Spider-Man 4 was intended to be the best climbing movie, but various problems during production eventually thwarted the project. Photo: Jovany Perez
At the beginning of the 21st century the director Sam Raimi was responsible for bringing the story of one of the most popular superheroes of all time to the big screen: Spiderman. Starring in two films Toby Maguire Huge hit at both the box office and the critics, Raimi The third installment process began.
To introduce the character, Raimi decided to throw all the meat on the grill and pit an inexperienced Peter Parker against his quintessential counterpart: the Green Goblin Willem Dafoe He plays one of his most outstanding roles as a twister Norman Osborn. For the sequel where Peter experienced the conflict of enjoying his love affair mary jane or be a superhero, that was doctor octopus the one responsible for making life harder for the friendly neighbor. Alfred Molina He has done exceptional work. However, if this film ranks as the best of the trilogy, it’s thanks to the depth of Peter Parker’s inner conflict.
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 is considered the wall-crawler’s best live-action film to date. Photo: SonyPictures
It is in this context that the third Spider-Man film appears. What other villain could match the previous two? Which arachnid story is central to your mythology? Of course, the saga of the black suit, that is, their confrontation with the powerful Venom.
That’s what the public asked for, that’s what the producers wanted, but that’s not what Sam Raimi wanted. Raimi confessed that Venom was never a character he liked, in which he found the “humanity” of other arachnid villains. Despite everything, Raimi reluctantly agreed to direct the conflict between Venom and Spider-Man. The result? a smashing success at the box office and a complete failure with the critics.
Everyone involved in the tape, especially Raimi, has admitted this Spider-Man 3 wasn’t what they expectedwith narrative gaps, awkward moments, and shallow characters far removed from the magic offered by the other two parts.
Despite the criticism, Spider-Man 3 became the highest-grossing film in the trilogy, grossing nearly $900 million worldwide. Photo: SonyPictures
The director blamed himself and asserted that by not understanding/liking the Venom character, he ended up making a film more influenced by work than love for the Spider-Man character. He recently commented on this in an interview:
“I didn’t understand the character (Venom) that well. I didn’t care. What I like most about Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man is that they created likable characters that I understand. Even though they were confused, like Norman Osborn, they still have kindness in their hearts. […] Even J. Jonah Jameson has kindness in his heart. Reading about Venom, which I hadn’t read about as a kid, made me catch up on when they wanted him in the film. I didn’t see enough humanity in this character to really identify with him. That’s what really matters“.
Sam Raimi admitted that a big part of the problem with Spider-Man 3 was that he “didn’t understand the character of Venom” Photo: Sony Pictures
Raimi’s words are perfectly reflected in the story Flint Marco, the Sandman (interpreted by Thomas Haden Church), whose sole motivation for becoming a thief was to pay his daughter’s medical bills, and even as Uncle Ben’s killer, he never intended to pull the trigger; a victim of circumstances making desperate decisions at the end of the day. Instead, Venom’s story boils down to a bad day, making him a mere villain (and Topher Grace’s performance is far from brilliant).
Well, despite all of these issues, the idea of seeing Spider-Man in a black suit and confronting one of his greatest threats was enough for audiences to make the film a success. With a budget of $258 million Spider-Man 3 grossed nearly $896 million at the worldwide box officeAnd like money moves mountains, in 2009, two years after the release of Spider-Man 3, Sony greenlit a fourth Spider-Man installment.
Building on the success of Spider-Man 3, Sam Raimi was asked to begin work on Spider-Man 4.
With all the stress of creating a film that Raimi himself considers mediocre, he returned to the director’s chair and started preparing for Spider-Man 4. The idea was to throw the house out the window, make the ultimate movie about the wall crawler, and clean up all the mess he made with Spider-Man 3.
The challenge was huge, but not impossible, and he worked with some of Hollywood’s most trusted minds to create his masterpiece. James VanderbiltAuthor of the acclaimed thriller Zodiac, was commissioned to write the screenplay for this installment, and Sony was so confident in the project that it hired Vanderbilt to leave the doors open for a fifth and sixth installment.
