As of today, "The Amazing Spider-Man" is in theaters, ending the two-and-a-half-year build up to one of the more controversial superhero films in history. Plans for a "Spider-Man 4" were well underway at the end of 2009, with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire both returning for a script (by "Rabbit Hole" writer David Lindsay-Abaire) which saw your friendly neighborhood web-slinger come against classic villain The Vulture (John Malkovich) and his daughter The Vultress (Anne Hathaway). But wary of spiraling costs, bad reviews for the third-installment, and an aging lead (Maguire would have been 36 by the time of the film's summer 2011 release, for a character normally portrayed at half that age), Sony pulled the plug and decided to start all over again, to no little protestations from fans.
"(500) Days Of Summer" helmer Marc Webb was brought on board with a script from "Zodiac" writer James Vanderbilt, and Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans were cast as the leads. "The Amazing Spider-Man" finally makes it to theaters today, and the controversy shows no sign of abating: the film's had both highly positive reviews and deeply scathing ones, with our own falling somewhere in the middle. However the film does (and it's tracking to take about $125 million over the next six days, a decent number by any standard, but significantly down from the $150 million that "Spider-Man 3" made on opening weekend five years ago), a sequel is already firmly on the cards: "Transformers" writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have been reworking Vanderbilt's screenplay, and the studio has already nabbed a May 2, 2014 release date.
But will Webb be back in the director's chair? The music video veteran was hand-picked to make the film after the success of his debut "(500) Days Of Summer," but no announcements have been made regarding his presence for the follow-up. And the Webb has been non-commital about returning in interviews. When we talked to the director in the lead-up to release, he said that "I've had conversations," but that "It's like asking a woman who's just given birth if they want to get pregnant again. I'm still nursing the baby!"
And to the Huffington Post, he was a little more telling: "I want to finish this up and go to a beach and think about the future. People ask about the sequel and I'm like, 'Well, you know, I don't know if I want to do that, but I love the process.' " The director certainly isn't wanting for potential follow-ups; he seems to be high on post-apocalyptic adventure "Age of Rage," and is also still theoretically attached to thriller remake "Just Another Love Story" and musical "Jesus Christ Superstar," and the timeframe on the sequel would mean he'd be unable to take another project on in the meantime, realistically.
But if what we've heard is correct, the decision may not be up to Webb. Based on the whispers we picked up over the last few months (not from first-hand sources, it should be said, but
others seem to have heard similar things), Sony executives pretty much hated the film that Webb initially delivered, ordering some extensive reshoots. And while these are simply rumors, the finished film certainly bears the scars of significant reshoots and recutting.
**Spoilers in the next paragraph**
