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Spider-Man 4 cancellation frees up Warcraft movie director

Sony Pictures' scrapping of superhero movie could mean an earlier-than-expected start to Sam Raimi's big-screen adaptation of Blizzard series; effect on Activision's upcoming Spider-Man game unknown.

One week after the movie was reportedly delayed for months, Spider-Man 4 has now been postponed...forever. Sony Pictures has officially pulled the plug on the troubled production, instead opting to reboot the series a la Batman Begins. According to a press release from the company, the new film will be based on a script by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) and will be set during Peter Parker's high school days. It will not star Tobey Maguire, who has played Parker in the last three Spider-Man films.

The last Spider-Man game was 2008's comic-book-based Web of Shadows.

The last Spider-Man game was 2008's comic-book-based Web of Shadows.

Despite reports of acrimony between himself and Sony, director Sam Raimi gave the upcoming project his official blessing. "Working on the Spider-Man movies was the experience of a lifetime for me," he said in a statement. "While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job."

Besides unsettling the comic-book-fan diaspora, the Spider-Man 4 cancellation has a direct, twofold impact on the game industry. First, it may scuttle any game that was being developed as a tie-in to the film at Activision, which holds the Spider-Man license. Though the company has not responded to inquires about any such movie-based project, its executives have said that a game featuring the titular webslinger is planned for later this year. Activision's last Spider-Man game, 2008's well-reviewed Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, was based directly on the Marvel comic book property, not any film adaptation. However, Activision did publish games based on all three Spider-Man films for a variety of platforms.

The second piece of fallout from the scrapping of Spider-Man 4 is that it frees up Sam Raimi to work on the forthcoming movie set in the Warcraft universe. Last July, the Evil Dead director signed on to helm the project, which is being written by Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) and developed by Legendary Pictures (300, The Dark Knight) for movie studio Warner Bros.

World of Warcraft developer-publisher Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Activision Blizzard, is helping in the movie's production. Its senior vice president of creative development, Chris Metzen, is on board as coproducer. Unfortunately, Blizzard reps are currently not offering updates on the Warcraft film's status.

386 Comments

  • webofshadows5

    Posted Nov 4, 2010 1:38 pm GMT

    unkown game probalby spider man web of shadows 2 or spider man 4 em am raite you guys

  • curty_flurty

    Posted Sep 16, 2010 5:25 am GMT

    @Yoshiguy26
    why dont you just knock on tobey's door, begging for his d**k?
    lol gay

  • MuffintopX

    Posted Sep 10, 2010 10:48 am GMT

    Just a hunch that despite all the fans, this will fail at theatres but be a DVD success. Friends don't let friends admit they play WOW in public.

  • 198d

    Posted Sep 9, 2010 9:45 pm GMT

    im just glad uwe boll wasnt picked for the job......hes single handedly ruining the video game-to-movie genre

  • Antheran

    Posted Aug 11, 2010 5:07 pm GMT

    Just hope they pick a good bit of the lore of warcraft there's heaps of it. It's going to be hard to keep everyone happy ally and horde alike making it animated might be the best way

  • durtyDoubleD

    Posted Jul 23, 2010 1:53 am GMT

    they better not F this up like they did to Dragon Ball

  • hguhf2008

    Posted Jul 8, 2010 2:10 pm GMT

    السلام عليكمورحمة الله

  • Lonewolf2785

    Posted Jun 1, 2010 10:13 am GMT

    This movie will be worth the wait raimi does a good job directing when people aren't *****n round with movies. And blizzard takes good care of there IP and won't jeopardize there rep on anything less the epic

  • Khatjal

    Posted May 26, 2010 12:06 pm GMT

    Good news about the Spiderman reboot. I am not a Tobey-McGuire-as-spiderman fan after SM3. That "Emo-spiderman" look killed it for me, at not fault of his own.

    As for the WoW movie, let's hope it's better than Raimi's adaptation of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth books...

  • Yoshiguy26

    Posted Mar 10, 2010 1:03 pm GMT

    @spiritualchemy

    No, I'm not Tobey Maguire. I wish I was because that would be so completely awesome and I'd love my life. Tobey Maguire is such an awesome and amazing person.

    and @VenomRitual

    I've seen Spider-Man 3 probably 20-30 times. and everytime I watch it, I love it. I could never get tired of it. and when talking about Spider-Man 3, horrible is not in my dictionary. It's a word I could never use when talking about Spider-Man 3. I love it to death!!!!
    And while you are correct that everyone lost the privilege to do a 4th movie, they didn't lose the privilege because of Spider-Man 3. They lost the privilege because Sony was way too anxious for a Spider-Man 4, Sam Raimi needed more time to make the script for Spider-Man 4 perfect, Sam Raimi wouldn't be able to make Spider-Man 4 by the deadline Sony wanted, and Sam Raimi and Sony were having difficulties with each other. So Sony decided to cancel Spider-Man 4 and they decided to reboot it. In my opinion, probably THE WORST decision Sony has ever made. The Spider-Man film series is one of their strongest film series and if Sony was smart, they would give Sam Raimi all the time he needs. People love Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/ Spider-Man and they are not ready to already see a new Peter Parker.

