A Geeky Viewpoint

Did Clark Gregg just confirm that Jeremy Renner will be making an appearance as Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, in an upcoming Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode....

You be the judge from a recent image posted on Facebook.

Why Pinewood Studios?

How Likely is an Agreement?

What does Marvel want?  

What does SPE want?

Is Andrew Garfield out?

Entertainment Weekly has the exclusive.

Now EW can exclusively reveal that the ABC series will connect to the highly anticipated Avengers sequel. “You should expect something,” executive producer Jed Whedon says. “The Avengers is the big tent that all the franchises play under. Obviously, we’re included in that.”

I don't think anyone will be shocked by that information.   What is interesting is that instead of reacting to Avengers: Age of Ultron it appears that MAoS will be providing a prelude to.

Al Pacino has met with Marvel Executives including Kevin Feige about an undisclosed role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Ant-Man has complete principal filming.

The midseason finale of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to be jaw dropping and have a definite impact on the MCU.

Loki's role, played by Tom Hiddleston, in the Phase 3 has been expanded.
Rumor - Loki's daughter Hela and his wife Sigyn are currently in the first draft of Thor: Ragnarok
Rumor - The Enchantress Amora will be introduced, and Lorelei will make an appearance.

James Brolin, "It's Thanos vs. Everyone" in the Infinity War.

Daniel Cudmore who played Colossus in three X-Men films does not believe Colossus will appear in the forthcoming X-Men: Apocalypse.

Rumor - Nightcrawler will be introduced in X-Men: Apocalypse but not in the way fans would like to see, as the script has Mystique pregnant and in hiding.   

James Horner explains why he dropped out of composing the music for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 "It was Dreadful" which is the nicest thing he said during an interview.

Shailene Woodley is interested in making a Super-Hero film, as long as its made by Marvel Studios.

Roberto Orci, one of the writers The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and several other films has been fired or resigned as director for the forth-coming Star Trek 3 film, depending on which version of the story you want to believe.

Rumor - Sony and Marvel are meeting and a time line has been created by Marvel for the inclusion of Spider-Man in the MCU if an agreement can be completed by end of the year.

The Official Synopses for the Fantastic Four has finally been released and to be honest I am not sure its any better than the fan treatment we saw last month.

Miles Teller, who plays Reed Richards, has defended the filming of The Fantastic Four in an interview with MTV

Uh... It's Chimichanga Time. pic.twitter.com/ZlknW4HOtj
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) December 4, 2014

Tom Hardy will play Rick Flag (assumed to be Rick Flag Jr. by the way for you DC Comic book aficionados.)    Rick Flag is the leader of the Suicide Squad, a DC universe team of anti-heroes used in ways that can be officially denied by the powers that be.

Margot Robbie, The Wolf of Wall Street and PanAm, will star as Harley Quinn - often known as the Joker's Girl Friend.

Deadshot, the hired assassin who claim to have never missed a shot, will be played by Will Smith.

Cara Delvingne will star as the Enchantress, a mystic who is both a superhero and supervillian in the DC Comic Universe.

Jared Leto gets the nod as the Joker.   He has big shoes to fill in even coming close to the performance that Heath Ledger's that lead to an Oscar.

Jai Courtney fills out the announced roles so far as Boomerang (Captain Boomerang) arch-villain of the Flash.

Much ahs been made of the Warner Borthers / DC Comics decision to make Suicide Squad and release it so early in their Cinematic Universe.     The theory currently making rounds is the Lex Luther will be the ultimate bad guy in the DCU and he will spend many movies attempting to manipulate the story to has advantage. 

Missed in yesterday's announcements was that Krysten Ritter, of AMC's Breaking Bad and ABC's Don't trust the B.... in Apartment 23 has been confirmed as Jessica Jones on the Marvel Television / Netflix production of Jessica Jones and the Defenders Mini Series. 

Marvel Studios has confirmed that Benedict Cumberbatch has signed on to play Doctor Strange.

