Despite a fairly tepid response to Sony’s Spider-Man reboot, the superhero blockbuster has gone to rack up an impressive $500 million-plus worldwide box-office tally (emphasis on the worldwide). And even if it didn’t perform that well, it was looking likely we’d be getting a sequel regardless. Writers, in the form of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, were hired and a May 2nd, 2014 release date was set. But new information indicates that we may not be seeing director Marc Webb return behind the camera.
In a THR interview with Columbia president Douglas Belgrad, he revealed that the (500) Days of Summer director may be pulled away due to a contract with Fox to make another film for them. He admitted, “we’d really like him back, but there are obstacle.” There’s no telling what the film would be, but Webb did reveal that he’s working with Black Swan co-writer Mark Heyman on a new film that centers on a “a post-apocalyptic society where all the adults have died and a group of teens sets about trying to establish a new society.” Now that they’ve got the needless reboot story out of the way, I wouldn’t mind see Webb return to the franchise to craft something more engaging. I was hoping more of a specific directorial touch from him in this first film, as many sequences nearly felt crafted by the studio themselves.
One element where this comes up was the jumbled Lizard storyline (including a released promo still from a scene featuring Irrfan Khan that never made the final cut), and Belgrad admitted as much, saying a problem with the film was a “the section where Rhys Ifans‘ character turns irrevocably into the Lizard.” He added, “it took several months to figure out, and the filmmakers cut a bunch of scenes. In software parlance, it required a patch.” Hopefully we’ll get some of it cleared up on the home release, or possibly in a sequel. With that follow-up set for two summers from now, look for updates, including possibly a new director, fairly soon.
If Webb can’t do it, who would you like to see direct the The Amazing Spider-Man 2?