While fans have dreamed about Marvel taking back the rights of Spider-Man from Sony, it has long been seen as a “cold-day-in-hell” type scenario. But in October, rumors surfaced that Sony and Marvel were in talks about some kind of creative alliance around the webslinger. There were no further details at the time about what exactly that might’ve involved, but more from the Sony leaks reveals that the collaboration could’ve been huge.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Marvel bandied about the possibility of making a new trilogy of Spider-Man movies, but letting Sony hang on to “creative control, marketing and distribution.” It seems like a weird partnership, one that sees Marvel giving up some of the key areas of the business they’ve excelled at, but we suppose they figured it was a foot in the door of at least working with the beloved character again.
However, it seems another possibility was briefly discussed: Spider-Man making an appearance in “Captain America: The Civil War.” Wow. Before you get too excited, the talks never got any further, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, but that certainly would’ve been huge. But it’s understandable why Sony wants to hang on to their flagship comic brand and keep it all to themselves.
Speaking of brands, “Men In Black” still apparently lives in the weirdest way possible. The Wall Street Journal also reveals that the brewing “23 Jump Street” will have Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum stepping into the “Men In Black” universe. Yes, seriously. Hill emailed Sony honcho Amy Pascal to say he thought the idea was “rad and powerful,” and the studio is so keyed up they’re ready to greenlight it based on the concept and star power alone. And of course, they hope it’ll kickstart the “Men In Black” franchise back to life, even if Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones aren’t expected to be involved.
And we’ll say this — that’s sort of crazy enough to work. No release date yet, but apparently the studio is eyeballing 2016 or 2017 to drop it in theaters.
