Spider-Man Almost Appeared in Captain America 3?
Whoa there, Tiger! We almost got a Spider-Man-Captain America movie, at least according to reports.
One of the alleged leaks from the recent cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, whose firm Columbia Pictures owns the film rights to Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise, was an e-mail in which Sony’s motion picture chief Amy Pascal reportedly tells a business partner that the comic book company and studio wanted to feature the web-slinger in its planned third Captain America movie, The Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday.
The film, Captain America: Civil War, is set for release in 2016 and features Steve Rogers’ fellow Avengers members Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), the latter of which is making his big-screen debut.
The financial outlet also reported that in another leaked email, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s president Doug Belgrad wrote to Pascal about a potential scenario in which Marvel would produce a new Spider-Man movie trilogy and that Sony would retains “creative control, marketing and distribution.” The Wall Street Journal said the talks eventually broke down.
Sony, Marvel and parent firm the Walt Disney Company have not commented. The Hollywood Reporter quoted a source as saying that Marvel had approached Sony about the Spider-Man discussions.
The news comes more than a week after hackers, who have not yet been identified, launched a cyber attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment and leaked private and sensitive information, including full-length movies that have not yet been released.
The news also comes more than a month after both Marvel and Warner Bros. Entertainment, which owns rival comic book company DC Comics, announced a slew of new superhero movies.
Spider-Man the franchise was created by Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. The beloved web-slinger made his debut in a Marvel comic book in 1962. Several Spider-Man crossovers with Captain America and other superheroes have been printed over the years.
Following what appeared to be a decreasing lack of interest in superhero flicks, the publisher sold the film rights to small production company Cannon Films in 1985 for $225,000, according to The Los Angeles Times. The firm later produced action films such as The Delta Force and other Chuck Norris movies.
The first Spider-Man film screenplay that Cannon head Menahem Golan had commissioned was penned by Leslie Stevens, creator of the TV show The Outer Limits. The story featured Spider-Man’s alter ego Peter Parker turning into a giant tarantula, the newspaper reported. Another script featured Tom Cruise playing the character, it said.
In 1990, Golan sold the movie rights to another production studio, Carolco, which paid $3 million to James Cameron to come on board as screenwriter, director and producer, The Los Angeles Times said. The company went bankrupt five years later and Columbia Pictures, which is owned by Sony, bought back the film rights in 1999, the newspaper reported.
Following script rewrites and legal battles, the first Spider-Man movie was released in 2002. It starred Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, was based on a script by Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp. The film made $821.7 million worldwide and spawned two sequels.
A reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man, starred Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and was released in 2012. It made $757.9 million worldwide. A sequel, released this past May, made $708.9 million and a third is in the works and is set for release in 2018.