Cumberbatch best known for his role as Sherlock Homes in the modern retelling Sherlock on the BBC, produced by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.    He has also appeared in Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Hobbit Trilogy of films (two roles), Penguins of Madagascar, and the forth coming Imitation Game in which there is much Oscar speculation about his role of Alan Turning the mathematician and logician who helped crack the Enigma code during World War II for the British.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter

Benedict Cumberbatch also recently made headline news with his Engagement Announcement to actress/director Sophie Hunter, which was done the old fashion way, in the News Papers in England.  

Isaac Oscar, after filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens will taken on the role of the title villain in X-Men: Apocalypse.

Rumors running wild that Idris Elba (Heimdall in the MCU) is in final negotiations to play Apocalypse in the next X-Men film.

Comic Book Cover

Many of these rumors are from "anonymous sources" which in the blogosphere means some guy sitting in the basement of his mother's house starring at Comic Porn and writing down his meandering thoughts, before his 10 coke caffeine and cheesy poof high goes away.   However many of them have at least a whiff of reality with them.

1) Marvel Agents of Shield:  Cast Shake Up, Introduction to Inhumans, early renewal.
2) 20th Century Fox - Fantastic Four Delayed
3) 20th Century Fox - Deadpool - Ryan Reynolds to sign on the dotted line, will appear in X-Men: Apocalypse
4) Captain America: Civil War - Longest Marvel Movie
5) Doctor Strange - Casting
6) Thor: Ragnorok - Director, Casting, Storyline
7) Ms. Marvel (Captain Marvel) - Casting
8) Sony is on the clock.


A Deeper Dive
1a) Several Bloggers are suggesting at the conclusion of Winter Finale there will be several cast changes to the show.  Each rumor however is different on how the show's cast changes.   Some suggest that Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill) could become more of a regular, others suggest the show will focus on the rise of new superheroes and Director Coulson's need to keep them in line, still others suggest wholesale changes with some combination of May, Skye, Simmons, Fitz leaving the show.   There is one rumor that Saffron Burrows will be returning to the show.
IMHO the show is will be taking a new focus begin, well actually it already has begun but it will hit full stride in the spring, focusing on the new superheroes who will all be reoccurring regulars as the rebuilt Shield begins dealing with the rise of the new super-villians.
1b) Introduction to Inhumans, not a new rumor but one that continues to be hot across the blogosphere.
1c) Look for an early renewal of MAoS maybe even before Christmas.  
1d) The first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens will air during Winter Finale.
1e) Agent Carter will get another mini series for 2016
1f) A short (4 or 6 part) Mini-Series is planed for 2016 involving the West Coast Avengers and will star Jeremy Renner.  

2a) Fantastic Four Delayed - This rumor comes from a single source and repeated a couple of times by other bloggers, 20th Century Fox has attempted to make FF on the cheap, young not-so-well know actors, using a single cloud based system OTOY rendering for the special effect (VX), and attempting to keep the number of VX shots down.   The blogger suggest that as of Nov 15th only one scene is done and 20th Century Fox is extremely disappointed in its quality.  

2b) or rather 2a1) A large number of scenes need to be reshot.  A rumor suggests that after watching some initial scenes, takes, dailies of the film the senior executives of 20th Century Fox, started making multiple suggestions on how to fix the "problems" in the film.   The rumor continues with as much as 1/3 of the film may need to be reshot.

3) Ryan Reynolds has not signed on the dotted line yet to play Deadpool, 20th Century Fox is considering other actors but this sounds more like a negotiating ploy than a real deal.   Several rumors suggest Ryan will sign on the dotted line shortly and his deal also includes appearance in X-Men: Apocalypse and options for two or three additional movies.  

4) The initial script is nearly 4 hours in length making it the longest movie Marvel has been working on.

5) Daniel Bruhl will be the primary villain, Nightmare. 

