Notes exclusively obtained by Movieline.com reveal that the Spider-Man 4 production was in a whole big mess. The email reads:
From: Amy Pascal [address redacted]
To: Sam Raimi [address redacted]
Date: 04 Jan 2010 11:49:04 am
RE: Final notes — we need to talk
Sam—
As per our last convo, sending a copy of our latest round of script notes. I know you aren’t happy. And gotta say, I’m far from happy. Utter mess. Looks like we might have to junk the whole thing, but curious to get yr thoughts before we send them on…
—AP
STUDIO NOTES SM4 01/02/10 DRAFT
Lowlights mentioned in the email include:
- More of the same campy, tired scenes by Raimi including starting off with a musical number (while Spidey fights terrorists). Ugh! Raimi wanted "Walkin' on Sunshine" whereas the studio wanted Taylor Swift. Double Ugh!
- Vulture WAS the villain only, get this, Malkovich was set to control the a Vulture 'robot' ala Avatar by laying in a pod and fusing his mind with the Vulture Avatar. The 'Vulture' was set to be 10-ft tall and blue.
- The Pascal and Raimi are battling over where or not JJJ should yell at Peter over his being discontented at his pay to "Go start a blog" vs. "Go tweet a tweet."
- A scene where Peter is in his room watching a youtube clip of a Vulture attack, imagining how he'd fight him when he accidentally shoots out webs. Aunt May comes in and Peter has to hide the mess. Sigh
Additionally, it appears that the personal battle between Raimi and the Studio execs been allowed to affect the script with Raimi deliberately planting ludicrous things in the script just to piss the studio off such as:
- A scene involving full frontal nudity of Peter/Toby.
- A villain named the "Meddler" who gives bad advice to Peter and always butts into his life who is modeled after Pascal.
Man, oh man. This article by Mark Lisanti at Movieline has GOT to be a joke! The more I read it, I'd have to go with it definitely being a humor piece. But still, it was more entertaining than SM-3!
