Spider-Man 4 no longer happening! Reboot on the way!

by Liam Goodwin on January 11, 2010 · 18 comments

spiderman4We knew last week when filming was halted that things weren’t going well with Spider-Man 4, however Tobey Maguire didn’t seem too worried about it. In fact he said he was “excited” and that the delay was just a “process”.

Well we have some bad news (or good) depending on your view, as Nikki Finke is reporting that Spider-Man 4 has been scrapped, Tobey Maguire, Sam Raimi and Kirsten Dunst are out, and a reboot is under-way:

Mike Fleming and I have just confirmed that Sony Pictures decided today to reboot the Spider-Man franchise after Sam Raimi pulled out of Spider-Man 4 because he felt he couldn’t make its summer release date and keep the film’s creative integrity. This means that Raimi and the cast including star Tobey Maguire are out. There will be no Spider-Man 4. Instead, the studio will focus on a reboot script by Jamie Vanderbilt with a new director and a new cast. All this took place today at meeting on the lot today. An official Sony Pictures news release about it is expected.

My sources tell me that Raimi told Sony Pictures: “I can’t make your date. I can’t go forward creatively.” And, so, once he said “That’s it”, Sony Pictures co-chairman Pascal and Columbia Pictures’ Matt Tolmach decided they didn’t want to replace him and instead chose to reboot the franchise. Insiders also tell me that Tobey Maguire heard the news in a phone call with Amy today. I’m told Tobey wasn’t upset. “He’s made 3 great Spider-Man movies. He’s done really well. But he’s the kind of guy who, if Sam wanted to go forward, would have been there for Sam and the studio. Absolutely.”

I’m actually pretty disappointed by this. I was looking forward to Spider-Man 4, and it’s way too early for a reboot. Why couldn’t Sony just release the film in the summer of 2012 instead of scrapping the whole thing?

As to where the reboot will take Peter Parker, Sony tweeted this little nugget of info:

Spider-Man: Summer 2012: Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012.

Oh dear…

  • Jo

    No =[ i was proper looking forward to it this is silly!!

  • Alex

    This is seriously f***ed up, what the hell were they thinking? And seriously, why plan the reboot for 2012 and scrap Spider-man 4 for wanting a 2012 release date instead of 2011?

    Oh, and let me guess, they'll want this “Spider-Man” in 3D, I'm calling it right here, right now. What a bunch of morons, and while it deeply hurts me to say this, Spider-Man is dead from my point of view.

  • 00Sleven

    This is exactly what I was hoping for!

  • atmblack03

    That's kind of a bum choice, especially to just scrap it all like that. I also agree it is way too early to try a reboot of Spider Man. I really only liked the first one, barely recall the second one and never saw the third one so i couldn't really care for this fourth one but it's a little to drastic to just scrap and move on. Maybe though Sony was doubting a decent box office but even still could have made a straight to dvd, i suppose we shall have to wait and see further news on the reboot and judge from there whether the decisions made were positive or just a terrible mistake.

  • ThJman8

    This is ridiculous!
    Ok, to be fair, I can understand Sam Raimi not being able to move forward artistically. Sometimes it happens. You really can't hold that kind of thing against anyone. But the ridiculous part is the whole reboot thing.

    I was a kid when the first Spider-Man hit theaters. I remember hearing about how it shows his origin and whatnot. Now, IM STILL A KID AND THEY'RE REDOING IT! That is kind of messed up. Especially considering the first movie did great! Like, it is a great movie that they did really well. They have no legitimate reason for redoing it. I bring this up because I can understand if the movie flopped. A prime example is Fantastic Four. THERE is a movie I can understand rebooting, which I believe they are doing.

    Anyways, that's my two cents. Hope it doesn't suck. Actually while I'm hoping, I hope Raimi gets an artistic epiphany, but I don't know the chances of that.

    -jWagner

  • Tyler

    kinda sucks because i was looking forward to some new spiderman but i know deep down this is probably for the best. a new slate will be nice and they can hopefully do more things right this time!!!