  • Ladiesman17

    Posted Feb 3, 2010 9:57 pm GMT

    I know Blizzard, they never disappoint anyone! & I knew that this movie is worth waiting, because Chris Metzen (BTW He created the original story on StarCraft with other Blizzard staff) as co-producer, along with (Robert Rodat "Saving Private Ryan") as a writter, Legendary pictures "The Dark Knight" & Sam Raimi "Hercules". if only Sony did not intervere with Spider-Man 3 project, Sam Raimi will not get a bad reputation... They (Sony) make Spider-Man series "SUCKS" & F###IN "commercial", Spider-Man 2 is the result of "pure work" from Sam Raimi.

  • Bigbudd0045

    Posted Feb 2, 2010 6:39 pm GMT

    @MSG-Deathscythe , never said carnage was overdone, i just personally have always thought he was a crappy character, a product of one of the worst creative periods in comic history. The sinister 6 is a pipedream. its just not happening anytime soon. you can want it with all your heart, but its not happening. Its not a question of getting the actors, though i think that would be an issue, they would have to at minimum have two more movies just to cover all the villains for the sinister 6 (assuming they use some replica of the original line up). Assuming they can get 2 in one movie, then they need two more movies to cover the three not yet introduced, and that assumes they will tie the new movies into the old, which they have said they wont. I dont see the franchise getting past 3 or 4 before they reboot it, name successful, non-horror franchises that get past 4 movies they are few and far between. Maybe 4 or 5. Im not excite for an origin story, im personally tired of them.

  • CactusMunkee

    Posted Jan 29, 2010 8:49 pm GMT

    I would rather Blizz did the movie in animations like the ones in the cinematic trailers. I can't imagine anyone dressed up in Arthas...or even the Taurens.

    I have a feeling that this won't go good

  • Nosnitsttam

    Posted Jan 28, 2010 11:35 am GMT

    @burns112233 - Spider-man 2 is the best movie IMO. 1 set things up but 2 was the closest you got to spider-man nirvana. And by your own admission you didn't like high-school peter, which is what you got in Spider-man 1. As for the Batman reference, nice point. However, Batman Begins was amazing. Also, the reboot will feature Peter Parker AFTER he got bit. So this isn't another origin story (thank god) but just peter parker trying to balance school, villains, and dating a la ultimate spider-man. Sony needs to make up for Spider-man 3. I think a reboot is a nice way of showing that.

  • Nosnitsttam

    Posted Jan 28, 2010 11:27 am GMT

    remember folks: Warcraft and WoW are 2 different things. This is a Warcraft movie. This is a GOOD THING. In review: Warcraft GOOD, WoW BAD.

  • Habast

    Posted Jan 25, 2010 7:41 pm GMT

    how about hob goblin as a villain if they make another?

  • MSG-Deathscythe

    Posted Jan 25, 2010 3:14 am GMT

    @bigbudd0045: it's simple but i'll make it even simpler for you. this is the movies, not comic books. how many times have you seen a carnage movie? how many times have you seen a spiderman origin movie? so how can a carnage movie be over done when the last count i have of a carnage movie has been zero. point number 2, spiderman can mature like the dark knight MOVIE has (not the comic book) or take many steps back by re-booting again like Superman Begins or the 2 Hulk movies. point number 3, the only ones excited about a re-boot are those excited that peter parker will be back in high school. yeah, i hear all 20 years and older crying foul and the twilight fans going nuts. (do you get the jonas brother crap here now?). finally, here is why the sinister six movie is not impossible: they can ask the villains for a pay cut. if they don't want a pay cut, replace their asses like they replaced terrence howard in iron man 2. (do you think iron man 2 will lose a penny for this replacement?) this had been done before, many times too. do you think george clooney, brad pitt, julia roberts, matt damon, catherine zeta jones, al pacino, etc. in oceans 11, 12 and 13 got their usual pay for that film? ... which didn't even earn anywhere close to what the spiderman movies made?

