Sam Raimi Excited to Read Spider-Man 4 Script
Don’t count director Sam Raimi out just yet. The Spider-Man series director is waiting to read James Vanderbilt’s (Zodiac) latest draft, which he says is due in a few months, before he decides if he will helm the project or not.
“I’m excited to read it,” Raimi told SciFi. “I’m hoping it’s as great as our discussions were about it and hoping it feels right for me, because I love Spider-Man, and I’m hoping I’m well-enough rested to, like, really embrace it and hoping that Sony wants me at that time to direct it. So if all those things come together, I would love, love to do it. But this is a lot of unknowns about the future.”
Raimi also reiterated that he would “hate to recast anybody” new in the key roles, and “can’t imagine that” actually happening. I have the feeling that Raimi was a little less excited to do a fourth film six months ago. It’s funny how time changes everything. I just hope that Sony gave Raimi room to develop a story with Vanderbilt that he is comfortable with. It seemed clear that Raimi wasn’t interested in including Venom in the third film, but was forced to by the studio. The overcrowding of characters was one of the main reasons the film failed with audiences. Oh yeah, and the Jazz bar sequence, which Raimi has no excuse for.
Heroes returns, but without Origins
According to Scifi Wire, the NBC show Heroes has been given a return date of September 15th of this year. However, the proposed spin-off series titled Heroes: Origins has been canceled before it was even broadcast.
As they have done with many shows, NBC plans to kick off the new season by showing a one-hour clip show. This will be followed by a two-hour season premiere. That’s three hours of Heroes in one night. That’s enough to cause a brain aneurysm for the more ardent Heroes fans.
While I’m excited for the third season (in which our protagonists will fight their equivalent of the Legion of Doom), I am sorry to hear that Origins was scrapped. They had some real talent behind that spin-off, including Kevin Smith, Eli Roth and Michael Dougherty.
This past season of Heroes wasn’t as good as the first. This was partially, I believe, because of the “sophomore slump” that affects many series and partially because of the writers’ strike. With that in mind and since the production team has had plenty of time to relax and think about it, I think the third season will be a significant step up.
NBC to stream classic series
If you’re really into watching classic TV on the web, like AOL’s fare at In2TV, you’re going to be thrilled to hear that NBC today unfurled a line-up of oldies-but-goodies to stream on their entertainment sites — NBC.com, SCIFI.com, ChillerTV.com and SleuthChannel.com. NBC is providing full episodes, people, streaming and waiting to be viewed, beginning this month. It’s quite a variety of shows too (including some crossovers from one site to the other). “These are the kinds of titles we get requests for all the time at the network, and now we’re able to give our viewers a new way to watch their favorite classic shows and share them with their friends,” said Craig Engler, Senior Vice President, SCIFI.com.
Here’s the list of streaming vintage series and where you can find them:
NBC.com: A-Team, Emergency, Night Gallery, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Miami Vice, Battlestar Galactica (1978) and Buck Rogers.
SCIFI.com: Battlestar Galactica (1978), Buck Rogers, Tek War, Night Gallery.
ChillerTV.com: The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Swamp Thing, Tremors, Crow, Night Gallery.
SleuthChannel.com: Kojak, Miami Vice, Simon & Simon, A-Team, Night Gallery.
Star Trek Screenwriter Admits That William Shatner Cameo Is Still Possible
Star Trek co-writer Roberto Orci is now saying that William Shatner might appear in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek prequel/reboot after all.
“Still, it could happen,” Orci admitted after explaining to SciFi that the problem is two fold: “One, from our point of view, we are still hoping to find a way. Secondly, one of the difficulties that was brought up and discussed with Shatner when we all met him and pitched him ideas is that Trek fans are sticklers for their canon. [And,] unfortunately, Shatner’s Captain Kirk was killed in Star Trek VII [1994’s Generations].”
But Shatner will never be written into the script if the writers strike continues.
“From my point of view, it’s a very long shoot, and things change. It’s just whether we can figure it out.”
Call my cynical, but I continue to believe that a Shatner cameo has already written. Orci, Kurtzman, Abrams and Shatner have agreed to deny deny deny to keep the surprise, and many of Paramount brass have also been kept out of the loop. Could I be totally off base? Well, yeah…