Production Notes of SPIDER-MAN 4
Let's suspend reality for a bit and pretend that SPIDER-MAN 3 was not the last movie in Sam Raimi's original trilogy. Let's say that it was part 1 of a two part trilogy. Their was actually a plan to continue the series with a fourth SPIDER-MAN movie to be released on May 6, 2011.
That however did not end up happening. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN film series happened and then it was discontinued after the second film. Then the MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE integrated Spider-Man into the franchise and then a whole new set of movies began.
In this other reality (which has become a popular theme in the Marvel movies of most recently) let's say that the original SPIDER-MAN series continued and that SPIDER-MAN 4 did go into production and started a set of new movies.
Let's say that we're still in the first decade of the 2000's. A time before the MCU expanded into the massive franchise that it is today. A time before Covid19 and a time before Joe Biden became president.
It is the day after SPIDER-MAN 3 came to theaters which was on May 4, 2007 and it was a massive box office success. It grossed 894.9 million dollars worldwide on a budget of $258-350 million dollars which made it the highest grossing film of 2007 and the highest grossing film of the year.
SPIDER-MAN (released on May 3, 2002) had a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $821.7 million dollars. SPIDER-MAN 2 (released on June 30, 2004) had a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $789 million dollars.
SPIDER-MAN 3 was a huge win for the franchise financially but even though it out performed it's two predecessors it was also the worst reviewed of all the films. It received a 63% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it was dubbed as the inferior entry in the successful franchise. The website's critics consensus read, "Though there are more characters and plotlines, and the action sequences still dazzle, Spider-Man 3 nonetheless isn't quite as refined as the first two."
In spite of those facts, the franchise was still a real winner and SPIDER-MAN 4 had already been green lit before the third film had even been released in theaters. Sam Raimi was attached to direct and Tobey Maguire signed a deal to portray the character of Peter Parker/Spider-Man for a fourth time.
Sam Raimi needed a much needed break after completing the first three SPIDER-MAN movies but in that break he still worked on developing the story for the next chapter in the series. It was agreed before SPIDER-MAN 3 was even released that their would be a four year gap between the release of the third movie and the fourth movie which would allow his mind a time of recuperation and allow the fatigue from the first three movies to ware off.
Early designs and story building commenced before the year 2007 had even ended. He knew what direction he wanted to go in the fourth installment and he knew that The Lizard would be the integral villain of the next film since he'd been laying the ground work for it with the character of Curt Conners from SPIDER-MAN 2 and SPIDER-MAN 3.
The initial plan was for a May 6, 2011 release date for SPIDER-MAN 4 but in December of 2007 Columbia Pictures and Sony were insistent that the project be expedited. They initially agreed to the four year break between films but soon began to fear that such a gap between films would cause fans to lose interest and negatively impact the film's box office revenue. They moved the theatrical release date to May 1, 2009.
This abrupt move caused a great deal of strife and Sam Raimi was strongly against this decision. He argued that the film needed the time allotted to make it the best possible product and that he was too burned out to produce a sequel this quickly. With the lesser reviewed third entry he wanted time to make sure that the fourth movie measured up and wanted to make it as popular as the second movie.
Columbia Pictures and Sony refused to back down from their decision and assured Sam Raimi that they had complete faith that he could make a successful film in the time that they gave him. They increased the budget of the fourth film to $400 million due to the success of the third film.
Sam Raimi again refused and officially stepped down as director of SPIDER-MAN 4 in February of 2008. This was not ideal which now caused the two companies to have to come up with a new director as well as get the film released in the allotted time that they wanted.
A script had been fast tracked as they searched for possible directors. Kenneth Branagh was approached as well as Bryan Singer and Chris Columbus. As they tried sealing the deal with one of the successful directors another hurdle hindered their progress.
Tobey Maguire no longer had any faith in the film and refused to do it without Sam Raimi at the helm. Another factor was that he was now on his way to being 33 years old and didn't know if it was believable for him to be playing a character still in his early twenties. The training and stunts were also very taxing and he just didn't think he had the heart to go through it all again without Sam Raimi directing.
That was the final nail in the coffin for their plans and they began to immediately think of other ideas for the franchise. It was now May of 2008, exactly one year from their projected release date for SPIDER-MAN 4. The project was in shambles and they officially took the film off of the May 1, 2009 calendar.
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, another Marvel project produced by Twentieth Century Fox and starring Hugh Jackman took the theatrical release spot of May 1, 2009.
Immediate talk of rebooting the franchise began in earnest. They started looking for younger actors such as Dane Dehaan and Andrew Garfield to portray Spider-Man and were looking toward Marc Webb to direct the rebooted franchise.