  • Bigbudd0045

    Posted Jan 24, 2010 2:21 pm GMT

    @MSG-Deathscythe: im not sure i follow you, ur implying i like the jonas brothers because i dont like carnage? Carnage blows, he was good for his intro and since then he s been over done, venom hasnt been good since way back when mcfarland was drawing spidey. Sinister 6 is a pipedream, no way are they going to try and deal with 6 villains at once. They arent making these movies for fans, they are making them for middle america who dont know squat about spiderman so they have to do origins. If marvel controlled the rights, maybe you d see it eventually. The way it is, i highly doubt it.

  • Kryptnyt

    Posted Jan 20, 2010 6:35 pm GMT

    I can live with this. Spiderman cool, but Lothar is OSSIM!

  • Nosnitsttam

    Posted Jan 18, 2010 1:45 pm GMT

    @zombey1333 - shocking right?

  • MSG-Deathscythe

    Posted Jan 18, 2010 3:02 am GMT

    @bigbudd0045: like i said, they can make the series rated H, as in "for hannah montana fans" (if that's your drift), or it can mature like the Dark Knight did. the sinister 6 is not that impossible, the spiderman movies hasn't been casting very expensive actors. they can pick up any unknowns out there and the film will still make money. as for carnage, i didn't expect jonas brothers fans to like it. to each his own.

  • max-Emadness

    Posted Jan 17, 2010 3:18 pm GMT

    so no more spiderman

  • 24k_Solid_Gold

    Posted Jan 17, 2010 6:08 am GMT

    @dlavizzo

    Doesn't the fact that Avatar made " seventy trillion dollars or something like that" prove that it was a good movie, hence the fact that so many people spent money to watch it? O.O

    I'm just very worried about the Warcraft movie. Everyone knows there's only going to be two ways this'll turn out - either it will be completely epic, and will be simply amazing, or it'll be a crappy movie that'll disappoint Warcraft fans worldwide.

  • themidgethotel

    Posted Jan 16, 2010 4:36 pm GMT

    @diavizzo because Metroid would suck, Zelda would probably suck (although the IGN april fools trailer was pretty good). I'd put my money on Warcraft, so long as it's actually the original series and not so much WoW b/c the lore of that game is very, very dense. I can see that moving in a lot of good directions. Depends on the execution though.

  • spideytb

    Posted Jan 16, 2010 11:48 am GMT

    If that the case, they should do a video game sequel based on the trilogy, featuring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst voicing their characters, and maybe Topher Grace and James Franco can voice the resurrected Venom and New Goblin. Hopefully the game can have a to do list just like Spider-Man 2.

    Make a video game sequel, just like Ghostbusters and The Hulk(2003)

  • mad_gamer23

    Posted Jan 16, 2010 7:40 am GMT

    I just hope they don't crap all over the potentially awesome material that warcraft lore can offer.

  • BrolyLSSJ3

    Posted Jan 15, 2010 2:01 pm GMT

    A Warcraft movie would be epic there is alot of rich material there that the Directer and writers can tap in to if done right it could bring in the same numbers that avatar did or even higher i just hope that the movie is good but at the same time stays true to the lore

  • valent1n

    Posted Jan 15, 2010 7:25 am GMT

    There are many great games that would promise a good movie, but there are not too many that would take this chance. Big studious will take the risk only if that's the last resort for making money.

  • dlavizzo

    Posted Jan 14, 2010 8:55 pm GMT

    My question is why aren't Hollywood studios putting more effort behind snapping up some of these IPs that the fans are actually screaming for? Samus, Link, I'm looking at you two in particular. Seems like ever since "Super Mario Brothers", that travesty with Dennis Hopper and John Leguazamo, among others, Nintendo has been hesitant to do another film adaptation. I for one would pay good money to see a Metroid prequel film, so long as they didn't try to overexplain everything about her origin. Secondly, I'm not seeing the Warcraft movie. Period. There's very, very little chance that it will actually be anything even remotely close to "a good movie". There's too much money involved. Ever heard the term "too big for your britches"? That's exactly what happens with these titanic franchises - they get so big that too many people need to be involved to make things happen. Then again, maybe I'm out of touch with what's considered "good" these days. I mean, "Avatar" made seventy trillion dollars or something like that, and it was basically "Dances With Wolves" meets "Fern Gully" in space, with giant blue aliens.

  • lannyboy334

    Posted Jan 14, 2010 7:44 pm GMT

    A movie based on WARCRAFT is cool, but not WoW. Warcraft's lore was finally straightened out in Warcraft 3, then it got it hard in the rear from World of Warcraft, now its back to being a mess (not a big fan of WoW in general). Supposedly the movie is going to be about the life of Arthas, which I would not be a big fan of because its a pretty simple story (tries to save the kingdom, is corrupted by his zealousness, overthrows the world, becomes super powerful). It would be weird and tough to write new lore just for this movie, but I wouldn't want to watch a movie that basically follows any of the books because I have read them all (except Night of the Dragon and Arthas)

  • Master___C

    Posted Jan 14, 2010 2:30 pm GMT

    Games shouldn't be movies and movies shouldn't be games.

