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Sam Raimi to Direct Spiderman Film
livewirevoodoo submitted a story that I read yesterday but didn't initially think of posting here. On second thought, I think that Sam Raimi is directing Spiderman in a feature movie. The Evil Dead series is pretty dang awesome, and since I'm a junkie about seeing comic super heros on the big screen (I loved Burton's Batman, and am watching out for the upcoming X-Men flick). There is also about a Bruce Campbell Peter Parker. Not sure about that one.. I always thought Parker was well, more geeky then the uber macho Campbell. But anyway, not the standard Slashdot-fare, but I thought a lot of you might like it anyway.
Jay (=
Sam Raimi also is one of the producers of "Hercules: the Legendary Journeys" (the Kevin Sorbo show) as well as the vastly more popular spinoff "Xena: Warrior Princess" (both of which, as any good Bruce Campbell fans know, regularly features Campbell as "Autolycus, the King of Thieves").
He's also exec-producing Campbell's new show Jack of All Trades. In Campbell's own words: "The show centers on my character, Jack Stiles, an American spy, adventurer, and rogue dispatched to an island in the East Indies by President Jefferson to thwart Napoleon's advances in the region. Jack isn't at all happy about the remote assignment, especially since he's supposed to serve as personal attaché to a wealthy British widow and secret agent for the Crown named Emilia Rothschild (Angela Dotchin). Disguised as the Daring Dragoon, Jack teams with Emilia on numerous covert missions to stop Napoleon's imperialism in the East Indies." Yeah, sounds cheesy, but that's never stopped me from watching Army of Darkness over and over again...
I think Raimi might be able to do a good Spider-Man film (though I have to wonder about the potential chesse factor) but Campbell should NOT, NOT, NOT be allowed to play Peter Parker! That would be a casting error on par with Nicholas Cage as Superman.
Let him play Flash Thompson (jock who harassed Peter in high school) as an adult, or maybe let him play Eddie Brock before he becomes Venom (or even as Venom -- Campbell can act pretty crazed when he wants to).
Jay (=
Let's hope Spider Man is more like A Simple Plan than Darkman.
I like camp as much as the next guy, but after a while it would be nice for comic books to be taken seriously. Look at what Burton did for Batman. A legitimate look at an interesting character. True to the source material, dignified, and novel. If Raimi goes camp witht his one, then why not just get Jim Carrey to talk with his ass cheeks while battling Billy Zane in a Doc Octopus costume.
I have been hearing about this upcoming Spiderman movie for years now, and I have had numerous debates with my friends about who would play what characters. We generally agreed that Peter must be played by someone who is somewhat small, yet very muscular. And someone who could conceivably been a geek in high school, although this is pretty easy since I think every movie star was a geek in high school. Anyways we thought long and hard about it and decided that Brandon Lee would have been perfect, if he were still alive today (so what if he's not white!).
/.ers: who would play the classic Spiderman characters, such as Peter, Mary Jane (Julia Roberts?), Flash, Gwen Stacy, Aunt May, etc., or the villians, such as Doc Oc, Vulture, Rhino, Electro, Mysterio?
I would like to put the question to
Personally I wouldn't mind Matt Damon as Peter Parker. He pulled off the geek in Good Will Hunting, and we all know he is TOUGH! Any other suggestions?
pdubroy AT yahoo DOT com
Maybe it's because baby boomers who lived on these shows want more of them, and since they have a good amount of control in Hollywood, they have the ability to get these movies produced. They might be trying to revitalize a show, but often than naught, they want a last hurrah for the show
At least there have been films that have realized that such revitalizations are out there and they saturize on them, "Galaxy Quest" and "Mystery Men" come to mind). But personally, I'd rather see uniqueness in the theater with new characters and situations then trying to adopt something meant for the small screen to the large screen and failing miserably.
Now, as to Spiderman, I'm not sure about this; Marvel's about to tank, and the Spiderman cartoon as shown on FOX is (from what others have told me) rather out of character for Spiderman in general. I'm sure that this will end up as a typical summer blockbuster with lots of action scenes and the like -- but what about a plot? What aspect of Spiderman can they focus on in 2hrs and produce a good movie? Tim Burton did this excellently with the first Batman movie, using Batman's long-time foe The Joker, but Spiderman really doesn't have an equivalent equal -- all his enemies like Green Goblin, Dr Oct, and Venom, are just foes, but not a constant one. I don't see how you can pick one foe and still have a good Spiderman movie.
(However, this at least beats the rumors than Leo DeCaprio was going to play Parker/Spider, and with James Cameron directing).
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
I'm glad Rob posted this one. I imagine a good portion of us read comic books (the nice thing about the word 'read' is that its past- and present-tenses are spelled the same). Spiderman is well documented as a breakaway success because Parker was a average-joe, with girl problems, school problems, etc. He was someone comic book readers could connect with.
This is news for nerds, and I hope more stuff like this gets posted. The fact that this almost wasn't posted is yet another reason to clamor for a open and moderated submission queue.
--
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
Harry Knowles' site declines on a weekly basis as he continues to focus on how he can make money off his notoriety. He only has one real scooper anymore, and the scoop was confirmed in Daily Variety today - with a huge disclaimer.
Raimi has been offered the Spiderman project. The problem is, he's all set to direct a Billy Bob Thornton script called The Gift with Keanu Reeves and Cate Blanchett. It's ready to roll. In order for Spiderman to happen, Paramount will have to let Raimi go as soon as photography wraps on the Gift to go shoot Spiderman, and then he'll edit them together - Sony has to have Spiderman out for summer 2001 for some arcane contractural reasons that have kept the project stalled for years. Read about it here.
Raimi is a perfect fit - imagine Darkman with a huge budget, and James Cameron worships the guy - and Cameron wrote the treatment for Spiderman that would be the greatest comic book adaptation ever made - and probably the best nerd movie ever made. Well Sony bought the Cameron treatment, and have since moved on to multiple drafts by different writers, but hopefully Raimi will stick to the Cameron one, which you can read here. And for anyone who hates Cameron vis a vis his success with Titanic, just read the damn thing. It's incredible.
I find this is Slashdot worthy news - news for Nerds. Raimi is a huge nerd, with a huge nerd audience, and why does every bowel movement George Lucas make get reported here, especially when he just seems obsessed with crapping on the heads of his loyal audience?
** http://www.nkhumanrights.or.kr/ ** Human rights in North Korea. 1 million estimated dead from starvation.
Taken straight off of www.bruce-campbell.com:
Q: IS IT TRUE YOU'RE CAST AS THE LEAD IN THE "DOOM" AND "SPIDERMAN" AND "QUAKE" AND "SUPERMAN" AND "BATMAN" MOVIES?
A: NO, BY GOLLY, I AM NOT "CAST AS THE LEAD" OR INVOLVED WITH EITHER THE "DOOM" OR "SPIDERMAN" OR "QUAKE" OR "SUPERMAN" OR "BATMAN" FLICKS. APPARENTLY, THE PRODUCERS CALLED ME, BUT I DIDN'T HAVE CALL WAITING...
Hope this clears things up a bit.... Bruce Campbell rules.
-- My neighbors dog has a four inch clit.