IRON MAN, a Robert Downey Jr. led Marvel film produced by Paramount Pictures, was released on May 2, 2008 and was a monumental success at the box office with a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It immediately gave birth to a new franchise of Marvel related movies separate from the Sony SPIDER-MAN series known as the MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE. Another Marvel film within this new continuity was an Edward Norton led film called THE INCREDIBLE HULK produced by Universal Studios. It was released on June 13, 2008 and was not quite the success that IRON MAN was with a lower box office receipt and a 67% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
One thing was for certain for the stressed individuals with Columbia Pictures and Sony, Marvel movies were on the rise and if they lagged much longer on trying to work out the kinks of their burgeoning Spider-Man property then the other production companies would leave them behind in the dust with their Marvel properties.
June of 2008 was a pivotal month for the franchise that was currently in limbo. As Tobey Maguire celebrated his 33rd birthday, a certain legend named Stan Lee had a private meeting with Sam Raimi. He expressed his disappointment over the recent events involving the franchise and explained that no one else has brought such love and vision to his character of Spider-Man quite like Sam Raimi had. He implored the director to renegotiate with Columbia Pictures and Sony and for them to please come to an understanding.
Moved by Stan Lee's words, Sam Raimi met with the head honchos of the two companies and by July of 2008 they had all come to an understanding. They offered Sam Raimi an exponential increase in pay and all of them settled on SPIDER-MAN 4 being released on May 7, 2010. It was a compromise on both sides. It was one year later than what they had wanted and one year earlier than what he had wanted.
Their was also a new prominent face added to the producers team at Columbia Pictures and Sony alongside Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Stan Lee. His name was Shaun Bishop and he was a young and rich entrepreneur who also happened to be an avid fan of everything Marvel related and especially a fan of Sam Raimi's series of Spider-Man movies.
He joined the producer team in the midst of the SPIDER-MAN reboot series development process and although excited about the possibilities that the project had entailed, he would have much rather preferred the fourth entry of the already established Sam Raimi SPIDER-MAN series. His actions and input during the renegotiations with Sam Raimi were what ultimately sealed the deal for Raimi's return to the project.
Now it was crunch time on getting the movie made in the allotted time. The first order of business was to get Tobey Maguire back on board which was accomplished almost immediately once he realized that Sam Raimi was once again helming the project. In August of 2008 it was publicly announced that both director and actor were back in the saddle for SPIDER-MAN 4 to be released on May 7, 2010.
It just so happened that another big Marvel movie was revealed to be scheduled to be released on the same day as SPIDER-MAN 4. It was IRON MAN 2, the third film in the MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE. This caused some alarm at Columbia Pictures who acknowledged that the growing MCU was growing immensely popular and could pose a threat to the box office revenue of their fourth SPIDER-MAN film.
It was strongly debated to move the release date to either June or July of that year. After some deliberation on which route they should take, it was agreed that the release date would stay the same. Paramount Pictures also stressed about the competition of releasing their movie on the same day as SPIDER-MAN 4 and debated moving IRON MAN 2 to a later date as well. Eventually they decided to leave it the same and May 7, 2010 proved to be a big date for Marvel fans worldwide. Their would be two blockbuster movies to choose from on that date.
Pre-Production was in full swing by September of 2008 with the script going through several rewrites with different villains in each one. Sam Raimi went to work in designing the film and simultaneously casting new actors and getting actors from the previous films to return. Filming was scheduled to begin in New York in early 2009.
In one draft of the script the Vulture was to be the primary villain and Sam Raimi had been eyeing either John Malkovich or Ben Kingsley for the part. Felicia Hardy was also part of the script but the character was renamed Felicia Toomes and was the daughter of Adrian Toomes aka The Vulture. Instead of her becoming the Black Cat she was to become the Vultress. Sam Raimi had his eye on trying to cast Anne Hathaway for the part. Another draft had Kraven the Hunter as the main villain and Bruce Campbell, who had a cameo in every other previous SPIDER-MAN film, was being eyed for the character.
Sam Raimi ultimately did not go with either of those concepts and went back to his original idea when he'd started early development in 2007. The Lizard would be the primary antagonist of the new film. The Lizard was the only antagonist at first because Sam Raimi had a fear of revisiting the mistakes of the third entry with having too many villains. The first two movies only had one villain and were universally well received.
Eventually, as the script became more fleshed out, he felt comfortable incorporating a secondary antagonist which was going to be The Scorpion. Another character, Roderick Kingsley, was also incorporated with the potential to be a villain in a future installment. Another last minute addition was adding the villain The Rhino in a small part as a minor antagonist.