  • FaintRain

    Posted Jan 14, 2010 11:50 am GMT

    as much as i love spidey i don't want spidey 4 especially when spidey 3 sucked so much i think spidey 2 was the best one in the movie series,looking forward to the WOW movie

  • Khogn

    Posted Jan 14, 2010 7:18 am GMT

    I'd rather have a Spider-Man 4, as mediocre as the 3rd movie was, than a movie based on... World of Warcraft.

  • roryk666

    Posted Jan 14, 2010 12:25 am GMT

    tobey to play lvl 80 human rogue apparently

  • Danzg49

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 10:51 pm GMT

    Wonder if Tobey's going to do anything with those robotech rights he owns.

  • maaly81

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 10:34 pm GMT

    dang...looks like tobey maguires career is over....hahah....brothers sucked and he cant act

  • shakensparco

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 8:43 pm GMT

    I'm only going to see the Warcraft movie if Mr. T is in it.

  • crunchb3rry

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 7:34 pm GMT

    "please dont do the origin story again."

    True. But word is they want to take Peter back to high school with a reboot. I just hope they maybe skip the origin and pick it up from Ultimate Spider-Man when Gwen Stacy moved to town. I loathe Ultimate Marvel (actually, Marvel as a whole under that schmuck Quesada's reign), but did like the twist of Gwen living with Peter and Aunt May. For a short while, it created this tension that doesn't usually exist in comics written for dumbass teenagers (primarily why Ultimate Marvel was a disaster).

  • zombey1333

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 6:43 pm GMT

    @Nosnitsttam

    While I disagree with you, I am completely taken aback by the level of maturity in your reply o.o

  • Megamanx266

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 3:58 pm GMT

    @SollidSnake

    For god sakes READ

    IT IS NOT a WoW movie but a WARCRAFT movie... WoW being the game itself and WARCRAFT being the ENTIRE FREAKING FRANCHISE

  • Nosnitsttam

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 3:46 pm GMT

    @zombey1333 - i really liked spider-man 1 and 2. sure, the comics will always remain the best place to get my spider-man fix. but i felt raimi had something going with the first 2 movies. i did not think the comics were ignored completely. he still got bit by a spider which gave him his powers, uncle ben still died, great power and responsibility etc. So there's lots in common. Besides, the Ultimate Spider-man series completely re-writes the spider-man mythology and went on to become one of the most popular marvel series of all time. back to the movies, the third suffered from a combination of too many ideas and too much studio pressure and tampering (like x-men 3). also, raimi's film record, in my opinion, makes him a solid choice as a director. he accomplished a great deal and usually never had any kind of budget to work with. so to hear that he's working on warcraft, which is closer to the dark themed movies he's used to, is a great thing to me. and since metzen is also involved, i'm even more excited.

  • Legend002

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 3:40 pm GMT

    Oh noe!

  • BlsPinkMouse

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 2:22 pm GMT

    I will miss Tobey though. =(

  • BlsPinkMouse

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 2:19 pm GMT

    I don't like the idea of a spidey re-boot, but atleast Disney aren't the ones doing it.

  • SollidSnake_

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 2:14 pm GMT

    i wont.. cause im a fan of warcraft 3, not wow x)

  • AngryFingers

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 1:48 pm GMT

    Obviously no Warcrack fan will show up to the theaters to watch the movie because they'll be stuck at home playing the game

  • Ardain

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 1:23 pm GMT

    I have a question? Was there a good video game Movie? So far holly wood could really mess up this series. The only ok video game movie i saw was made by Square-Enix's Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Plus that movie made me say "what!?" a lot of times. That movie still doesn't make any sense Sephiroth died therefore can not come back. I wish they left Final Fantasy VII alone in the first place now they ruin it. The first game is still a great game though.

  • TQ_NintyNoE

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 11:22 am GMT

    Wow, Spiderman is the best superhero film series, and now they've messed it up by not even giving it a proper send-off, and rebooting it. I'm sick of all the reboots. James Bond, Hulk, Batman, and now this. Although Hulk was a terrible film.. Batman was an old series (as was Bond), Spiderman's a relatively NEW series. You can't get rid of Toby. Goddamn, ARGH.

  • keyboardswiz

    Posted Jan 13, 2010 11:15 am GMT

    It's not a Wow movie FFS, it's a movie based on the Wacraft Lore. Learn to read.

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