 |
HOLLYWOOD -- Hey, Tobey Maguire and Johnny Depp and Matt Damon!
As you prepare to embark on your next big screen ventures, we've got something to say: May the fourth be with you.
And of course, by that, we refer to your plans to follow your wildly successful trilogies with yet another installment.
After the $1 billion-plus apiece nabbed by the trio of Spider-Mans and the several Pirates of the Caribbean (and that's just in North America), plus the over half-a-billion dollars earned by those Bourne movies, it's inevitable that their studios would be having second thoughts about three times being the charm.
But going back to that well after what was supposed to be a done deal can be a tricky proposition.
For every stellar Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Live Free or Die Hard, there's a potential Alien: Resurrection and Rambo IV lurking in the shadows.
Which is why we're pleased to hear that, although you're going to be donning the Spidey suit/Jack Sparrow threads/Jason Bourne designer T-shirts once again, at least you're intending to look before you leap.
Take Spider-Man 4.
It may already have locked in a release date--May 6, 2011 in IMAX theatres, followed the next day everywhere else--but there's still no word about an official start date.
That's because, although Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and director Sam Raimi are confirmed to return, they're still waiting for the latest script rewrite to be finished.
Little is known about the plot, but considering the working title was at one point rumoured to have been Spider-Man 4: Rise of Carnage (the treacherous villain who, as any fanboy knows, debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #360), that might provide a clue.
A final script has also yet to be delivered for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, in which Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow apparently goes searching for the fountain of youth.
It, too, is expected to drop anchor in 2011.
Director Rob Marshall (Chicago and Nine) is supposed to be taking over the wheel from Gore Verbinski, who helmed the previous three, but a potential snag has arisen.
While Depp made a surprise appearance earlier this month at Disney's D23 Convention in full Sparrow regalia, he has since hinted that the abrupt departure of longtime Disney studio chief Dick Cook might be a deal-breaker.
Damon, meanwhile, revealed at the Toronto International Film Festival that he'll soon be meeting with director Paul Greengrass about the next Bourne picture.
A script is already in the works but since there's no official title yet, how about Bourne Again?
Or not.
Of course, Damon, Depp and Maguire can all go around acting like they have script approval, but ultimately, they're contractually obligated to show up on set whether or not they're completely pleased with their character motivation.
There's just no way those studio suits have any intention of killing the geese that laid those very golden eggs.
Or, as the fourth Rambo so eloquently put it, "Heroes never die ... they just reload."