6a) Kenneth Bragagh, director of Thor (2011) is in negotiations to return to the helm of Thor Ragnarok.   Currently he is completing work on Disney's live action Cinderella and Disney would like to keep him in the fold.  The question is whether he is willing to commit to another large scale project and IF a second director with more VX and Super Hero fight scene experience would take the job.
6b) Surtur, the great Fire Demon, is expected to be primary villain (potentially allied with either Thanos or Dormammu).
6c) The story will see either Thor dead early (end of the Avengers: Age of Ultron or the beginning of the film) and have Loki send his daughter Lorelie into Hel (Nordic After Life) to convince her sister Hela (Loki's elder daughter and ruler of the After Life) to allow Thor to return.
6d) Odin is joined by Bor and Thor in combat against Surtur at the end of the movie and destroys Asgard and Muspelheim.

7) Marvel is in Negotiations with Katheryn Winnick to play Captain Marvel.   Fan favorites Jessica Chastain and Katee Sackhoff will also find their way into parts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

8a) Marvel has given Sony a timeline to agree to their offer for inclusion of Spider-Man in the MCU.  As much as it pains Sony to do so at this time they don't see any way around the deal.   However they will leave no stone unturned looking for ways not to make the agreement.
8b) Spider-Man (potential voiced by Tobey Maguire) will be a member of the Toy Story 4 cast if the agreement is signed.
8c) WWE wrestler Stephen Farrelly (Sheamus) is trying to land the part of Venom.   Considering the film is on hold, the director Alex Kurtzman has an over flowing plate, and Sony other problems this is intriguing. 

There has been some recent news about the casting for X-Men: Apocalypse with six pack of actors on the short list for the parts of Jean Grey and Scott Summers (Cyclops).   There is a noted difference in the status of the actresses and actors on the list.  The actresses, Elle Fanning, Chloe Moretz, and Hailee Steinfeld, are all fairly well know accomplished actresses while the actors, Timothee Chalamet, Ben Hardy, and Charlie Rowe are well to put it bluntly unknowns.

Why such a noted difference in the actors and actresses?  
The most obvious reason is that the Jean Grey part is more important of the two parts.  
The second reason, well not so obvious, is the importance that Bryan Singer puts on the female parts.

If the parts were equal we see names like Liam Hemsworth, Dylan O'Brien and Alex Pettyfyer being bandied about for Scott Summers.   Clearly the more known names would cost a lot more for the male actors and if the part doesn't justify the cost, than ...

Jean Grey has a fairly substantial part in he Age of Apocalypse story line in the comics, but it is an older Jean one who is romantically linked with Logan.  

So with such a large ensemble cast already assembled I cannot see Jean Grey getting such a large part in the film, at least not one that land such a well know character or one that three well know actresses would be lobbying to get, PUBLICALLY.

It then hit me, my ah-ha moment.   There is still that untitled 20th Century Fox movie Scheduled for July 13th, 2018.  There is a plan for that movie.   What if Jean Grey is the center of that movie?

I have speculated there is a plan for that movie involving the original X-Men cast and it will involve the death of Wolverine.  I still feel that way, and I even have a title for you: X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

We know that X-Men history has been modified by Wolverine's time traveling so neither X-Men Origins: Wolverine or X-Men: Last Stand did not happen, so the Dark Phoenix story can be told again, hopefully well this time.  

Just my guess.

I am guessing the date of the movie will change, either back to Memorial Day Weekend or later in August so it is not running up against Inhumans. 

In an interview with IGN Jennifer Lawrence suggest that Mystique will be hiding to begin X-Men: Apocalypse and if she and Magento are going to have an relationship he is going to need to find her.

The interview was done in support of the release of the third Hunger Games movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, so it is interesting to watch her co-stars look of displeasure about the question.

A spokesman from Sony said "New 'Spider-Man' movies and more content based on PlayStation video games will help drive revenue growth of as much as 36 percent at its pictures unit during the next three years."

