Spider-man Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell comes out on home video next week. Universal's essential DVD release contains both the unrated "director's cut" and the theatrical cut, although the unrated cut runs just a few seconds shorter than the theatrical cut. The major change -- I'm told -- is a moment's hesitation before the main character considers... well... it has to do with a cat. In the theatrical cut, the character hesitates for a moment, which, frankly, makes the situation all the more squeamishly gruesome, and in the other cut, she charges right in for a more sudden and gorier effect. This tiny change says a lot about Sam Raimi, who was once a talented B-movie director with a narrow range, and has now graduated to one of Hollywood's major A-list players, as well as being one of the cinema's most interesting potential masters. Best of all, he shows up for work in a suit and tie. How cool is that?

Drag Me to Hell is currently one of my favorite movies of 2009, and I like it for some of the same reasons I like Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy. More than nearly anyone else alive, Raimi has a feel for the movement of cinema, and the sheer joy behind that movement. His films pulse and flow and dodge and dart and fly; they never move too fast or too slow and the cuts always seem to arrive right on time. His films aren't roller-coaster rides, exactly, nor are they meant to be "intense." It's more like they pick you up and carry you along; it's an exhilarating ride not because the vehicle is moving fast, but because the road is interesting.

Given the long and fruitful friendship of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, it should really come as no surprise that Campbell is going to be in Spider-Man 4. What could be surprising is how much screen time he might earn this time around.

Campbell told Access Hollywood that Spider-Man 4 is set to begin shooting January 2010, and that he's been told by Raimi that he has "a major part. The kicker is that the well-chinned actor knows not what that role might be. Access Hollywood immediately began speculating that he'll be stepping into the villain's shoes, and says fans are touting him for Mysterio. But hey, in our own comments we currently have one vote for Campbell as Mysterio and one for him as Lizard, so I'm going to borrow their investigative technique and say that fan consensus is divided.

As Slashfilm notes, "a major part" could simply mean that Campbell's recurring cameo could throw another kink into Peter Parker's life. As Spidey and Campbell fans know, every time he's appeared in the series he's done something to nudge the superhero into his destiny, and it could be that he does something very drastic to Parker's life. Perhaps he's Mephisto and he'll pull a One More Day, reverse the entire franchise series, and that's how we'll get our reboot.

The Spider-Man franchise might just be heading down the road for a divorce from Sam Raimi and all his players, if I'm interpreting Variety and its sources right. Sony has "quietly" hired screenwriter James Vanderbilt to pen the fifth and sixth installments of the web-slinger franchise. Nothing wrong with that at all, of course. Vanderbilt has good work to his name, and a superhero franchise could do a lot worse than hiring the Zodiac screenwriter. However, Raimi didn't care for Vanderbilt's take and replaced him with David Lindsay-Abaire. He's currently having Gary Ross rewrite that script. However, Sony / Columbia and Marvel Studios loved Vanderbilt's ideas, in part because they form a big, interconnected storyline. (I can see Marvel all over that, can't you?) In fact, that was the original plan for Spidey films 4 and 5 which were to be shot back to back, but the idea was scrapped.

But here's where things could get really ugly. Raimi, Tobey Maguire, and Kirsten Dunst are reportedly not signed to installments 5 and 6, and with Raimi boarding World of Warcraft, the studio is even more uncertain that he'll return. So Vanderbilt's scripts are being eyed not as sequels but as a blueprint for a franchise "reboot." Obviously, there's no further details on what that would mean beyond a new cast and crew.

But Sony is that anxious for more Spider-Man, and they feel the franchise is moving too slowly. Now, I'm sure a lot of fans feel the same way, but at what cost do we want more Spider-Man? I'm cool with them bringing another director on board, as it could breathe some fresh life into the series, but new actors? If Spidey was a character that had numerous incarnations, that'd be one thing, but he's only ever been Peter Parker, and Parker and Maguire are one and the same in my mind. This is going to be one web that'll be very interesting (and possibly very disappointing) to see Sony weave ...

