Lost Films - Spider-Man 4

Disclaimer: I could be wrong on some details. So take this post with a gain of salt.

Before Sony decided to reboot the Spider-Man franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man and then give Marvel Spider-Man to put him in their cinematic universe we were going to have a fourth sequel to Raimi's Spider-Man film series which would have been released in May 6,2011 but what happened?

Part One - Planning

Even through Spider-Man 3 got mixed reviews at best the film did do well financial grossing $890.9 million dollars on a budget of $ 258 million dollars so plans for Spider-Man 4 were a go they even through of doing a Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6. In 2007 the film entered development with Sam Raimi hired once again to direct and Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and other cast members were also going to reprise their roles. Sony then had the idea to shoot both the fourth and fifth film concurrently however Raimi stated back in March of 2009 that only the fourth film was under development at the time & that if there were a fifth and sixth films those two films would actually be a continuation of each other. In October 2007 James Vanderbilt was hired to pen the screenplay there were also reports that in early 2007 Sony Pictures contacted David Koepp(the writer of the first film). The script was then rewritten by Pulitzer-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire in November 2008 and it was then rewritten again only this time by Gray Ross in October 2009. Sony also wanted James Vanderbilt to write scripts for Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6.



Part Two - Villains

Before we get into what the villains' plot was let's talk about this. Sam Raimi expressed interest in portraying the transformation of Dr. Curt Connors into his alter-ego The Lizard, a villain who was being teased since Spider-Man 2 both actor Dylan Baker(the man who plays Dr. Curt Connors) and producer Grant Curtis were very enthusiastic about the idea. By December 2009 John Malkovich was in talks to play the Vulture and Anne Hathaway would play Felicia Hardy their was a rumor that she wouldn't be the sexy Black Cat but the Vulturess? Some online sources said the plot would have been "the film would have had the Vulture buying out the Daily Bungle forcing Spider-Man/Peter Parker to kill him. Then the Vulture's daughter Felicia would have had an affair with Peter Parker in order to shatter his relationship with Mary Jane. None of this was every confirmed through. Then in 2013 Sam Raimi said in an interview that Anne Hathaway was going to play the Black Cat had Spider-Man 4 been made. Even though the film isn't made it's still a good thing that we would get Felicia Hardy being the Black Cat and not the Vulturess because that idea would have been stupid.



Part Three - Planned Cast

Now this is was supposedly going to be the cast.

Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man


Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane-Watson


John Malkovich as Adrian Toomes/Vulture


Anne Hathaway as Felicia Hardy/Vulturess Black Cat


Dylan Parker as Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard


Rosemary Harris as Aunt May


J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson


Bill Nunn as Joseph "Robbie" Robertson


Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant


Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacey


James Cromwell as Captain George Stacey


Mageina Tovah as Ursula Ditkovich


Elya Baskin as Dr. Ditkovich


Sam Raimi also wanted to upgrade Bruce Campbell's role from mere cameos to a more significant role.



Part Four - Downfall


In January 2010 Sony Pictures announced that plans for Spider-Man 4 had been cancelled due to Sam Raimi's withdrawal from the project. Raimi ended the project because he didn't think he could meet the planned deadline which would have been May 6,2011. It also didn't help that Raimi went through four different scripts by four different screenwriters and still "hated it".




Part Five - Raimi's thoughts on the film


During an interview back in 2013 Raimi had this to say about the film. "It really was the most amicable and undramatic of breakups: It was simply that we had a deadline and I couldn’t get the story to work on a level that I wanted it to work", he said of his split with Sony Pictures. "I was very unhappy with Spider-Man 3, and I wanted to make Spider-Man 4 to end on a very high note, the best Spider-Man of them all. But I couldn’t get the script together in time, due to my own failings, and I said to Sony, ‘I don’t want to make a movie that is less than great, so I think we shouldn’t make this picture. Go ahead with your reboot, which you’ve been planning anyway’". He continued, "[Sony co-chairman] Amy Pascal said, "Thank you. Thank you for not wasting the studio’s money, and I appreciate your candor." So we left on the best of terms, both of us trying to do the best thing for fans, the good name of Spider-Man, and Sony Studios."



Part Six - Storyboards


On Jun 1, 2016 I went to the website Spider-Man Crawlspace where they had confirmed storyboards for Spider-Man 4 here's a link http://www.spidermancrawlspace.com/2016/06/01/spider-man-4-storyboards/




Part Seven - Life and Spider-Man 3's B-roll footage

Note: I will be spoiling the film Life. You have been warned.





Now Sam Raimi's Spider-Man series doesn't end just yet because in March 2017 it was revealed that stock footage for the 2017 film Life used B-roll footage from Spider-Man 3. This led to some fan theories that Life was secretly an origin story for the symbiote that was featured in Spider-Man 3. The theory be came more popular by the announcement of a Venom film for the following year. Now in the film their aren't any references to Venom but the film does end with Calvin the "life" of the film transforming into a black-goo substance and it then encases David(Jake Gyllenhaal). The writers of the film Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick had previously written a Venom script. They also revealed that both they and the studio had interest of making Life a prequel to Venom. However the ending to Life says that's not the case because the film ends with David incased in the black-goo and then lands near two Vietnamese fishermen but in Spider-Man 3 the symbiote lands in Central Park where Peter & Mary Jane are having a date. So yeah Life is in no way a prequel to Venom it's just an original story with no connection to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man series.



So there you have guys now that I got this out of the way I'm going to discuss my other plans one thing that's going to happen is my review for Justice League: Doom but after I review it I'll also tell you how it's very different from the story it's based which be would JLA: Tower of Babel. I'll also be have a look back at Guardians of the Galaxy what with the sequel arriving next month so excited for that movie. I might also review The Fate of The Furious but some of these plans could change because I'll be house sitting for my Grandpa so I won't be on my laptop as much either way I got big plans for April.