Amy Pascal To Produce Future Sony Spider-Man Films
Pascal stepped down from her co-chair position today to start a new production company at Sony. As part of her new deal, she will be a producer on future installments of the Spider-Man franchise. Check it out.
It has been a tough few months at Sony Pictures Entertainment, following the hacking incident in retaliation for The Interview. Amy Pascal, a co-chair at the movie studio, was at the center of many unflattering exchanges revealed through massive leaks of internal memos and documents. Now she has stepped down from her position, but has a new deal to start a production venture at Sony.
Part of this deal includes producing the next Ghostbusters installment and future Spider-Man movies. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, former Columbia Pictures president Matt Tolmach got a similar deal after he left his position.
To her credit, Pascal has been applauded for trying to strike a good balance at the studio between big franchises like Spider-Man and James Bond, and more prestige projects like The Social Network, Breaking Bad (TV), and Zero Dark Thirty.
What does this mean for the Spider-Man franchise? It's too early to say. There are many cooks in the kitchen for that property. At the very least, it suggests that any hopes of completely relinquishing the rights back to Marvel Studios in the near future are gone. Sony clearly has plans to stick with the property, but we basically knew this already. Pascal's producing role does not rule out a joint venture with Disney.
Though there is uncertainty about how exactly the franchise is going to move forward, recent reports suggest that Drew Goddard's Sinister Six is still a go.
What do you think?