Plane Crash from The Amazing Spider-Man 2

• Amazing Spider-Man 2    $202 ($708)
• 22 Jump Street   $191 ($330)
• The Equalizer   $98 ($189)
• Heaven is Real   $91 ($101)
• The Monuments Men   $74 ($154)
• Fury   $73 ($156)
• Think Like a Man too   $65 ($70)
• Robocop   $58 ($252)

Deleted Scene from The Amazing Spider-Man 2

The Wrap reports that a six pack of Actors are currently in the mix for the parts of a younger Jean Grey and Scott Sommers (Cyclops).

Chloë Grace Moretz , Elle Fanning, and Hailee Steinfeld are the front runners for the part of the younger Jean Grey who was played by Famke Janssen  in the original X-Men series.  

Hollywood insiders are currently describing some serious politicking in favor of Elle Fanning for the part.  From strictly a view of which character most looks like a younger Famke Janssen I need to give the nod to Hailee Steinfeld. 

The above image has Famke Janssen on the Left portraying Kalama (ST:NG) in 1992 and the right is Hailee Steinfeld in a recent image.  

For Scott Sommers a trio of up and coming young actors are being given a look; Ben Hardy, Charlie Rowe and Timothee Chalamet.   Scott Sommers was portrayed by James Marsden in the Original X-Men trilogy.

While I definitely have a favorite in the actress that are up, none of the actors up for the Scott Sommers part really excite me.    Ben Hardy (BBC Eastenders) has a look that may be close enough to James Marsden to say okay, but again strictly from the current pictures I hope they keep looking.

As posted here there is a treatment making the rounds supposedly about the Fantastic Four reboot.

Here is screen writers Jeremy Slate's response to the treatment making the rounds.

For those who care, that plot synopsis currently making the rounds is 100% bullshit.
— Slater (@jerslater) November 18, 2014

Spoiler or Rather Potential Spoiler

Making the rounds a treatment for the Fantastic Four Reboot.   

IMHO this is a very interesting treatment, it would have been more believable had it made the rounds before Toby Kebbell's revelations on the changes in the backstory for Doctor Doom.  

Daniel Bruhl, the acclaimed German actor from Rush and Inglorious Bastards has signed a multi film deal with Marvel to play an unspecified villain first appearing in Captain America: Civil War and additional films after that.

In response to a special request I received about my opinion of the latest episode of Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Writing on the Wall S2E7.

Short Version: If you have watched every episode of Season 1 and the first six episodes of Season 2 you would find this episode reWARDing in many ways.   If you haven't caught every episode or weren't paying close attention to all the details than this episode just didn't fit together.   This episode was assembled more along the lines of a Mystery (whodunit) than the typical action oriented episodes of the previous five weeks.  

Long Version:
Skye told Director Coulson "It's All Connected" and I couldn't agree more.   There have been soo many Easter Eggs and hints about the show and where it is going that is intriguingly interesting if you are a puzzler and want to assemble the puzzle.   Speculation on what you don't know and how it fits into the over all puzzle.   It's not just this week episode but in almost every episode there are multiple references to a larger Marvel Universe.   I'm still trying to understand Agent 33's connection to MCU as she is the individual in the comic universe who recruits Hercules in a similar fashion as Coulson recruited Thor in the MCU.  

In discussions after Captain America: The Winter Soldier was released show runners Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon explained how they were presented with a copy of the movie script and told to plan changes to the series around it.   At that point either May or Ward had to become Hydra mole and due to some logistics it became Ward. (1)
While there were many complaints about Ward and whether Brett Dalton was airmailing in performances it clearly in hind sight was all building to make him a great antagonist to the team.   We can only hope he isn't over used as the story progresses.
IMHO this progressing to the point where Grant Ward will be a Mercenary for Hire, neither supporting Hydra in its entirety or completely an enemy of the rebuilt S.H.E.I.L.D.     Several bloggers have suggested that Grant Ward could a representation of the "Swordsman" and a couple have suggested he could be the next Punisher.  As far fetched as that idea seems its grown on me. 

