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.

Comments

Hollywood : Lack of original ideas

[Masem]

Sure, by far, not a majority of movies that comes out of Hollywood is a remake of something prior, but it seems to me that there's much much more of these than in the 70s and early 80s. Remakes of comics, books, and previous movies have yet to give anything that is really worth remembering (Only a few come to mind: Maverick and Contact), and most are doomed to failure (Wild Wild West, Dudley Do-Right, Inspector Gadget)

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).

This is News for Nerds!

[GeorgeH]

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.
--

Good rumor, but... And Cameron's treamtment here..

[garagekubrick]

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?

Bruce Campbell will NOT be in the movie.

[Skratch]

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.