Archive for October, 2009

Don’t forget a new episode of Spectacular Spider-man airs on Disney XD tonight at 7PM!

Some days, Peter Parker just can’t win… especially when he winds up on a Midtown High police car ride-along with Sally Avril. As Spider-Man, his luck isn’t any better, facing off against Shocker, Ricochet and Ox i.e. the new Enforcers.

Source: MTV

In a interview with MTV, Sam Raimi says he’s hoping to start filming Spider-man 4 in early March of 2010.

He also says that no casting has taken place, other than Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, who are starting to think about that now.

You can read the full article here. Spider-man 4 is set for a May 5, 2011 release.

Source: Heat Vision

Gary Ross is going to write the script for and may possibly direct the Venom spinoff for Sony. Ross is also writing the script for Spider-man 4{currently slated for Summer 2011}.

Venom of course appeared in Spider-man 3, but many fans would agree that he wasn’t handled very well in that movie. Let’s just hope this is better than that.

Source: TvShowsOnDVD.com

TvShowsOnDVD reports that Sony Home Entertainment will bring the Spectacular Spider-man Volume 5 to DVD on November 5th. Volume 5 will contain the Season 2 episodes “Blueprints”, “Destructive Testing”, Reinforcement”, and “Shear Strength”. As with the previous four volumes, no extras will be included. SRP is $19.99.

Source: SuperheroHype.com

In a surprising announcement today, Disney plans on acquiring Marvel and its library of over 5000 characters, including Spider-man, X-men, Hulk, Fantastic Four, and Captain Americia.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger consideration.

Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories,” said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. “Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney.”

“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation,” Iger said.

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters. Mr. Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney’s global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel’s properties.

What does this mean for current Marvel projects? Current deals for movies for Marvel characters will stay under their respective studios, Spider-man will stay at Sony, X-men and Fantastic Four at Fox etc, until those deals expire. Also the deal for Paramount to distribute Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, and one other unreveled film will stay in place, but Disney would like to
self distribute down the line. Also, Disney Interactive will produce any future Marvel video games. This could also mean a Marvel/Pixar team up.

Well, one thing’s for sure, it will be very interesting to see what becomes of this.

Source: Variety

Variety reports that Sony Pictures has hired screenwriter James Vanderbilt to write the screenplay for Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6.

Vanderbilt was the first writer on “Spider-Man 4. Director Sam Raimi brought on “Rabbit Hole” playwright David Lindsay-Abaire to rewrite his script, and Gary Ross is now rewriting that script.

The article adds that Raimi didn’t embrace all of Vanderbilt’s ideas, but execs at Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios have. Vanderbilt has been hired to pen the fifth and sixth movies, which have an interconnected storyline.

Spider-man 4 is expected to go into production early next year. It is unclear whether Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst will be returning.