I'll admit, I never understood why anyone thought Spider-Man would make a good musical -- even with music by Bono and The Edge. But Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark seemed inevitable, and once we got word that Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming were joining the cast, the big-budgeted show seemed to be chugging along nicely towards it's 2010 release date. But all is not well in the world of Spidey, and Michael Riedel at the New York Post is reporting that the show is in serious trouble. According to Riedel, the set designers have been put on hiatus, actors might be released from their contracts, and staff is scrambling to cash their checks before the money runs out.

The production is still a long way from being finished, and according to sources, "A lot of it seems to exist only in Julie's [Taymor] head," But as far as Taymor and company are concerned, the show is on track for previews in February, 2010. According to the official website, tickets will be going on sale in October, but sources claim that agents are already trying to return the tickets that have been sold for advance previews.

After the jump: so where did it all go wrong?...

Above: Mickey Rourke visited a Russian prison to prepare for his role in Iron Man 2

In an new and fascinating interview with Mickey Rourke over at The Guardian, the actor touches upon everything from his days living in a $600-a-month apartment to his comeback role in The Wrestler to losing his entire family to the preparations he had to make for his part in Iron Man 2 to how he really feels about all these superhero movies. One part you Iron Man fans might find interesting was when Rourke talks about having to learn Russian for his role as Tony Stark's nemesis Ivan (aka Whiplash). According to Rourke, he'll be speaking Russian for most of the film.

He says, "I decided to do half my role in Russian, and that's hard because the Russian language doesn't roll off the English-speaking tongue very easily. I spent three hours a day with a teacher, and after two weeks I know four sentences! Let me see, it's sort of like... 'Yezzamee menya... Yezzamee manya obott... Er, nemaboootty menya...'" He later adds the translation: "If someone kills me, don't wake me up, because I'd rather be dead than live in your world." But even though he's co-starring in what is perhaps next year's biggest superhero film, Rourke still isn't too keen on those types of movies. He notes, "I'm not gonna rush out and see the next Batman, I'm not big on formula movies. I don't like all that Spider-Man shit."

On his future projects, Rourke briefly talks about his upcoming role in The Expendables ("Stallone, when I was flat broke and I could hardly pay for a bowl of spaghetti in a restaurant, gave me a couple of weeks on Get Carter, and that paid my f**kin' rent for eight months"), and says he'd like to get Mick Jagger to star opposite him in Larry Clark's Mona Lisa. Check out the entire interview over at The Guardian - it's a fun read.

Not long ago we brought you two great photography projects: The Secret Life of Stormtroopers and The Real Lives of Superheroes -- and now Toronto based photographer Ian Pool has arrived with another fantastic superhero-related photo spread that shows what some of our favorite heroes and villains are up to on their days off. I chose to feature the Darth Vader image (see above), only because it cracked me up to see a little flowery decorative sign hanging outside his bathroom that reads, "May the dark side of the force be with you."

But to tell you the truth, I really love both the Batman and Spider-Man images most (though the Wonder Woman one is kinda hot), because they both give off this deep, depressing loneliness vibe. I imagine the Batman photo being taken at 3am on a random Wednesday while the streets of Gotham City are silent and asleep next to their loved ones. The Spider-Man image, which shows the superhero urinating on a wall late at night, is funny and sad at the same time -- after all, where else is the guy supposed to go to the bathroom while he's out keeping the streets safe? Meanwhile, the Doc Oc one is just ... well, see for yourself.

Check out a few of the images below, and head on over to Ian Pool's site for more.



[via io9]

As encouraging as it must be for a filmmaker to be recognized or associated with just one iconic film or franchise, Sam Raimi is the creative force behind two of them. He launched his eclectic career almost 30 years ago with the original Evil Dead, a horror classic that spawned two sequels and countless imitators, and then established himself as an A-list adaptor of comic book material with Spider-Man, which also begat sequels, and perhaps more importantly, several billion dollars or so in worldwide grosses. His latest film, Drag Me to Hell, is a return to the genre material that helped make a name for himself, albeit with the sensibility of a guy who survived one of Hollywood's biggest franchises, and took a few lessons away from the experience to boot.

