morbius Tagged Articles at Cinematical

With Sam Raimi dragging everyone to hell this past week, Spider-Man 4 rumors are flying as fast and furious as its webby hero. The New York Post caught up with Sony producer Todd Black to pump him for info, and here's what he had to confirm and deny.

Black says Kirsten Dunst is returning as Mary Jane, which may quash all that undecided talk that has plagued the film since it was first announced. However, there are no plans to unite Peter and Mary Jane in holy matrimony. All rumors of Morbius being the villain are false, but it will be someone from the Spidey comics, and Black drops a very slight hint as to who it could be: "We're just coming up with who the villain's going to be now. We'll be shooting in New York again. Trust me, people will appreciate who we pick, because it'll be a big part of New York."

The villain that hint really points to is Kingpin, but he was in Daredevil which suggests Fox has the rights to that particular villain. (Are there crossover claims? I honestly have no idea.) There are a lot of similar mobsters to pick from, but would they resist the temptation for a supervillain and go all real-world? As for other NY based villains, could it be Wraith? He was a NYPD patrolman, and has a tragic origin story that would be pretty ideal. Two weaker suggestions would be Jackal, who was an Empire State University professor, but as they didn't kill Gwen Stacy, I don't know how they would work him in. I think Hydro-Man lives in the Hudson, but that skirts too close to Sandman. Argh, I'm no good at this guessing game. I'll hand it over to you Spidey fans and go enjoy the weekend.

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.

Frankly I'm a little bit confused as to why Sam Raimi never allowed Dylan Baker to become The Lizard. The guy had three full movies in which to utilize the character, but then again -- I suppose "The Lizard" isn't nearly as high-profile (or as nifty) as Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, The Sandman, or Venom. But they let a one-armed Dylan Baker hang around for this long, so why not give the actor his shot at villainy already?

Having ranted that, I now turn my attentions towards some of the other (as yet unused) Spider-Man villains -- and this superhero has lots of 'em. (I'm fully convinced that Spidey's "rogue gallery" is one of the biggest reasons for the book's ongoing popularity.) I realize that some of these guys might work better on the page than on the big screen, but hey, you can't make two more Spidey sequels without two or three (or four) new villains. So even though the screenplays are probably already finished, I figure this is a fun topic to toss around...

Jason Statham as The Vulture -- I vaguely remember this green, winged character being a bit older than Mr. Statham, but Vulty was also bald and a real nasty character, so I'd still go with Statham.

Bill Paxton as Mysterio -- Dunno why I picked Paxton. Probably because he's one of my favorite actors, and I'd love to see him play a big-budget villain. Plus he wears a big fish-bowl on his head, so any good actor with a strong voice could pull this off.

Gerard Butler as Kraven the Hunter -- Like this guy couldn't play a homicidal game hunter. Plus he kinda looks like Kraven.