According to IESB.net, Marvel Studios is looking at a potential Spider-Man spin-off film centered on villain Venom.

The studio reached an interim agreement with the WGA last week which allows them to continue developing scripts for potential film projects. Despite Venom’s appearance (played by Topher Grace) in Sony’s Spider-Man 3 last summer, Marvel still holds the rights to the character, and apparently they’ve already met with several A-list writers about the project.

At this stage though it seems unlikely that franchise director Sam Raimi or Grace would be involved.

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Posted in Movies, Spider-Man •

AwardsDaily has posted the fifteen films shortlisted for this year’s Best Special Effects Oscar:

Beowulf / The Bourne Ultimatum / Evan Almighty / The Golden Compass / Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix / I Am Legend / Live Free or Die Hard / National Treasure: Book of Secrets / Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End / Ratatouille / Spider-Man 3 / Sunshine / 300 / Transformers / The Water Horse  

Only three of these candidates will make the cut as official nominees; and the only real lock is Michael Bay’s Transformers. As for the other two? My bet is on Pirates 3 and The Golden Compass, but this list is really tough to narrow down. We’ll find out for sure when the Academy Awards nominees are announced January 22.

Discuss the Oscars 2008 on the X-Boards

Posted in Awards, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Movies, Pirates, Spider-Man, Transformers •

Columbia have recruited James Vanderbilt (Wolverine) to pen the screenplay for Spider-Man 4 writes the Hollywood Reporter.

Laura Ziskin will return as producer but no deals have been made to bring back series director Sam Raimi or leads Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.

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Posted in Movies, Spider-Man •

Marvel Entertainment Inc. reported its second quarter 2007 earnings and included the company’s list of upcoming movies, TV shows, DVDs, musicals and video games.

Courtesy of ComingSoon.net:

Licensed Marvel Character Feature Film Line-Up
Wolverine, Fox - Director engaged (Gavin Hood)
Punisher 2, Lionsgate - Director (Lexi Alexander) and lead actor engaged (Ray Stevenson)

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Posted in Iron Man, Movies, Sci-Tech & Video Games, Spider-Man, Television •

October 30 will see the home video release of Spider-Man 3 - in six different ways.

Variety reports that Sony’s $888 million earner (worldwide gross) will hit shelves as a two-disc edition Blu-ray release and as part of a Spider-Man High Definition Trilogy compilation package (containing all three films of the trilogy). The film will also be released on standard-definition DVD as a single disc, a two-disc special edition and in the trilogy compilation. And finally, Sony will also sell a version for the PlayStation Portable.

Both Blu-ray and standard-def versions are packed with extras, including nearly a dozen featurettes and various commentaries from stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, director Sam Raimi and other cast and crew members.

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Posted in Blu-ray & HD DVD, Movies, Spider-Man •

Spider-Man helmer Sam Raimi has told Empire that the studio is still searching for a writer to pen the fourth installment of the massive superhero franchise.

‘I want to help contribute to the production’ said Raimi. ‘I don’t know if I’ll just be a producer on it but if I can work with the writer in such a way so that directing would be right for me, I don’t know. We’ve had our first meeting on Spider-Man 4 and we’re looking for the writer.’

According to a report from a couple of weeks ago, the top brass at Sony Pictures could be sitting down sometime now to discuss more Spider-Man films.

Discuss Spider-Man 4 on the X-Boards

Posted in Movies, Spider-Man •

The Hollywood Reporter has published an insightful article that discusses the future of some of the big superhero franchises such as Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Superman.

According to the report, the top brass of Sony Pictures will sit down sometime within the next two weeks to discuss more Spider-Man films. ‘It would be great to have everybody back,’ says producer Laura Ziskin. ‘But no one is going to sign on the dotted line until we have a script. These are the questions being discussed now. The one thing we have answered definitively is: There will be more Spider-Man’ movies. We just haven’t answered what shape they will come in and (Sony) hasn’t given us a release date.’

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Posted in Movies, Spider-Man, Superman •

MTV has been speaking to Spider-Man helmer Sam Raimi and discussing his future involvement with the franchise.

‘Sony Pictures is going to be making many more Spider-Man pictures’ said Raimi ‘I just don’t know what [my] future holds yet. If I can’t find the right story that would work for me and that I could tell really well, I would like someone else to tell that story. It would be really hard for me to make a movie without Tobey and Kirsten playing the two leads.’

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Posted in Movies, Spider-Man •

MTV has posted a quote on their new movie blog from James Cromwell (who plays Captain Stacy in Spider-Man 3) mentioning his character’s possible fate in Spider-Man 4.

Apparently Cromwell told MTV News that the Stacy family would have a much bigger role to play in future installments. Asked if Captain Stacy would meet the same grisly end as in the comics (where he is crushed by debris from a fight between Spidey and Doc Ock), the veteran actor carefully replied: ‘They haven’t shot that [scene] yet. That’s the next one.’

Discuss Spider-Man 4 on the X-Boards

Posted in Movies, Spider-Man •

Even after a 60% drop-off on its second weekend, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 has already grossed enough to have recaptured its enormous $300m budget plus whatever Sony spent on marketing the hell out of the film (a sum most likely to be in the same region as the production costs). But it hasn’t been faring as well critically, or at least not everywhere.

Following the reception Spider-Man 3 got among fans and critics ever since the first screenings in April, I’ve started to notice a trend in that the film seems to be going down much better in Europe than in the United States. But I didn’t give this much more thought until I discovered that this continental rift wasn’t just visible in the reviews, but also in the revenues.

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Posted in Commentary, Movies, Spider-Man •