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You be the judge from a recent image posted on Facebook.
Another series of internal Sony/Columbia e-mails has been "found" discussing what Marvel had envisioned for Spider-Man if he were to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The email is dated November 2, 2014 and is written by Andrew Gumpert, one of the many Presidents at Columbia Tri-Star Pictures to Amy Pascal, Co-Chair of Sony Picture Entertainment. The email contains notes from a meeting that Andrew Gumpert had with Marvel Studios, in the end Andrew Gumpert implores Amy Pascal to accept the deal because they are not going to get a better deal from Marvel AND it is in the best interests of SPE to protect their most important asset.
- Peter Parker would make a Cameo appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron in which he would meet Tony Stark / Iron Man.
- In Captain America: Civil War Peter Parker / Spider-Man would make a series of appearances, more than a cameo but less than a full blown part. He would meet with Tony Stark, who would provide PP/SM with an upgraded suit and gadgets. PP/SM would later meet (fight?) with Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff in the final third of the CA:CW.
- A stand alone Spider-Man film would be released between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1. The stand alone film would be part of MCU canon, and suggested it not have a large focus on the relationship between Peter Parker and either Gwen or Mary Jane. Instead the film would focus on SM dealing with a street level villain in New York after the events in CA:CW, in a universe where super-heroes are divided into two groups.
- Spider-Man would appear in both Avengers: Infinity War films as a supporting character, not a full blown member of the Avengers but far more than a cameo.
- Following the Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2 another Spider-Man film would be released.
What's interesting about this email, from Andrew Gumpert one of several President of Columbia Tri-Star to Amy Pascal Co-Chair at Sony Picture Entertainment is it suggests that SPE produce their own Spider-Man films, not Marvel. One can read between the lines and see that Marvel is suggesting that Sony finish the TASM story arc. It also suggests that Marvel's stance on Andrew Garfield has softened from earlier emails.
In reading the email it appears that Amy Pascal is the one standing in the way of getting a deal done; which sort of jives with previous reports is she wants to protect SM and only do this if there is nothing else that can be done.
Confirmed - Meeting between Top Sony and Marvel/Disney Executives.
Posted by Labels: MCU, Spider-Man
This January at the Pinewood Studios, just outside of London England, Senior Executives from Sony Pictures Entertainement [SPE], Sony Corporation, Marvel Studios, Marvel Entertainement, and Disney Corporation will be meeting to discuss the future of Spider-Man in film.
Confirmed attendees include Amy Pascal - Co-Chair SPE, Doug Belgard - Co-Chair SPE, and Kevin Feige - President Marvel Studios. However it is the list of rumored attendees that's grabbing people attention which includes Kazou Hirau - CEO Sony Corp and Bob Iger CEO of Disney, and Isaac Perlmutter CEO Marvel Entertainment, Alan Fine - President Marvel Entertainment, Josh Whedon - Director/Producer, Joe and Anthony Russo Director/Producer and Andrew Garfield - Actor.
Noticeable absent from the list is Avi Arad, the long time Producer of the Spider-Man films and former President of Marvel Studios.
Why Pinewood Studios?
This is an interesting location for a number of reasons.
1) The location is roughly equal distance from Los Angeles and Tokyo.
2) Marvel Studios already has large sections of the Studio booked for filming reshoots of Avengers: Age of Ultron in January.
If this was a meeting between Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal a location in LA would make more sense as both individuals work primarily in the LA metropolitan area, going to a more neutral location 5500 miles from LA suggests that the rumors of CEO of both Disney and Sony are involved in these discussion validity.
If an agreement between the two companies can be meet insertion of Spider-Man in at least a Cameo role into Avengers: Age of Ultron seems likely.
How Likely is an Agreement?
Within SPE and Sony Corp there are number of high level executives who do not like the idea of a deal with a rival studio; adamantly opposed. It appears that these individuals were called out on the carpet as it were in middle of November. In an email from Amy Pascal, paraphrased, she said "you have told me not to move forward with Marvel but have yet to present any potential other solutions. I am getting backed into a corner and a decision has to be made."
Jeff Robinov, a high level at Executive at SPE, who during his time at Warner Bros green lighted the Dark Knight Trilogy, is one of the loudest voices in opposition of the deal. He presented an 8 page white paper on potential ideas, however in my reading of that White Paper it basically said pick a director and let them have full control to come up with everything.
IMHO it appears that no one as of November 15th was able to present any workable ideas that had much traction.
What does Marvel want?
Avi Arad out of the picture, Creative Control, and the ability to use Spider-Man characters in the MCU.
Marvel has told Sony that it would not ever accept a deal that kept Avi Arad involved in any capacity with Spider-Man and MCU; he would not even be allowed to be an over-night Janitor. That's not unexpected considering Marvel Corporate view on Arad, but it may be a legal stumbling block for SPE.
Creative Control is a huge issue for many of the executives at Sony, but I personally struggle to understand what motivates this fear. To work with in the MCU you stories have to integrate into the canon already created, as weird as that is TASM and TASM2 were written to be in that canon already. Let me reiterate that fact the latest two movies were conceived to be apart of the MCU even though Spider-Man was not a part of the MCU.
Of course the whole purpose of these discussions is to include Spider-Man in MCU canon and movies.