Another thing this episode attempted to do was tie up a great number of personal character story arcs but it wasn't just about ending but starting some new potential issues going forward.
IMHO many of the story lines that they were ending, went on one episode too long.  I have said this about the show before but you have 7 episodes of story told in 8 episodes, same deal last year.
Clearly this episode ends the prequel stage to the fall series and next episode starts the 5 episode run up to the fall season finale. 

Could we have are first connection to the Punisher?   When Director Coulson asks Skye about the images from the murder scene She replies "One of my sources, Micro, he is kind of a crime scene junkie."   Is Micro short for Microchip, an Tech savvy ally of Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, who happens to be a crime scene junkie in the comics.   It's an Easter egg that bears watching.

Spoilers Below - You have been warned.

This is a great shot from the end of the Episode.


It shows the small ragtag bunch Director Coulson is leading:
Director Coulson is separate from the team, he is no longer the father figure of season one, but the man in charge, the man who has to make difficult choices.
Agent Simmons is fascinated by the map, in Making Friends and Influencing People she said it was the Science that mattered not the team.   She is also not standing by Agent Fitz.
Agent Morse is staring at Director Coulson, it really looks like she is questioning his authority to lead S.H.I.E.L.D.
Hunter has the look of what the heck did I get myself into, is this worth what I am getting paid.
Skye wants to know more from Coulson, like maybe why isn't she going crazy?
Agent Fitz is the background obscured and covered in Shadow
Agent Tripplet is looking to something off screen and away from everyone else.
Mac is clearly intrigued with the map.

So much thought went into this one five second shot it mind numbing. 

Another interesting tidbit we learned this week Adrianne Palicki who plays agent Bobbi Morse revealed that she has a agreement to appear in one of the Phase 3 Movies.  I should also note the Frank Grillo who plays Brock Rumlow, aka Crossbones, has a contract for up to 5 Movies. 
Originally Adrianne Palicki character Mockingbird was supposed to appear in a handful of episodes but with such fan support its believed she will be elevated to regular (or as close as you can get) for the remainder of the Season.  
Adrianne Palicki is on record suggesting (2) that Jeremy Renner who plays Clint Barton / Hawkeye may be appearing in a later episode of MAoS if his work schedule allows it.   Jeremy Renner who is currently working on Mission Impossible 5 would be tentatively available before filming of the Bourne Betrayal begins which would be during the filming of the spring MAoS series, just saying.

Could we be reaching the point where MAoS has multiple teams in the field?

We also learned that Brett Dalton (Grant Ward) next week ends his run a regular cast member to the show.   He technically didn't appear in S2E2 but he was still a credited star of that episode.

Next week episode list of guest stars include Hayley Atwell (Agent Peggy Carter), Lou Ferrigno Jr. (Agent Hauer), Reed Diamond (Daniel Whitehall) and Kyle MacLachlan (Skye's Father).
The new interesting character on the list is Agent Hauer, could this be Joesph Hauer the British Super Soldier (A mutant who is a cross between Wolverine and Captain America) who's primary ally in the comics is Commander Lance Hunter.   

We are expected to learn more about Skye's Father, could Skye's Father be Gordon Nobili, an Inhuman with Superhuman Strength (and the ability to talk to his dead ancestors) who goes on to lead the Nobili crime family in the comics and is later consumed with hatred of the Punisher who's actions he believes lead to the death of his sons?   I should note that in the comics Gordon Nobili is transformed from a relativily normal looking elder gentleman to purple rock like dude.

There are rumors that a number of C and B list characters will be making an appearance in MAoS especially during the Spring Series of 10 Episodes.   These include Taylor Kitcsh as Nova, Fran Kranz as Speedball and a list of other potential members of the New Warriors whose failed attempt to capture Nitro on a reality TV show created the crisis that leads to Marvel Civil War.   If true that indicates MAoS is no longer just reacting to MCU but helping setup the minor details of a bigger universe before hand.


