With the creation of Marvel Films many people started asking about how this would affect other Marvel properties from overlapping with the existing Marvel Films.
Well we get a clue as far as the future of SpiderMan and its looking like Sony stepped up to secure the webhead.
Marvel Vice Chairman Peter Cuneo was asked about the status of Spider-man 4 today. He confirmed that Sony has made the payment to renew their rights to make the film.
Cuneo said the following, “As far as Spider-man 4, it’s really up to Sony and it up to them, most likely scenario is 2010 or 2011 but we can’t speak for them and I think that we don’t know. They have given us their re-up payment for that film so you know they’re going to make it within a reasonable timeframe.
Sony got first dibs on the property. If they decided they were not going to make another Spiderman film, they could have just let the deal expire and it would have reverted back to Marvel, and then of course to Marvel Films.
The other side of this coin is that Sony is therefore expected to make this film. I would imagine that they had to put down a sizable sum of money to secure the rights to your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, so they might want to make it worth holding on to his underoos.
Spiderman 4 has been met with plenty of speculation over casting, directors, story etc. Despite Spidey3 getting the tongue lashing from the fanbase and bloggers, it made more money worldwide than the first two outtings, so they are calling it a success. But people will be hesitant to go to a fourth movie if it doesnt look to be shaping up in the right direction.
Either way, the Marvel bosses are anticipating this is going to happen in the next couple years, which means we can start speculating on cast, story and directors pretty soon.
