Jackson knows how hard something like that would be,” he marveled, hinting that “4” and “5” would be very closely linked in storyline. “If Tobey and me, and all the producers, like the story for two pictures and Amy wanted to do it, then we would do it. It just hasn’t been written yet.”

Finally, Raimi offered comment on the wishes of fans (and yours truly) to finally let Dylan Baker’s storyline come to fruition. “He’s a great actor, and I think one day The Lizard’s story will be told,” he teased, referring to Baker’s Curt Connors character. “I don’t know if it will be this one or not. I just don’t know. I’m definitely hoping to work with Dylan in the picture. I just don’t know who the villain is yet.”

Sigh. Who cares? Even if the movies suck donkey balls and just have Tobey Maguire running around in a circle waving his arms above his head, stupid people will go and see them. Stupid people like me who feel the need to 'finish out the series' even though they KNOW they're not going to like it. Stupid stupid people!

Movie Morsels 16 - Spider-Man 4 and Nottingham

1.) I came across this update on Spider-Man 4 yesterday but I thought I'd save it for a day when I had less to post. Ta da! TunaFlix says it so well, I don't even really have anything extra to add.

I always thought a 2010 release date was a little early for Spider-Man 4, you know, considering they don’t even have an actor, a director, or a script locked down yet… 2011 though? That sounds a lot more reasonable.

Speaking before a group of theater owners in California and Nevada, Laura Ziskin confirmed that even though Sony doesn’t have a finished screenplay from new writer James Vanderbilt yet, they still hoped Spider-Man 4 could be ready in three years time (whether fans hope so too is another matter entirely).

That would put the sequel a healthy 4 years removed from Spider-Man 3, and keeping a May release date would allow Sony to jump out ahead of Marvel’s proposed Captain America and Avengers movies - after Marvel agreed to let the company renew its rights to the character. Nice to see chivalry isn’t dead, huh?

2.) This one made me happy. Just yesterday I read that Christian Bale was on the top of the list of actors wanted to play Robin Hood in the upcoming Ridley Scott film Nottingham. I went home and said to Robert "I don't know if Christian Bale is going goon or what but the man keeps signing on for these crappy-sounding big budget movies back-to-back-to-back! I know he was in the hurts financially way back in the day but c'mon now - Batman must've put enough coins in his bank account to make him comfortable for life! He doesn't need to be in a Sienna Miller movie!" Lo and behold, I discovered this morning that, as usual, the Daily Mail is full of crap. Per LatinoReview:

Russell Crowe wants Sam Riley who played Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis in Control to play opposite him as Robin Hood. It's not official yet but they will most likely get Sam Riley for the role because Crowe loved his performance in Control."

TunaFlix agrees that Riley would be an excellent choice for many reasons, not the least of which is "he’s guaranteed to not upstage Crowe, when casting Bale most certainly would have." Oh good. Russell's ego is safe. I will sleep well tonight.

Movie Morsels 12 - Spider-Man 4

Ugh. I knew this was a possibility but I honestly thought that, with all the bad reviews and word of mouth about Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man 4 would remain just that - a possibility. A dream. A no-go. But noooooo... it looks like it's already taking tentative steps toward fruition. According to TunaFlix:

According to Sam Raimi, he’s waiting on James Vanderbilt’s script to decide whether or not to commit to directing the proposed sequel:

“Right now James Vanderbilt is writing the script, and he’s working on it, and I’m excited to read it. I think it’s going to be done in a few months. I’m hoping it’s as great as our discussions were about it and hoping it feels right for me, because I love Spider-Man, and I’m hoping I’m well-enough rested to, like, really embrace it and hoping that Sony wants me at that time to direct it. So if all those things come together, I would love, love to do it. But this is a lot of unknowns about the future.“

Cutting through all the usual PR double-speak about “ifs” and “whens”, the most telling thing here is that Vanderbilt and Raimi were able to brainstorm about the script together - and that’s as good a sign as any that the Evil Dead director will be back for Round 4.

But because Sam is a shrewd guy, he’s already set up not one, but three face-saving excuses in case he doesn’t come back: either the script is no good, he’s too drained, or Sony doesn’t want him anymore. He also was evasive about the idea of recasting Peter Parker or Mary Jane, saying “Well, I hate to recast anybody in the picture. I couldn’t imagine that.”

Take that for what you will, but it looks like this will-they-or-won’t-they game isn’t ending any time soon.

This bums me out. Big time. Spider-Man 3 was terrible!! I loooved the second one and wish the series had stopped right there. In fact, 3 was on Starz at the same time 2 was on FX yesterday afternoon and I chose to watch 2. Again. With commercials. Because 3 really was that bad. (I'm sure I'll have to buy the DVD sometime, just to complete the set, but it won't be anytime soon!) Granted, there are a lot of "ifs" that have to fall into just the right places in order for things to go ahead but I think Sony thinks 4 (and 5 and 6) will be such a money maker, they'll do their damnedest to get what they need together. Boo. Boo!! I don't think there's anywhere else for Spider-Man to go (unless they 'reboot' the series like Batman... but Batman waited a few more years in between cycles) but Sony is determined to run the series into the ground. Just like Warner Bros. did with The Matrix trilogy - and we all know how well that turned out.*

*Well, all of us but Robert. He won't watch them without me but I know what happens and I won't watch them. Poor guy. If anyone wants to volunteer to be his movie buddy, I'm accepting applications...