(1) http://collider.com/agents-of-shield-season-2-story-details-easter-eggs/\
(2) http://screenrant.com/mockingbird-hawkeye-movies-adrianne-palicki/ and http://www.mtv.com/news/1991433/agents-of-shield-adrianne-palicki-hawkeye/

Okay, so what does a comic book being put on sale have to do with a log about Movies and TV, besides the obvious link that this blog is generally about Superhero (specifically Marvel Superheroes)?

Next week Inhumans #8 goes on sale on Wednesday November 19th, Marvel has doubled the number of comics they are shipping to all customers of that issue, at no cost.   So if your small comic book store gets 5 copies normally they are going to get 10 for the price of five. 

That's odd, isn't it.

Hayley Atwell is guest starring on Tuesday's airing of Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, in addition we had a glimmering image of Attilan, maybe, also know as the great refuge that was hidden for thousands of years in the Himalayan Mountains, near where Skye was found as an infant, according to her backstory.

There are a couple of other possibilities, Atlantis and Asgard most notable, but the odds are it is most likely Attilan. 

Throughout the first two seasons we have had numerous hints that Skye is Inhuman, for example she is an 084 (SHIELD code for unknown), she did not go crazy with blood injection from the Kree, um she even knew it was Kree by the way, she figured out it was a map, and so on and so forth.  

Generally speaking us bloggers have decided the Skye is a member of the Inhumans species (A genetic variation on Cro-magnon created by the Kree) who dwelt in the Great Refuge.  Could the announcement be coming on Tuesday?

Check out the Daughter of Thanos deleted scene from Guardians of the Galaxy exclusively at Entertainment Weekly.

Not normally on my usual radar screen, Universal Pictures has announced the next movie in it Monster/Horror Cinematic Universe, The Wolf-Man.

Aaron Guzikowski, whose most noted work is writing Prisoners has been hired to create a origin story for The Wolf-Man.   A story of American who returns to the moors of Scotland and is bitten by a transformed lycanthrope, aka Werewolf, during a full-moon.

The reboot of the Mummy is set for May 2016.   Directed by Alex Kurtzman, the story has a US Navy SEAL investigating a mysterious crypt in modern Iraq.

With the success of the interconnected cinematic universes in a variety of genres Universal with rights to Dracula, The Mummy, and The Werewolf has decided to interconnect the movies into single Universe, cough Being Human, cough BBC, cough...

When the staff at Comic Book Resources finally got someone at Sony to respond to the latest rumor of what's happening with the Spider-Man Cinematic Universe, you know the one Aunt May as the Super Spy, Sony's response was "Silly Rumor, with no validity what's so ever."  

Thank You.

To be filed under I cannot make this stuff up.  

Sally Field as Aunt May in The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Please, someone pretty please, tell me this is false.  Even if it is true lie to me.  

According to our friends at Latino Review Sony is working on a Spider-Man spinoff involving Aunt May, without Spider-Man.

The rumor, the 85th at least, that I have heard since The Amazing Spider-Man 2 flat-lined at the box-office suggest this is a prequel to the TASM universe and Aunt May is a undercover agent working to stop the worlds bad-guys. 

Cinema Blend has just released the announcement of the actors and roles in the forthcoming World of Warcraft movie.

From a couple of days a go, so I am sure many of you have already caught this.

Normally I find these pretty entertaining and worth a pretty good chuckle, this one however I found a little irritating as if the guys at Cinema Sins have a personal grudge against someone at 20th Century Fox and went to great detail to point out some really small nitpicky things that were overlooked in some other superhero movies.

Toby Kebbell has been making the rounds supporting the Video release of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was asked about his upcoming role as Doctor Doom in the Fantastic Four.   He spoke with Collider yesterday.

"He's Victor Domashev, not Victor Von Doom in our story,"
"And I'm sure I'll be sent to jail for telling you that.
"The Doom in ours - I'm a programmer. Very anti-social programmer. And on blogging sites I'm 'Doom'."

Kebbell continued when talking about the realistic approach that Josh Trank was taking.

"Yeah, it was cool, man," he said. "Josh, the whole deal, the lo-fi way he did it, the ultra-real.

