I'm sorry, I must have heard you wrong...

I'm...shocked, actually. This might be one of the more random franchise decisions in a while (although we still have Warner Brothers' Batman announcement coming by the end of the month...). In Sam Raimi's hands, the Spiderman franchise was a really good one (well...the first two were). Add to that Raimi's promise to get "back to basics" for the fourth installment, and the extreme likelihood of Dylan Baker being cast as The Lizard, and Spiderman 4 was looking promising. The idea of taking a perfectly successful franchise (as opposed to, say, the Hulk franchise) and rebooting it? Liz Lemon reacts to this unfortunate news.

What on earth is the point of restarting and rebuilding a new "reality" for Spiderman/Peter Parker? The best superhero films of the past decade were sequels, after all, thanks to the worlds being set up, thus allowing for more time to be spent simply telling a story, and not explaining back-stories every 10 minutes. Seriously, if this goes through, this has to be one of the most puzzling decisions in several years. Granted it's not 100% official yet, but if this is any indicator as to how 2010 is going to be, I'm nervous. Dammit Sony, you've gone and made Dylan Baker sad.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

BREAKING NEWS! UPDATE: Mike Fleming and I have just confirmed that Sony Pictures decided today to reboot the Spider-Man franchise after franchise director Sam Raimi pulled out of Spider-Man 4 because he felt he couldn't make its summer release date and keep the film's creative integrity. This means that Raimi and the cast including star Tobey Maguire are out. There will be no Spider-Man 4. Instead, Mike Fleming is told, the studio will focus on a Summer 2012 reboot from a script by Jamie Vanderbilt with a new director and a new cast. All this took place today at meeting on the lot today. An official Sony Pictures news release about it is expected out now.

My sources tell me that Raimi told Sony Pictures: "I can't make your date. I can't go forward creatively." And, so, once he said "That's it", Sony Pictures co-chairman Pascal and Columbia Pictures' Matt Tolmach decided they didn't want to replace him and instead chose to reboot the franchise. Insiders also tell me that Tobey Maguire heard the news in a phone call with Amy today. I'm told Tobey wasn't upset. "He's made 3 great Spider-Man movies. He's done really well. But he's the kind of guy who, if Sam wanted to go forward, would have been there for Sam and the studio. Absolutely."

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