AHC: Stop The Spider-Man Films From Being Rebooted

theReturner

I remember their was a lot of hype going in to the release of Spider-man 3, since the previous films had both been well-received by critics and movie-goers alike, and it seemed like a no-brainer that the third would as well. Plus, it would include Venom, one of the most popular super villains in comic book history. Then the movie came out, and the film was a huge letdown for people, what with it's emo Peter Parker, silly dancing scenes, and too many villains crammed into the story. Still, it made enough money to warrant a sequel, and although plans were made for a Spider-man 4, they never fell through. Thus, Spider-man on film was rebooted, and we got last year's The Amazing Spider-man, which looks to be the start of a new franchise.

Your challenge is to stop the reboot from happening. Maybe you do this by making Spider-man 3 better, or maybe you find a way to keep Spider-man 4 on track. The choice is for you to make.
 

TheImagineer

It's not too hard to get a Spider-Man 4 made, even if the third movie stays exactly the same, as long as someone at Sony Pictures lets Sam Raimi go ahead with his script ideas and nobody panics about Marvel reclaiming the film rights. It would have either featured Dylan Baker's Lizard at last or had John Malkovich as the Vulture who, after dying partway through, would have passed the mantle to Felicia Hardy (Anne Hathaway). And somehow, MJ and Peter would have made up after he humiliated and accidentally hit her while he was influenced by the symbiote. Yes, Peter and MJ dance together at the end, but I thought that worked perfectly as an open ending to the saga. I don't know if the reboot's good or not, but I think I would have disliked Spider-Man 4 more than the third one.

EDIT: Actually, maybe I was a bit too harsh about how it could have turned out. I still reserve the right to play devil's advocate, however. ;)
 
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JVM

SM4/SM5 was all-but-guaranteed. I think they were pay-or-play contracts already.

Let's say...

The Studio and Raimi come to an agreement on SM3 to keep Venom as a cliffhanger ending, instead of as a major part of the movie. The ending keeps Sandman and New Goblin's bits but erases Venom basically. The movie's still poorly-recieved but fares mildly better than OTL and the promise of Venom in SM4 is alive.

Raimi delivers an SM4 with Lizard, Vulture and Venom as villains. Boom.
 

TheImagineer

The more I think about it, I realize I dismissed Spider-Man 4 too quickly. They could devote part of the film to MJ and Peter slowly reconciling as long as it's written well and parallel their character arc with that of Adrian Toomes, an older businessman who slowly alienates those who love him in his quest for vengeance. His story begins when he, along with his child, gets cheated out of the family company by Gregory Bestman like in the comics. Though he's dying from cancer (also as in a comic story arc), Toomes takes over the freefalling OsCorp and uses the Osborns' tech to build himself a flying suit in order to get his revenge. Challenging to differentiate him from some of the other movie villains, but with the right actors, it could be done. Ben Kingsley was up for the role for Spider-Man 3, then Malkovich for 4, and I think Jackie Earle Haley could've made an excellent Vulture too.

I also like JVM's idea of saving Venom for 4--could've ended 3 with Sandman being the only kidnapper of Mary Jane or working with Harry Osborn. Spider-Man still gets rid of the symbiote, fights Sandman, and the goblin glider almost impales Spider-Man again, but Harry leaps in front of the webhead to save his life as in OTL's film. We only see Eddie Brock get the black suit post credits, and he recruits the Vulture in his scheme instead of Sandman ITTL. Then, we could see Sandman redeem himself... Maybe even have a Silver Sable cameo?

Again, sorry about my harsh critique earlier.

Romantic Nihilist said:
Stop the reboot? Make the third film bomb badly. Another project by the creators would need to be successful so they drop it.
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So the rights would revert to Marvel Comics? It's a stretch but possible.
 