"It was just nice to do that. It was nice to be feeling like we had to come to terms with what was given by this incident."

Crossbones

Frank Grillo, who played Brock Rumlow in Captain America has confirmed he has signed a multi-film deal to reprise his role in future Marvel Films.

Spider-Man 3 Movie Artwork

Spiderman 3 and the Reboot

• Sony / Columbia Pictures executives were shocked at the commercial success of Spider-Man 2, after seeing the film and looking at other sequels from the era significantly less, around 1/2 of what it did.
• Sony / Columbia Pictures executives saw "darker and more gritty" superhero films as the future.   Amy Pascale seems to have predicted the success of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. 
• Sony executives were very interested in using 3-D cameras and filming techniques on their tent-pole franchise.   Spider-Man 4 was to be filmed in native 3-D becoming one of the first modern films filmed in 3-D.
• Sony was very worried that the cost of continuing with the same cast would sky rocket.  
• Even viewed in 2006 the first Spider-Man movie special effects looked outdated and ancient in comparison to techniques and CGI in use just a half-decade later.

Twentieth Century Fox

The Amazing Spider-Man films

• Radical changes in the origin story
• Both films felt as if two directors were fighting for control
• Poor editing
• Soundtrack, background music, was way to loud and failed to create mood.
• You never truly felt immersed into the films. 

Sony and the Spider-Man 2014

• TASM 3 has been delayed until 2018
• Venom and The Sinister Six were green lighted as stand alone projects
• Lisa Joy Nolan has been hired to develop a script for a female lead (ensemble) cast - The project is currently being referred to as the Glass Ceiling
• Marvel Comics has announced Silk (aka Spider-Girl) will be getting her own comic in early 2015
• TASM 4 has been delayed indefinitely
• Andrew Garfield is under contract for TASM3 and potentially TASM4
• Andrew Garfield is engaged to Emma Stone who portrayed Gwen Stacy
• Shailene Woodley filmed multiple scenes for TASM2 and is under contract for TASM3
• Dane Dehaan is under contract for TASM3 
• High Level executives from Sony and Columbia Pictures has meet with Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Studios
• A number of new photos show Andrew with his Peter Parker high style and shaved off his beard he has been sporting most of the past year.  

Some Rumors that seem to have a ring of truth

• Rumor - Andrew Garfield contract calls for him to appear in movies like Venom and the Sinister Six.
• Emma Stone is in negotiations discussions to return as the Clone of Gwen Stacy in TASM3
• Andrew Garfield has hinted that "Miles Morales was a huge moment in this character's comic book life. And I do believe that we can do that. It's something I'm really interested in figuring out; an eloquent way of coexisting, or passing on the torch," said Garfield in an interview with Comic Book Resources.
• As an aside while we talk about Miles Morales, the character (along with Silk and Spider-Woman) are not a part of the Spider-Man film IP that is controlled by Columbia Pictures.   To use these characters would require an new/separate agreement between Columbia and Marvel Entertainment.
• Glass Ceiling rumors indicate a team including Black Cat, Firestar (Mutant whose rights are controlled by 20th Century Fox), Spider-Woman and or Silk. 

My Take on the whole fiasco as it now stands

In the end there is the White Elephant in the room, the downward trend of the Amazing Spider-Man Films.
There is no way around the problem facing Sony at the moment, the MCU is the biggest thing in multiple markets and the obvious way to move forward is align themselves with Marvel.  I see no way around doing that.  
The Avengers bump was worth $250 Million for Iron-Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier EACH, or what Sony earned on TASM2.   The Avengers: Age of Ultron is already being looked at as the next potential $2 Billion dollar movie. 
Ensemble films are currently working better than single villain vs. single villain films.   Hence Captain America: Civil War has both Iron-Man and Captain America (plus others). 
I wouldn't be shocked to see The Amazing Spider-Man 3 reworked into that model.   Two heroes in major roles as opposed to two villains. 

What do you think?
I would love to hear from people on this topic.