CAN SPIDER-MAN ESCAPE SONY’S TANGLED WEB?
Sony’s approach to the Spider-Man property in the last few years could be called a little confused and convoluted, to say the least. Plans for Sam Raimi to continue with his series were scrapped entirely and the franchise was rebooted. A questionable need for a “universe” led to spin-offs being thrown around, with a Sinister Six film officially planned and an Aunt May film (!?) being talked about. You’d think it would be easy to make money with Spider-Man but there was even tentative negotiation with Marvel over the rights to Spidey, with leaked emails revealing discussion over Marvel producing a trilogy of Spider-Man films for Sony, the studio equivalent of giving the video game controller over to your big brother and asking him to do the level for you.
Whatever future Spider-Man has with Sony has been made ever more unclear by the departure of Co-chairman Amy Pascal from Sony Pictures Entertainment. Pascal has resigned in the wake of the Sony e-mail hacking scandal and Variety has reported that it’s possible that Sony won’t want to push ahead with plans for The Sinister Six and Amazing Spider-Man 3 now that she’s gone. Marvel might want Spider-Man back for their Civil War film but that’s due out in 2016 and Sony will have to make a decision on Sinister Six soon since its due the same year and gaaah. Just imagine Doctor Octopus shrugging with all his arms at once, that’s where Sony is at with the Spider-Man franchise right now.
College Kids Go Into The Woods, Will Probably Be Fine
Director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett may not exactly be the most A-List names to appear on Big Screen Scoop, but in 2011’s You’re Next and last year’s The Guest the creative duo have put out two of the best genre films of the last few years and anything they work on together is cause for excitement in my book. This year Wingard will be working on another film Barrett has written according to the Hollywood Reporter, a horror film called The Woods for Lionsgate.
The film is set to be about “a group of college students on a camping trip who discover they are not alone”, which doesn’t exactly sound like fresh new territory for horror films, but given how Wingard and Barrett’s previous efforts played with expectations and genre conventions it’s going to be interesting to see where this goes. Work will be starting on the film very fast, with a spring shoot planned.
Noted Uggo Ryan Gosling Potentially Cast In Beauty and the Beast
“Mommy, what’s wrong with that man’s face?”
Last week, Emma Watson took to Facebook to announce that she would be playing Belle in Disney’s upcoming re-telling of Beauty and the Beast. Disney have a number of live-action versions of some of their classics in the pipeline, with Cinderella due for release this year, Jon Favreau’s Jungle Book in production and talks over a possible live action version of The Little Mermaid. (Let us all try and forget the horrible Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland, even with a sequel looming) The film will be a musical just like the 1991 animated classic, with Bill Condon, director of Dreamgirls attached to direct.
Since Disney have found their Beauty, their attention has turned to the Beast and The Tracking Board is reporting that the part has been offered to hideous creature Ryan Gosling. It’s likely that Gosling would be playing the character both as a human and in Beast form, with the aid of motion capture and special effects to depict the grotesque Canadian as a handsome prince people would enjoy looking at.
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