It’s really about the level headed and perhaps tactful response one could provide given the circumstances, but he sounds very genuine. Director Marc Webb wasn’t fired from “The Amazing Spider-Man” film, but clearly thanks to the Sony leaks of last year that series ended poorly for nearly everyone involved. After not cracking the $1 billion mark with their ‘ASM2’— a mark then Sony chief Amy Pascal said the movie would reach— and evoking the wrath of critics, Sony went into a kind of damage control trying to how to move their series forward. Tons of ideas were batted around (a female Spider-Woman series, Aunt May and many other borderline ridiculous ideas) and many of them included pushing “The Amazing Spider-Man 3” back several years so spin-off films like “Sinister Six” could hit theaters first and maybe recoup some of the goodwill lost with audiences.
None of it was meant to be. Instead, Sony decided to start over, reboot their series once again and this time do it in tandem with Marvel Studios. Marvel would produce, Sony would distribute, but all partners would work together creatively. What did this mean for Director Marc Webb and star Andrew Garfield? Well, neither of them was actively kicked to the corner, but the announcement of a reboot basically put them both out of these jobs.
Neither Webb or Garfield have spoken to the press about it yet, but MTV cornered the filmmaker during Comic-Con “Limitless” press and got the director to speak out a little bit about the new “Spider-Man” and his feelings about the series moving forward without him. And Webb was very gracious about it.
"I’m really psyched that Spider-Man is going back to the Marvel universe, I’m really excited to see that incarnation," he said. And Jon Watts is directing it, I knew him from the old music video days and he’d done some really fantastic music videos so it’s really exciting."
“It’s sad a little bit to surrender that in a way,” he continued. “But it’s as it must be I guess. I think there’s a huge capacity for reinvention of the realm of the Spider-Man universe… there’s a lot of different way so interpret that character… so I’m curious to see how that evolves."
Marvel’s “Spider-Man” lands in theaters July 28, 2017. Webb is currently working on directing “Limitless” for TV and developing other projects. Watch the full clip below.
Good for him. You can pretty clearly see where his two Spider-man movies, particularly the second, have ridiculous amounts of studio interference in them. There are some flashes in parts that make it clear the direction he wanted to take it, but couldn\’t. Hopefully he\’ll go back and make another solid indie movie like (500) Days of Summer and help his reputation.
New Goblin
I wonder if the director(s) of the re-re-reboot will be doling out similar reactions when the same thing happens to them. As much as I didn\’t really care for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Webb not being bitter over essentially having not only the rug but the entire foundation ripped out from under his feet is respectable. Were I in his place, I\’d be genuinely pissed.
Aw man. This just makes me feel bad. I thought Webb did a great job with Amazing Spider-Man 2; he kept it as fun and watchable as the script would allow. The action scene in the Oscorp hallway where Peter beats up the security guys while staying \’in character\’ had a fun zippy wit to it, the scenes between Garfield & Stone were played light and sweet, and the overall tone captured Spider-Man pretty well… and now, reading this, he seems like a nice, classy guy. Best of luck to him in the future.