What does SPE want?
Financial success and protections against various issues.
We know that TASM made after expenses $300 Million in profit, TASM2 will make slightly less than that. That profit funds a lot of smaller scale pictures for SPE, a loss of say $50 million might stop production of 3 or 4 low budget films. That's a big deal to Sony.
Sony has also invested large amounts of money to bring VX work in house so to speak. A new state of the art VX studio was opened earlier this year and Sony needs to make sure that it has these big budget films to support that studio.
Sony also believes it will have a legal bill coming for Avi Arad and his studio if their contract is broken that it will have to pay.
Amy Pascal has made it clear she wants to protect the people she feels have done nothing or little wrong in the process. She clearly thinks that Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Shailene Woodley and even to some extent Marc Webb are more victims of circumstance than actual problems. Many critics have praised both Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield performance in both movies.
Is Andrew Garfield out?
If this deals falls apart I think it will be because Amy Pascal is defending "her people".
That being said there are a lot of bridges between Garfield and Sony that may be on fire. Andrew Garfield did not attend as required by his contract a couple of Sony Corporate Events and he also talked publically and disparagingly about TASM2. With that said it appears that Matthew Tolmach (producer of TASM and TASM2) maybe more a fault in these situations than Andrew Garfield is, as rumor has it Tolmach informed Garfield about pending removal from the role right before two of these events occurred.
I am going to start with a discussion on my sources, I am two or three steps down the food chain here. I read a series of Marvel Themed Asia Blogs / Bulletin Boards. So far two of the posters on these sites have a pretty solid track record, I haven't been keeping track but they have to be batting .700 or so in what they post. That being said the usual cast of characters are all posting the same details so either their source is wrong or feeding them bad information and in the rush to be first they are all jumping on the same bone.
You can thank the embarrassment of Sony's hack for this one. Sony's board is not very happy with how poorly Sony and Columbia are appearing in the current rumors and the CEO of Sony stepped in and made the decision that they have no choice but to accept what Marvel is offer, and whats worse it is a pretty good deal. It is not clear but it sounds like they are ready or aware that a lawsuit from Avi Arad is coming.
Rumor - Sony and Marvel have agreed upon a framework of a deal allowing Spider-Man to appear in multiple movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- TASM 3 will have a release date of November 24th 2016.
- TASM 3 will be a conclusion and soft-reboot of the current Spider-Man story arc.
- A Spider-Man Comic writer - John Michael Bendis maybe - will be brought on board to write the script.
- Production of Spider-Man movies will be transferred to Marvel Studios from Avi Arad Productions and Matt Tolmach Productions.
- Distribution of the Film and Advertising are still handled by Sony.
- Marvel Studios will provide 60% of the Financing of Spider-Man Movies under this agreement, Sony the other 40%.
- Sony will make 75% of the profit up through $850 Million in Revenue and 25% of the profit of all Revenue over $850 M with Marvel making the reverse.
- Andrew Garfield will reprise his role as Peter Parker / Spider-Man.
- Shailene Woodley will star as Mary Jane Watson
- Emma Stone, if they go done the clone road, would reprise her role as Gwen Stacy.
- The fate of other actors is not known.
- Marc Webb will be considered for directing TASM 3, however Marvel is interested in bringing in new blood. Adam McKay is still out there.
- Production of The Sinister Six will be halted or reworked to be a climax crossover of all the Spider-Man films.
- Venom will be worked as a stand alone film.
- Spider-Girl (Silk) and or Spider-Woman will appear in women of Spider film being written by Joy Nolan.
- Spider-Man will appear in an extended Cameo in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
- Spider-Man will appear as a full blown cast member of Captain America: Civil War
- Spider-Man may appear in up to two additional movies in the phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Spider-Man may appear in both of the Avengers: Infinity War films
- Villains from Spider-Man may appear in multiple Phase 3 films.
- Sony VFX studio (imageworks) will see a good deal of Visual Effects work (lead for the Spider-Man Films and regular contributor for the rest of the MCU films.)
I should point out that Marvel has offered a similar structure to 20th Century Fox and you can be damned sure they are watching what is going on with Fantastic Four and the X-Men.
This is very detailed for a rumor so it has problems, but it from a source that usually appears in the know.
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.
News, Notes and Rumors - Marvel
Posted by Labels: MCU, Spider-Man Universe, The Fantastic Four (Film), X-MenAl 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.
Confirmed - Deadpool
Posted by Labels: Apocalypse (Film), Cable, Deadpool, Deadpool (film), Ryan Reynolds, Stephen Lang
Ryan Reynolds has been confirmed (finally) to reprise his role as Wade Wilson / Deadpool in the upcoming 20th Century Fox movie Deadpool.
Reynolds portrayed the super-anti-hero in the 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was widely panned by both audiences and critics. He also stared in 2011 Green Lantern as DC Comics Hal Jordan which is was even more disliked.
Test footage filmed a couple of years ago featuring Ryan Reynolds however was meet with large audience approval when it was leaked online before San Diego Comic Con.
With Ryan Reynolds casting announcement speculation has turned to whether Cable will appear in Deadpool, rumored to be played by Stephen Lang and if Deadpool will appear in X-Men: Apocalypse.
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.
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| Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter |
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