Cinematical recently sat down with Raimi to discuss his new film, and the director demonstrated that in addition to being a hit machine with the mind of a born moviemaker, he's also a smart, generous, and remarkably humble fellow. While discussing his work on the film, he took time to respond, and kindly, to folks who both love and hate his legacy, before deconstructing his acrobatic cinematic style, and finally, digging deep to find a few films that meant something special to him as a young cineaste. And while he managed to pick consummate summer movie experiences that, quite frankly, didn't actually happen during the summer, the convenience of a Google search and the forgiveness of a grateful nation lying in wait for his films more than makes up for his lack of seasonal accuracy.

Alright, let's get the Twilight out of the way first. Entertainment Weekly has a couple of new images from the set of New Moon, and if anything, I suppose it's small solace that director Chris Weitz looks like he has this shoot on schedule for a November 20th release. For those of us who didn't know, this sequel concerns Bella (Kristen Stewart) and her divided love for both vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson - SQUEE!) and werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner). Maybe Kate Beckinsale should give her some advice on how to handle this...

Now, in somewhat related news, the rumor du jour as to which villain will play a part in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4 has turned to Morbius, the well-meaning scientist (natch) who unwittingly transforms himself into a psuedo-vampire (no, thank you, Wikipedia!). The notorious showman plays coy when asked in this FearNET interview (that's hosted on... CHUD?), but then goes on about the appeal of vampires in a way that doesn't rule the possibility out...

Spider-Man 4 is scheduled for a 2011 bow, so let me use this as yet another opportunity to nudge you to support Raimi's very fun Drag Me to Hell this weekend.

Sam Raimi is currently gearing up for the release of Drag Me to Hell, his long-awaited, and (sorry, Kevin Kelly), brilliant return to Evil Dead-style horror filmmaking. Predictably – meaning we were instructed to ask on your behalf – discussion of Spider-Man 4 came up during Cinematical's recent chat with the director, and he talked about what his goals are in returning to the franchise for one more installment. Check back in the coming weeks for the rest of our Raimi interview, but here's what the filmmaker said about making a fourth movie in the multimillion dollar series.

"I learn lessons on every single picture I make," he said. "I learned a lot on [Drag Me To Hell], about timing, and that you don't have to give up any character at the expense of horror. It's just an excuse that maybe I've used in the past. As far as Spider-Man, I've learned a lot of lessons about what people didn't like and missteps that I'd made. But I learned those lessons on the previous two, I was just a little quieter about them. I made a lot of mistakes, and it's part of the reason I so want to make this next story of Peter Parker."

Have you ever listened to a director talk about one of their stars and wonder where the love and dedication came from? There's something refreshing in the loyalty that inspires it, in a business that's so often fickle -- but nevertheless, it sometimes boggles the mind.

The most recent manifestation of this is Sam Raimi. He's gearing up for the next installation of Spider-Man, and unsurprisingly, the subject of Mary Jane came up when he was talking about the film with MTV: "'I can't imagine making a Spider-Man movie without Kirsten [Dunst],' he said, seemingly contemplating the idea in his head with a long pause. 'Of course it can be done because Spider Man has existed without the character of Mary-Jane, but she's one of my favorite parts and it would be a shame not to have her in the picture. I'm hoping she'll be in it and I'm planning on having a story with her in it.'"

Evil Dead without Bruce Campbell, that would be unimaginable. But I'm sure there are many fans out there who could very easily imagine a Kirsten-free Spider-Man, whether that meant recasting Mary Jane or letting Peter Parker fight bad guys without the distraction of drama-filled love. For some of us, that absence is not only imaginable -- it's desired. There's little more aggravating than a supposedly epic love that doesn't contain enough on-screen chemistry to contain it. But the directorial love lives on.

Has there ever been a moment when a director gushes over an actor that you couldn't comprehend?