Mary Jane Watson was also in just about every draft of the scripts up until the end. Sam Raimi eventually felt that the romance between her and Spider-Man was becoming a bit tired and he wanted to use the character of Gwen Stacy, who had been severely underused in the third film. All of the romance involving MJ was removed and repurposed for Gwen Stacy. Kirsten Dunst, who had initially intended to be a returning cast member for the new film was ultimately dropped from the new movie.
By December of 2008 the script had been finalized and the cast had been signed on. New cast members for SPIDER-MAN 4 included Josh Brolin as Mac Gargan/ The Scorpion, Sebastian Stan as Ned Leeds, Sela Ward as Martha Conners, Jeffrey Tambor as Dr. Stillwell, Vinnie Jones as The Rhino, and Cillian Murphy as Roderick Kingsley. Returning Cast members for SPIDER-MAN 4 included Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/ Spider-Man, J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, Dylan Baker as Dr. Curt Connors/ The Lizard, Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy, Rosemary Harris as May Parker, James Cromwell as Capt. George Stacy, Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant, Ted Raimi as Hoffman, Bill Nunn as Joseph "Robbie" Robertson, with Willem Dafoe, James Franco, Alfred Molina, Thomas Haden Church, and Topher Grace returning via dream sequences.
Principle Photography officially began in Los Angeles on Monday February 22, 2009 and was scheduled to last for 90 days. Filming had to be postponed in New York due to it still snowing and the story was not set for a snow setting in mind. They had to begin filming in Los Angeles instead. Stan Lee and Bruce Campbell both showed up on set Wednesday of the first week to film their cameos.
Production proceeded with only minor hiccups here and there as is common with any big budget production. Kirsten Dunst visited the set in the second week of production and the previous villain actors from the past three movies arrived and filmed their dream sequence scenes in one day.
The third week of production began on a soundstage for the sewer scenes. Josh Brolin arrived that Monday and began shooting his scenes as The Scorpion. He found the costume to be most cumbersome. Dylan Baker wore a CGI suit for his character as The Lizard. Tobey Maguire pulled a leg muscle during one of the fight sequences and filming had to be suspended for the remainder of the day.
They concluded filming all of the sewer scenes on the fourth week of filming with no further injuries.
The snow was well and truly gone by this point so on Monday March 23rd, 2009, filming moved to New York. Vinnie Jones arrived for his first day of shooting that Monday and by Tuesday he was finished. Thus the opening scene of the movie was officially filmed. Shaun Bishop, the new producer guru, also visited the set for SPIDER-MAN 4 that week and even played an extra as one of the cops caught up in The Rhino's rampage. Wednesday, Cillian Murphy arrived and began shooting his scenes as Roderick Kingsley as well as Bryce Dallas Howard who began shooting her scenes as Gwen Stacy.
J.K. Simmons and the rest of the cast that make up the characters in the Daily Bugle arrived on the sixth week to begin shooting, including new comer cast member Sebastian Stan as Ned Leeds. Jeffrey Tambor arrived on Thursday and finished his scenes as Dr. Stillwell by the end of Friday's shoot.
Sela Ward arrived on the seventh week of shooting and began filming her scenes as Martha Conners. The unknown child actor named Derek Hart who played the son of Martha and Curtis Conners also arrived on set and finished his scenes in one day. Tobey Maguire caught a cold and had to use this week to recuperate. Scenes not featuring Peter Parker/ Spider-Man were the main focus of this week's shoot.
Filming for the eighth week was suspended because Sam Raimi had a family emergency to attend to. The Post Production team began working in earnest on the Visual and Digital Effects for the scenes that had already been shot.
Filming resumed on the ninth week in New York on Monday April 20, 2009. Cillian Murphy finished his scenes for the shoot by the end of this week. The rest of the Daily Bugle crew including Sebastian Stan also concluded their filming.
The film location goes back to Los Angeles for the tenth week of the shoot. Rosemary Harris arrives on Wednesday to start filming her scenes as Aunt May Parker. Her shoot concludes that same day.
The eleventh week of filming commences and Bryce Dallas Howard concludes filming her scenes as Gwen Stacy. James Cromwell has one more scene to shoot as Capt. George Stacy.
The twelfth and final week of filming begins on Monday May 11, 2009. The shooting resumes on a soundstage where some additional sewer scenes are filmed. The Final battle scenes were not quite to Sam Raimi's liking and he changed a few things in the script. One of the biggest changes was adding the character of Martha Conners to the final battle to create more tension in the story. Josh Brolin, Dylan Baker, and Sela Ward finish their shots on Thursday.
