Sam Raimi, writer/director of Spider-Man 3, told SCI FI Wire that he had a smaller sequel in mind with fewer characters, until producers Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin suggested adding a key villain and a key love interest. “I had worked on the story with my brother, Ivan, and primarily it was a story that featured the Sandman,” Raimi said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, California, last week. “It was really about Peter, Mary Jane, Harry and that new character.” Then Ziskin suggested adding Gwen Stacy, a popular character in the Marvel comics, who was Peter Parker’s first love interest before she perished and before Mary Jane Watson appeared. “Well, my brother and I had written in the story about another woman that recognized Peter and knew who he was at this dinner and that Mary Jane got jealous of her,” Raimi said. ”
But Laura Ziskin, my producer, said, ‘Let’s make it Gwen.’ And I said, ‘I don’t think I should, because, . . . really, Gwen was introduced before Mary Jane in the comic books, and now I’m introducing her later, and . . . she’s not even in high school anymore. She’s in college. And I’m afraid if I introduce Gwen, the fans will have all these expectations, which we’re not going to deliver in this picture.’ And she said, ‘Well, the fans would much rather have Gwen make an introduction now, and you can do what you need to do or someone can do what they need to do in the fourth picture with her, but at least you’ve introduced her, and they would appreciate that.’” Raimi said he considered the suggestion. “After much soul-searching, I thought, ‘Maybe it’s true. I’ve already screwed up the order, and I’ve already started the Mary Jane [storyline] first,’” Raimi said. “‘Whenever [Gwen’s] introduced, she’ll be introduced in the wrong order. I might as well give the fans the introduction to Gwen.’ So I took her advice and named her Gwen Stacy and therefore connected her to a policeman who had been on the periphery of the scenes [and became her father, Capt. Stacy, played by James Cromwell]. Made a little stronger relationship between them but, not much, just enough to be true to the fact that she was his daughter. That’s about all.”
Continue reading Raimi Talks Venom And Gwen Stacy In Spider-Man 3
IGN.com reported that the new Blu-ray release of the interactive movie/game Dragon’s Lair features interviews with creators Don Bluth, Rick Dyer and Gary Goldman, during which the trio confirm that a Dragon’s Lair feature film is still in the works. “We’ve had a completed script for over three years now, and we’ve had some very positive meetings with the studios,” Goldman said on the disc. “It shouldn’t be done as a CG movie. It should be done as traditional animation, like the original game. But traditional animation is in a sort of limbo.” Goldman added that he’s hopeful since Disney is restarting its traditional animation division, but said there’s a logjam of computer-animated projects out there.
Ridley Scott is set to direct Russell Crowe in the Universal Pictures drama Nottingham, which Brian Grazer is producing for Imagine Entertainment, reports Variety. Universal earlier bought the spec script by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, creators of the Showtime series Sleeper Cell. Crowe was attached at that time. Crowe stars as the Sheriff of Nottingham in a revisionist take on the Robin Hood tale, with Nottingham as a noble and brave lawman who labors for a corrupt king and engages in a love triangle with Maid Marion and Robin Hood. Production will start next year. Scott will direct the film after he helms Leonardo DiCaprio this fall in a CIA thriller for Warner Brothers. Scott has directed Crowe in Gladiator, A Good Year and the upcoming American Gangster.
Frank Langella will carry his portrayal of Richard Nixon from stage to screen, starring in Frost Nixon, Universal’s Ron Howard-directed adaptation of the hit Peter Morgan play. Variety says that Langella reteams with Michael Sheen, who had previously been tapped to reprise his role as Frost in the film version. The nod comes as the thesp received nominations from the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle for his performance in the play, which bowed on Broadway April 22 after a London run. The play is scheduled to end August 13, after a 20-week run. The film, which dramatizes the series of TV interviews between the fallen U.S. president and journalist David Frost, is set to begin shooting Aug. 27. Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will produce with Imagine’s Brian Grazer.
Variety says Universal is homing in on a big screen version of Second Sight, a 1999 BBC miniseries that starred Clive Owen as a detective struggling to solve a murder before he goes blind. His character joins forces with a femme detective to try to crack the case. Second Sight aired Stateside on PBS and spawned a sequel, “Second Sight: Kingdom of the Blind.” The deal, which is still being finalized, calls for Angry Films’ Susan Montford and Don Murphy to produce and series creator Paula Milne to executive produce. Owen is not attached to “Second Sight” at this point, adds the trade. The actor is busy with several other projects, including Sin City 2 and The Professional. He plays Sir Walter Raleigh opposite Cate Blanchett’s Queen Elizabeth I in Universal’s The Golden Age, due this fall.
Crank writer/directors Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine told The Movie Blog that there will be another Crank movie. “There will be a sequel to Crank yes. Prepare to Crank again. And you know the “is it a sequel or prequel” question… IT’S A SEQUEL. We’re not selling out and going prequel. We are picking up where the last movie left off.” Released early Fall last year, Crank was a real-time thriller which starred Jason Statham as a poisoned hit man who had to keep his adrenalin up in order to stop the poison from killing him. Made for a mere $12 million, the film went on to earn just over three times that at the world box-office. Not a huge hit, but profitable nonetheless.
Variety is reporting that David Goyer will direct Magneto, the X-Men spinoff in development from 20th Century Fox and Marvel Studios that centers on the villain played in the original trilogy by Ian McKellen. After the first three X-Men films grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, Fox and Marvel hatched the spinoff program. Magneto will be the second such movie to go into production. First up is Wolverine, a David Benioff-scripted film that will star Hugh Jackman as the steel-clawed mutant; Fox and Marvel will set a director shortly on that pic. Goyer will develop a Magneto script that was written by Sheldon Turner.
Despite reports that America Ferrera is being forced to reprise her role in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a producer of the sequel insists there’s nothing ugly about the negotiations. “The full truth of the story is that America was ambivalent at first,” says Alcon Entertainment producer Andrew Kosove. “But she’s very pleased with the screenplay and much more comfortable about her involvement now.” Shooting will begin June 2 in Greece for Ferrera and cast mates Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel and Blake Lively, who play a group of girlfriends bonded by a special pair of jeans. If the film series follows that of the books, two additional sequels may be in store. But Kosove says, “At some point the actresses really will be too old to play these characters. I think honestly that was some of the ambivalence at this stage.”
LA Daily News reports that Eric Roberts, who is currently appearing in Heroes and The L Word, will play a Mafia kingpin in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, joining the production in June. “I don’t stop working. I’m a workaholic. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m too overexposed to ever be a superstar, so I’m happy to be a working actor every day,” explains the actor also known as rising star Emma Roberts’ dad, and superstar Julia’s brother.
ShockTillYouDrop.com talked exclusively to Luke Goss about starring as The Prince in writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, scheduled to hit theaters on August 1, 2008. Here’s a clip:
“I play ‘the Prince’ and in simplistic terminology he’s the nemesis,” he elaborates. “The great thing about him is he’s not trying to take over the world, he’s a rounded character that’s not just driven by greed and I think people are going to enjoy the depth Guillermo brings to him.”