As comic book and superhero movies continue to dominate the studio sphere, it means there will be just as many projects that were in development that, for a variety of reasons, didn’t come to pass. Maybe it was a pitch that didn’t take, or perhaps a project that was undone after the studio got cold feet. And Drew Goddard has experienced both of those pains. He was set to write and direct "The Sinister Six" until the project was kiboshed after the failures of "The Amazing Spider-Man" series. And while he did score a success for Marvel on Netflix with "Daredevil," in a new chat with IGN, he reveals he initially pitched a feature film for the character.
"I went into Marvel and talked to them about making it as a movie a couple of years ago, long after the [Ben] Affleck movie. But what we all sort of realised is that, this movie doesn’t want to cost $200 million," he said. "The thing about Matt Murdock is, he’s not saving the world. He’s just keeping his corner clean. So it would feel wrong to have spaceships crashing in the middle of the city. But because of that, Marvel on the movie side is not in the business of making $25 million movies. They’re going big, as they should."
"It felt that we’d have more freedom to make it on the small screen and make it more adult," he continued about the Netflix series. "Look, if we took the Netflix [show] and put it in theatres, it’s rated R. And they’re not doing R-rated movies. And we also got to really explore the character. I feel like Netflix was the best possible home for that, otherwise you’d end up with a watered down version."
Meanwhile, the writer/director laments the loss of "The Sinister Six," but also reveals his concept wasn’t so tied to the context of "The Amazing Spider-Man" films that it couldn’t be revived down the line.
“My vision of that movie was a summer annual,” Goddard explained to io9. “So you didn’t have to worry about continuity. It was just, ‘We take Peter, put him on an adventure, we put him back in his life.’ I intentionally wanted a movie that didn’t have to worry about mythology and continuity. It was important to me to make a movie that could stand on its own. So the good news is, you know, [laughs], it slots in very well to any plan anybody ever wants. We just need to let a couple years go by, I think.”
Particularly with Sony still retaining some rights to Spidey and involvement with the character, it’s not such a crazy notion that perhaps Goddard’s "The Sinister Six" could be revisited.
For now, he’s got "The Martian" headed to cinemas and it opens on October 2nd.
