Sony Announces The Amazing Spiderman 3 & 4!
With Marvel Studios in full swing with their Phase 2 of comic book superhero movies, and Warner Brothers seeing a successful (so far) relaunch of their Superman franchise, Sony is eyeing it’s largest comic book property and setting in stone plans for even more, hopefully successful, Spider-man movies.
Sony Pictures has announced that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 will be released in theaters on June 10, 2016 and May 4, 2018, respectively. After Sam Raimi directed a successful first trilogy of Spider-man films, the studio fast tracked a reboot of the Spidey franchise last year, earning Sony more than $750 million worldwide with The Amazing Spider-man directed by Marc Webb, who is currently hard at work filming the follow-up,
The Amazing Spider-man 2 is due to be released on May 2, 2014, with villains Rhino and Electro who have never before been seen in live action cinema form. With fans still waiting on even the first trailer to be released for this film, Sony is not waiting in the wings for how the audiences react, but the planning does seem to be a safe bet, unless movie-goers start becoming weary of comic book genre films in general.
Focusing on the “untold story” of Peter Parker, The Amazing Spider-man set up several plot lines which should weave their way into the subsequent stories. Some fans groaned at the darker tone of the relaunch, as Peter Parker, played by Andrew Garfield, was retooled into an more brooding character, and the movie was criticized from taking too much from the Raimi run while at the same time twisting some of the main plot points from the comics. However, fans upset at Raimi’s Spider-man 3 seemed to be invigorated at this fresh look at Parker and his alter ego, as well as the new line up of villains and the added experience of 3D showings. Fans also seemed to like the correction of Gwen Stacey, played by Emma Stone, being included early on in the new story. Raimi had focused first on Mary Jane Watson then seemed to cram in Stacey’s character as merely a plaything for Parker when affected by a space symbiote. Gwen was Parker’s first love interest in the comics, really only replaced by Mary Jane after Spider-man failed to save Gwen from the Green Goblin, an event which would affect Peter Parker for many years to come. Raimi did a twist on this scenario with the Mary Jane character in his 2002 Spider-man film. With actor Chris Cooper being cast as Norman Osborn, who ultimately becomes the Goblin, in Webb’s upcoming sequel, speculation is strong that this series of events will probably transpire in the newly announced 3rd and 4th films.
The continuation of the franchise guarantees Sony will maintain the film licensing rights to this beloved Marvel character well into the future. Some fans are still holding out that Marvel Studios, who is now owned by the Walt Disney Company, will somehow regain the Spider-man rights or at least work out some type of deal so Spider-man can be included in a Marvel’s Avengers film, already planned for two sequels after the 2012 entry became a blockbuster. Rumors have also been passed around which infer Sony may be poised to sitting down with Marvel Studios after the fourth of these films, almost guaranteeing a great deal of money for the entertainment company.
Here is the full press release:
CULVER CITY, Calif., June 17, 2013 – With Sony Pictures Entertainment now in production in New York on The Amazing Spider-Man™ 2, slated for release on May 2, 2014, the studio is planting its flag on two future release dates for one of the most successful franchises in studio history, it was announced today by Jeff Blake, Chairman, Worldwide Marketing and Distribution for Sony Pictures. The next two films in the story of Peter Parker will be released on June 10, 2016, and on May 4, 2018, respectively.
Commenting on the announcement, Blake said, “Spider-Man is our most important, most successful, and most beloved franchise, so we’re thrilled that we are in a position to lock in these prime release dates over the next five years.”
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinkner, with a previous draft by James Vanderbilt, and based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are the producers. The executive producers are E. Bennett Walsh, Stan Lee, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci.
The Amazing Spider-Man took in over $750 million at the worldwide box office last year.