For Spider-Man 4, Raimi’s ambitions grew and he considered bringing four villains to the big screen: Mysterio, The Black Cat, The Lizard and The Vulture as the main opponent. For the role of Mysterio, that would be it Bruce Campbell the chosen one, who in the previous tapes actually made several cameo appearances as the host of the fights in the first part, or the theater worker who denies Peter entry. As The black cat would have nothing but Anne HathawayHowever, rumors spread that he would play the role though Felicia Hardywould not be the black cat, but the daughter of El Buitre.
Anne Hathaway would join the cast of Spider-Man 4 in the role of Felicia Hardy, who has held the role of The Black Cat in comics and animated series Portal/Annegret Hilse
Of course, The Lizard would be played Dylan Bakerwho in the three previous films received a Dr. Playing Connors, concerned for Peter’s well-being, he was now obsessed with lizards’ ability to regenerate their limbs, giving life to one of the most important villains in Spidey mythology.
Dylan Baker would play as Dr. Connors return and eventually become the Lizard. Photo: SonyPictures
Finally, The Vulture would be played by the Oscar nominee John Malkovichand although the character is notable for having a machine that rejuvenates him, Raimi wanted to move away from that idea and just give him a suit that gives him superpowers to add a little more realism to the story.
John Malkovich would be the actor chosen to play the main villain: The Vulture
As soon as the new characters were on the table, pre-production began and with it endless problems. As mentioned above, Sam Raimi had intended to create the perfect wall crawler movie, but the script still didn’t quite match what Raimi was looking for. Vanderbilt’s work was lost, as were the two screenwriters who replaced him: David Lindsay Abaire (The Origin of the Guardians) and Garry Ross (The hunger Games).
The script wasn’t finished, recording hadn’t even started, and the May 6, 2011 release date was getting dangerously close. Rumors added to the script problems Kristen Dunstwho played Mary Jane throughout the saga would resign the role for the fourth installment, completely ruining Raimi’s plans.
Adding to the script problems were rumors that Kirsten Dunst would not be returning as Mary Jane for the sequel Portal/Eric Gaillard
So it was that after deep introspection, Raimi came closer amy pascal, CEO of Sony and admitted that the project did not go in the direction he expected and he could not deliver the tape on the agreed date. Pascal thanked Raimi for his honesty and for taking the trouble “to ensure that the company does not lose money”. They both got along well and in that way On January 11, 2010, it was officially announced that Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man saga was finally canceled.
Other than the interviews with Raimi and the storyboards he created, there isn’t much information about the story that would be told in Spider-Man 4 Jeffrey Henderson.
While there isn’t much information about the story that would follow Spider-Man 4, there are several sketches by Jeffrey Henderson that give an idea of how this part could have looked. Photo: planetethenderson.com
Preparations are underway immediately start anew (which was planned before Spider-Man 4 was canceled) and launched in 2012 A new Marc Webb saga starring Andrew Garfield was rolling. Two tapes was enough to finish the project, but a lot had to do with Sony and Disney’s agreement to bring Spider-Man to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Since 2016, Tom Holland has been responsible for bringing the spider to life, and in 2021, a historic cinematic event brought together Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Such was the success of that gathering that rumors of a sequel to the Maguire and Garfield saga have been doing the rounds on social media ever since.
After the premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home and the meeting of the three arachnids, rumors about a new part of Tobe Maguire’s Spider-Man have increased significantly. Photo: Twitter/@Spiderman
Now, the animated feature Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse, which hits theaters on June 1st, is sparking renewed interest in the wall-crawler, as well as the sequel to the acclaimed video game developed exclusively for PlayStation in 2018.
Thirteen years have passed since the announcement of the cancellation of Spider-Man 4 broke the hearts of thousands of fans, and while all indications are that the story Raimi had in mind could not be captured on the big screen, the director has it might have been intentional to return to the project with a different, fresher and more innovative idea, while capitalizing on the fact that Spidermania is at its peak. Yes, Spider-Man 3 was a major setback, but if Spider-Man represents anything, it’s that it’s not how many times you fall that matters, it’s how many times you get back up.
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