Orville_third

Banned
Now that you mention it, I do have an idea in a TL of mine which might get Sam Raimi back on- though Tobey Macguire would be asked to do a VERY different superhero-related movie. It would involve one Sam Raimi project getting derailed, though. It should be noted that one celebrity mentioned may be shifted around to be cast in a different film. (It's a looong story.)
 
oshron

oshron

theReturner said:
Would that mean we'd see Spider-man in the Avengers eventually?
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personally, i think that's what they're building to with this reboot (though i havent actually seen The Amazing Spider-Man yet, so i don't know if there's any contradictions with the rest of the MCU canon)

as to stopping a reboot? i'd say it's ultimately impossible, as Spider-Man is an incredibly popular and very well-known character. but the current reboot could probably be prevented by making Spider-Man 3 a complete bomb: either, the acting, directing, effects, cast, and writing are absolutely terrible, or it's completely overbudgeted and therefore they get very little comparative return for everything invested in it--bonus points if it does worse at the box office because of a panning after a critics-only pre-screening which turns off non-Spidey fans, which would include people like myself (i've only ever watched any of the MCU films on TV, except for Avengers)

another possibility could be to make it go the way of the first Batman series, where Raimi is dropped after the first film and replaced with a worse director (let's just say it's Mr. Director for now :p) which results in a critical failure but a financial success (along the lines of Batman Forever) which results in SM3 being Marvel's Batman & Robin
 

JVM

I also like JVM's idea of saving Venom for 4--could've ended 3 with Sandman being the only kidnapper of Mary Jane or working with Harry Osborn. Spider-Man still gets rid of the symbiote, fights Sandman, and the goblin glider almost impales Spider-Man again, but Harry leaps in front of the webhead to save his life as in OTL's film. We only see Eddie Brock get the black suit post credits, and he recruits the Vulture in his scheme instead of Sandman ITTL. Then, we could see Sandman redeem himself... Maybe even have a Silver Sable cameo?
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Yep, I always thought it would've gone a long way to make SM3 seem better, since it'd clean up the biggest issue with the film. People will forgive the godawful romance plot stuff if the villains are handled better. Plus the compromise answers the Venom question without shoehorning him in.

personally, i think that's what they're building to with this reboot (though i havent actually seen The Amazing Spider-Man yet, so i don't know if there's any contradictions with the rest of the MCU canon)
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Nope, it's still in Columbia's hands, and while they're trying to leave it 'compatible' with the MCU - there were talks of having the OsCorp building in The Avengers - they can't do a full crossover without extensive negotiations or legal stuff,
 

Sandman396

Banned
As a big Spidey fan from my childhood onwards I am actually glad they did re-boot it.

ASM is the big-screen Spidey we should have gotten first time round.
 

redlightning

Banned
Save Venom for Spider-Man 4. The New Goblin arch is carried over as its the strongest storyline. Sandman is a laughable villain from the rogues gallery and looks like a 50s B-movie monster. The entire plot of Sandman being an accomplice in the death of Peter's uncle should be flushed down the drain. Replacing him a character such as Curt Connors whose experiments accidentally turn him into a lizard. Harry can still forgive Peter in the end through their own common link of the Lizard trying to gas the city with genetic changing chemical weapons. Harry and Peter work together once again and he still dies a tragic end. Mary Jane and Peter actually end up getting engaged with no cliff-hanger ending over that situation. Peter still wears the black suit, but it escapes and doesn't find Eddie Brock until the end and this plot is saved for Spider-Man 4.

Spider-Man 4 consists of Eddie Brock becoming Venom and trying to ruin Peter's life and Spider-Man's reputation just as he and MJ are planning to ready to tie the knot. Venom also enlists the help of a secondary villain, probably the Scorpion to help due his bidding as a way of getting revenge on J.J. Jameson together who have a common enemy and origin.
 

pompejus

Everybody here is talking about making the third movie better, but is that necessary? The third Spider-man was pretty succesful. They were actualy planning to make a sequel(s) including Toby Mcguire and Kirsten Dunst, directed by Sam Raimi. The problem was a disagreement with Sam Raimi ans Sony. Get rid of that disagreement (or create a solution) and no reboot. We can make Spider-man 3 a brilliant movie, but still the reboot would happen.
 
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