Sam Raimi Promises Spider-Man 4 Will Be Better (Again)

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has spun quite a large web over the movie industry.

We've had three films so far, the fourth begins filming in March, and screenwriter James Vanderbilt has been hired to work on the fifth and sixth installments.

For fans the main worry is that the next film won't learn from the mistakes of the third movie, which juggled three villains (Sandman, New Goblin, Venom) and is regarded as the weakest installment even though it brought in $891 million at the global box office.

Raimi spoke about the comic book movie franchise in the print edition of DVD & Blu-ray Review. When asked about complaints that there were too many bad guys in "Spider-Man 3," he responded: "I think having so many villains detracted from the experience. I would agree with the criticism."

So it sounds like there will be fewer foes in the next film. Raimi said he had learned some new lessons and storytelling tricks from his recent horror flick "Drag Me to Hell" which was a smaller and more intimate production.

He said: "I think I've learned about the importance of getting to the point and the importance of having limitations, and I'm hoping to take that into a production where I'm actually allowed to explore with more of the tools to pull it off with a little more splendor.
"I hope I don't lose that edge that I've just found. That would be my approach to 'Spider-Man 4': to get back to the basics."

Apart from that, we don't yet know much about the story of "Spider-Man 4" - Raimi says they are in the process of working out who the villains will be - and we know even less about the fifth and sixth films at this stage. There's talk that they could be a reboot with new actors and a new director, but that's unsubstantiated.

Raimi was asked by MTV News if he'd return to direct "Spider-Man 5 and 6" but with those films so far away at this point, he has no definite answer. He said: "Every time I make one of the 'Spider-Man' movies, I have to ask myself, is the character still intriguing to me? Do I love the character? Am I dying to tell the next story of Peter Parker and Spider-Man? And so far the answer has been yes.

"I've got to be super-excited about it. If I can't reach that level of commitment and excitement, I think then there'd be somebody else better to do justice to the story. You have to ask me in two-and-half years."

He was also asked by DVD & Blu-ray Review whether he'd like to adapt any other comic book crimefighters into films. He told the magazine: "I've always loved the 'Shadow.' I tried to get the chance to direct the movie years ago but they wouldn't hire me. I read a few of the pulp novels that they had and the character was very mysterious. I liked the intensity with which he dealt with his foes. It was uncompromising."

This links with the upcoming remake of "The Shadow" mentioned by executive producer Michael Uslan. During a speech where he was talking about the success of "The Dark Knight" he said he was teaming up with Raimi to bring a new "Shadow" film back to the big screen.

Source: The Geek Files