So yes, “Spider-Man 4” is dead and Sony is going for the reboot route, back to the teenage years. Pretty much old news now.
And while Variety may have chimed in a little late (DHD and THR were definitely the frontrunners). Their report brings up some very interesting details.
While this news was breaking, we were speculating, will “Spider-Man” 2.0, the reboot as it were, use elements of the “Spider-Man 4” script and then modify them as necessary to bring it back to scratch? Would Vanderbilt start working on a whole new script?
None of the above. The screenplay is apparently already complete. How’s that? Well, apparently Sony saw this day coming for a long time and Vanderbilt’s script was a contingency project that has already been written and is ready to go. Pretty interesting.
The project is already in pre-production and apparently the idea is to hire a new director and new (inexpensive, naturally) stars in the next few weeks. It might not be long before an entire new cast of principals has been announced. Another reason why they’re forging ahead? As Variety says, “Columbia/Sony needs to continue actively developing “Spider Man” films or else the property will revert back to Disney/Marvel.”
So while Vanderbilt wrote “Spider-Man 4” and was hired to write “Spider-Man 5 & 6,” he was essentially, writing the reboot in secret (or writing “Spider-Man 5 & 6″ was secret code for: Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire are eventually going to dump this thing, start over.” Though as the trades reported and we wrote, “It appears that the studio isn’t optimistic either — already bracing itself for a talent exodus as Vanderbilt’s arc is reportedly set up as a potential rebooter.” Ok, maybe it wasn’t so “secret” but it’s still pretty incredible to learn that his reboot script is done already. Alright Sony, we’ll hand it to you, you’re much smarter than you look.
Vanderbilt’s credit’s include David Fincher’s “Zodiac” and more recently the WB project/D.C. comics adaptation, “The Losers.”