  • Butters

    This is pretty disappointing and although I do agree that it is way to early for a “reboot” I think this holds a lot of interesting potential. I'm a big fan of the Ultimate Spiderman Universe where Peter Parker is a high-schooler through the series. I think if it's put in the right hands then this could be really awesome. I just hope they are loyal to the source material (whichever material it may be), rather than doing what seems to be the trend these days by just making whatever they are rebooting more dark and edgy. So at this point I'm just saying while I am slightly disappointed, I do also have hope. Hopefully the people behind the film won't crush it.

  • wtdoucare

    SONY is going to hell becoz of this >______<

    ya. 2012 IS THE END OF THE WORLD AFTER ALL

    i know u guys are f**king rush for bringing spidey into ur Avenagers movie series, but man….

  • Web-Buggy

    Maybe the reboot refers to a new cast of characters and the going back to high school means Peter graduated and is teaching high school. All I know is they finally got a beloved superhero movie right (other than Superman 1&2 original and a few Batman's) if you disreguard Spiderman 3 ( was really 2 movies…too much going on for one) and would hate to see them screw it all up for $.

  • Steevoger

    so early reboots are just stupid…just like Fantastic Four soon…no matter if they suck or not they need at least wait 15 years or something to make sense…they just fucked because they have no other comic rights, so to get something from the cake they need to do some spidey.

  • Mandie

    Finally! They're getting rid of Tobey! He didn't make a very good Spidey in my opinion. They were good movies, but not really great Spiderman movies. I have high hopes for this remake, Peter's in high school so it looks like they're going to do it right this time! God forbid they give us an actually funny/sarcastic Spiderman instead of an emo one.

  • vcurtz

    Hey Mandie. :)

    Totally agree. <.< We need the witty one liner Spidey that he's known for in the comic books. <3 Like, I love comic book Spider-Man, hate movie Spider-Man.
    Also, I hope Marvel is at least considering buying their poster-boy franchise back. Now that it has deep-Disney-pockets.. common. I can't hope but wish for it, but, whatever. I can't be greedy; at least their getting rid of Tobey.

    Dreams really do come true. Hope they do him justice in the reboot.

  • SpidermanFan

    NO! why did sam pull out of the movie? cause he couldnt make his summer release date? then release it some other time, f*** now whos going to play spiderman? Robert Pattison from twilight? No screw that tobey is a WAY better spiderman in my opinion and now spiderman will be shitty with the new cast

  • http://www.r4-ds.es/ buy r4i software

    I agree they shouldn’t completely reboot it we know what happens, on the other hand I’m kinda of excited about this maybe they can get someone who in my mind would do a better casting job i thought it was horrible (the movies were still great with the exception of 3) the only two cast members that i thought fit the script was Willem DaFoe and J.K. Simmons. Of course this is just my opinion but im glad someone else will play MJ maybe they will actually look half decent and someone thats NOT a tobey look alike will play spider-man

  • Theharvardprofessor

    Tobey Maguire will always be my spiderman !!! This idea of reboot is totally messed up, and i'm really disappointed about it. I was really looking forward to the continuation of the franchise with Spiderman 4. Yeah true Spiderman 3 wasn't as great as the first two, but they shouldn't have scrapped Spidey 4 !

  • spideyfan

    Ok, this is total bs. theyre not gonna make a spiderman 4 just because of some stupid conflict over the villian. And not only that, they think that some stupid reboot of spidey as a teenager will fix everything? Complete BS. Tobey was a great spiderman and the movies were awesome, especially the 3rd one. I hope the day comes when the reboot is released and no one sees it. I hope it is the worst spidey movie ever made.

  • Ladyseryo

     WHAT THE F**K men!!

    i was hoping for the spider man 4 but why is it REBOOT? the spider man 4 should be released instead of the The Amazing Spider Man

  • Brando

    Spider-man 4 should come out because Amazing Spider-man is a repeat of Spider-man
    so after all the spider-mans bring amazing Spider-man out