The Final day of filming for SPIDER-MAN 4 began on Friday May 15, 2009. An additional scene was added by Sam Raimi for J.K. Simmons to return and film a scene alongside Tobey Maguire. The entire cast and crew are on the set to celebrate the end of a successful shoot that had minimal hiccups along the way.
Tobey Maguire was immensely exhausted and questioned whether or not he'd want to return for another SPIDER-MAN movie after this one. Sam Raimi shared his sentiments.
Principle Photography officially wrapped on Friday May 15,2009. The movie was set for release in less than a year.
Immediately following filming, Sam Raimi took a week off to rest. The Cast of the film had done their part and were free to go on to their next projects. Sam Raimi however had much more work that had to be done before he could call it quits.
He joined in on the Post Production process on Monday May 25, 2009. Half of the Visual and Digital Effects had been completed but their was still a ways to go. He had to have some things changed that did not quite match up to his vision. Editing was a full time and exhaustive process as well.
In July, Danny Elfman arrived and began orchestrating the musical score for the film. The teaser trailer was being edited as well and would debut in cinemas in August.
After the debut of the teaser trailer for SPIDER-MAN 4 hype among fans was building to a crescendo. It looked every bit the spectacle you'd expect from a Spider-Man movie.
By September, the editing of Visual and Digital Effects were coming along magnificently. The film was very much near completion. Sam Raimi selected the song "Fly" by Jet Black Stare for the closing credits of the film.
In October, Danny Elfman finished the music for the film and the scenes selected for the theatrical trailer were completed and ready to start hitting cinemas in late November.
The film's approximate running time came in at exactly 120 minutes. It was almost the same length as the first SPIDER-MAN movie. It was shorter than the previous three entries but that was how Sam Raimi wanted it to be. He didn't want another overly bloated plot ridden film like SPIDER-MAN 3 on his hands.
The Final trailer hit theaters on Friday November 27, 2009. It revealed many more scenes than the teaser had and gave a glimpse of more of the plot. The hype was real and avid fans were eagerly awaiting the next installment in the SPIDER-MAN series to hit theaters on May 7, 2010.
Time ticked by as more promotional material became available to the public. TV spots, ads, posters, t-shirts, and toys were already selling like hot cakes before the film even came to theaters. Fan boy theories about what would transpire in the new SPIDER-MAN movie were running rampant.
In March 2010, just two months before the film's release, Sam Raimi was seriously considering making a slight change to the movie. He just wasn't sure if he had it in him to direct another big budget motion picture like SPIDER-MAN again. There were some key scenes in the film that definitely left bread crumbs for a SPIDER-MAN 5 and he just wasn't sure if he really wanted to leave those bread crumbs in the final cut.
He also had two different ending scenes for SPIDER-MAN 4. The one he currently had went well with the bread crumb scenes that leaves it open for a fifth movie to be explored. The other ending wasn't as abrupt and gave a definitive solution and would work better with the bread crumb scenes deleted from the final cut.
The removal of the bread crumb scenes were not relevant to the overall major plot of SPIDER-MAN 4 and would only take the film down about four to five minutes, if that. It'd cut out some key scenes of Cillian Murphy and basically make his character the Gwen Stacy of SPIDER-MAN 3.
He talked it over with his close friends who encouraged him to do what he felt was best. He then brought it to the attention of Columbia Pictures and Sony, who had already seen the final cut of the movie and whose opinions were wholly positive. It was exactly what they had expected and wanted from a fourth SPIDER-MAN movie.
They implored him to keep the scenes in the movie because it would help build hype for a fifth installment. They said that he wouldn't be obligated to direct the fifth movie if he didn't want to and if it was a break he needed, then this time they'd give him a written contract for said break that they wouldn't be able to back out of. Ultimately they left the decision to him whether to cut the scenes or not and whichever ending he felt was best suited for the final cut. Whether it be the ambiguous ending currently in the final cut or if he'd rather go with the more definitive ending.
Sam Raimi decided to leave the final cut intact with it's 120 minute running time and left the bread crumb scenes involving Cillian Murphy right where it was as well as the somewhat ambiguous ending.
He didn't know what his future with the franchise was going to be at that point but he had put his heart and soul into SPIDER-MAN 4 and now he just had to wait for the big day when everyone else would see it.
Friday May 7, 2010 finally arrived and with that day, the theaters had a new blockbuster on their hands:
SPIDER-MAN 4
PG-13
120 minutes