Were it not for the encouragement of Sony chief Amy Pascal, Marc Webb revealed at SXSW last week, “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its upcoming two sequels would’ve passed right by the “(500) Days of Summer” director’s path as “the stupidest thing” he’d ever heard. As vibrant a studio playground as the Marvel franchise has been for Webb the last few years, we’ve been eager to see what he can do outside it, and now it appears he’s been having similar thoughts.
Two installments and a massive slate of villains still face Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) under Webb’s care, but in a recent interview with The Daily Beast (via Superhero Hype) the director offered some definitive info as to his involvement with the sequels afterwards.
“I’d like to be involved as a consultant,” he said about the already announced “Amazing Spider-Man 4,” “and I’ve already talked to these guys about it, but in terms of directing it, that will close out my tenure. I’ve had so much fun doing it, but after the third movie, it’ll be the time to find something else.”
Hopefully that “something else” doesn’t mean having to take over the “Sinister Six” or “Venom” spinoffs penned by Drew Goddard and Alex Kurtzman (who’s in fact slated to direct)—projects to which Webb’s contributed a fair amount already, and says he’d love to have “overlap with other studios.” But while we wait to see which project Webb chooses, “The Wolverine” director James Mangold has established (via Coming Soon) when he plans to return to the franchise.
“We are figuring it all out,” he said on Twitter. “At the moment, I’m shooting the next ‘Wolverine’ after [Bryan Singer’s 2016 film] ‘X-Men: Apocalypse.’ ” Mangold’s response failed to mention whether Hugh Jackman would maintain his long tenure in the role of Logan; however, 2017 or thereabout is a long time for 20th Century Fox to try their best persuasion tactics.
Bryan Singer has meanwhile been using his finest discretion in the editing bay of “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” and that’s meant cutting down the two-hour narrative featuring 26 characters into an engaging balancing act. Unfortunately, as with Anna Paquin’s Rogue character, The New York Daily News reports (via Movieweb) Halle Berry and her part of Storm have been cut significantly in the film, only appearing in one scene overall.
“Storm probably won’t be as badass as she was going to be because we won’t be able to do any fighting or flying or things like that,” Berry previously said of her role in light of her pregnancy. Those changes made, it now seems that any arc her character does travel in the new film will have to wait until the Blu-ray, after ‘Days of Future Past’ opens on May 23rd.