After it was announced the other day that the filming of Spider-man 4 had been delayed due to Sam Raimi and Sony disagreeing over which villains would appear in the film, the internet went into uproar as people wondered what this would mean for the the film and how much trouble it was in. As a result Tobey Maguire has been wheeled out try and assuage people’s fear.
He told THR’s HeatVisionBlog that “Like anything, it’s a process. We’re just in the midst of the process. We have a lot of great stuff in terms of story and script. We’re just trying to dial it in and get it ready as quickly as possible. Of course, these movies are a very big undertaking and take a lot more time than a drama or something more straightforward.”
As so often in Hollywood, it’s one of those statement that seems to mean something but actually tells us very little. However he added that, “Not only do I have specific ideas [for Spidey 4], but the ideas are evolving on the page. It’s all happening right now. It’s all sort of coming together. It’s very exciting to me. I think the evolution of the character is really exciting, to be rooted in the history of what we’ve done already and to have a continuity, yet have a progression or evolution.”
Hopefully this means they’re waiting because they want to ensure the script is absolutely right before they go in front of the cameras, rather than that they’re desparately stuggling to find something that works.
It seems almost certain now that Spidey 4 will miss its May 6th, 2011 release date (particularly as Thor has already moved itself into that date), and so we won’t get it until late summer 2011 at the moment. All sides are apparently keen to make something better than Spider-man 3, but with the same arguments popping up now that happened before the third film went in front of the camera, it’s difficult not to worry.