I'm going to assume the studio didn't force Raimi into the ridiculous portrayal of "bad" Parker.

His legacy? The guy makes quirky movies at best. Weirdo movies at worst.

I think those 3 are the only ones for sure. Lucas I guess in terms of SW...but I don't know if any other studio would trust him blindly on a NON SW film. Mainstream wise though...those 3 guys.

Otherwise...maybe Takishi Miike? Some of the korean guys too?

Yeah, legacy....reputation...whatever you want to use.

His next film is "Oz: The Great and Powerful". That's probably not going to be classified as quirky or weirdo. He does have 2 successful trilogies under his belt, one of which is one of the biggest of all-time. And he directed "A Simple Plan", which is a terrific drama. "Drag Me To Hell" was also a popular horror film. It's not like he only directs 80 minute low budget horror movies.

David Fincher is another possibility I suppose. But I would agree that Spielberg, Cameron, and Nolan probably have as much power as any working today.

Considering Miike was, at one point, churning out 4 movies a year I don't think there was ever any time to question him or his sanity. Plus he made a horror comedy musical with claymation and zombies, a movie where a character shoots vaginal blowdarts, and all of visitor Q.

....yeah...Fincher has to have that by now. Embarrased that he never came up in my mind.

Yeah, that's not how Hollywood works. Hell, that's not how big business in general works.

I'm sure that's the biggest reason. But from what I've read, he has a fairly strong work ethic and tries to honor his commitments. It's also likely that he stuck around to try and mitigate the damage done by studio interference - for all of Spider-Man 3's faults, it's a helluva a lot better than X-Men 3.

As a fan of the Raimi trilogy - all three films - I had no interest in this mainly because I preferred a fourth.

Having seen the leaked teaser, I have even less interest than the none I had before. Even if they weren't going to preserve continuity and cast, they could've just made a standalone story that didn't have to retell the origin. No thanks. The 1989 BATMAN was a phenomenon and didn't have any origin story other than a brief childhood flashback and people accepted it and then some. Considering how times have changed and how well-known Spider-Man is, would've been so much better to just go and make a movie without having to go back to the beginning and show once again his getting bit in a lab and the power discovery and all. In the end all that means is when it comes out, I just won't bother watching. No harm no foul.

If I want to see Spider-Man movies, I'll pop in the Blu-ray set. A third film of the set being universally disliked has no bearing on one's personal enjoyment unless a person can't think for themselves. It's nothing more than a simple case of "To Each Their Own".

Even if he was forced to put Venom in the film, he still directed the film. Nobody at the studio coaxed him into getting the worst performances out of his actors. Having two villians has been done successfully. I just really hate Spider-Man 3. It's easily one of the most uninspiring big-bugeted pictures i've ever seen. I can't say a single positive thing about it.


You can't blame the studio for the complete piece of garbage that movie turned out to be.

Not impressed by the trailer here. It sure looks like they're going to tie the Lizard into Spidey's origin which is just lame, and I really don't care to see the whole origin story redone AGAIN a decade after the original movie. Meh.

It looks really average and the POV stuff looks terrible, CGI wise.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I bet the plan is to make the entire franchise an origin story. By that I mean, keep him in high school throughout the sequels, a la Smallville and... ok, last time and I'll try to stop being annoying about it... Twilight.

In retrospect, I've come to really dislike the Spider-man movies. I can't stand the dialogue and the action scenes are really dull. There's almost no tension throughout the whole movie because you know that none of the good guys are going to die.

Agreed. I don't think any of them has held up well. The first one feels incredibly dated.

WOW I saw the teaser trailer...WOW I am not impressed

Yeah, I'm tuning out now. Had very low hopes but after seeing the teaser, I now have no interest in seeing this.

This link works: http://www.box.net/shared/uinxvtxq3bxolh6xn3sp

... but I wish it didn't. I'm starting to think the Raimi ones were okay.

I have to skip the scene with Macy Grey or else I can't make it through the rest of the movie.

I still don't understand why they did this. Yes I know the obvious reasons but I am not excited about seeing a reboot of a very successful franchise redone and so soon. Hollywood can't get enough of it, can they?

It's an awful film, but James Franco is great in it. Like Gina Gershon in Showgirls, he knows exactly what film he's in and plays it to the hilt.

Also, I'm surprised at the negative reaction to the trailer. Not only are we getting a new Spider-Man movie, but Sony was nice enough to bundle in a bonus Mirror's Edge adaptation along with it!

I'd like to see a movie about a grown-up Peter Parker who is married to MJ and is over his teen angst. It's what made the Spider-man comics readable in the 80s and the early 90s. To be honest, that's what turned me off from the movies the most - they were focusing on a very old version of the character.

The movie wouldn't even need to be dark, they'd just have a more mature version of the character to work with. Someone who struggles in life but now has the inner strength to face his challenges. It would probably draw a lot more adult audiences who grew up with the character and can relate to him more now that he's aged.

It wouldn't happen though, because the studio would rather make a teenage version of the character again to draw younger audiences so they could sell more merchandise. Even though movies like Star Wars didn't have kids, yet sold tons of toys.

Wow, this and Turn off the Dark -- it's a really bad time for Spider-Man.

Yeah, but he's Spider-man, not the goddamn Batman.

I think they should make Spiderman vs The Hulk