Investor calls are sometimes the most interesting way to get a look at what’s coming down the line from a big company and Sony is no exception. They’ve been hit a few times this year with flops and have had some very public moments as certain hedge fund managers are telling them to spin off their entertainment business, but they’re sticking strong to it as a core business. And one of those core aspects is the Spider-Man franchise, which has been given a green light for four features total in order to ensure they maintain the rights. During the investor call this week, Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chairman Amy Pascal made it clear that they’re definitely looking to do more than just Spider-Man since they do actively have the rights and need to exploit them.
“We are going to access Marvel’s full world of Spider-Man characters, so be on the lookout for new heroes and villains,” Pascal said during a recent investor presentation.
This goes back to some of what director Marc Webb has said previously about where they could go with the fourth film:
“I think this was conceived of as a trilogy so there was a defined architecture to the story we were telling and we had sort of a rough outline of what was going to happen,” the director told Crave Online. “I think the fourth movie, what we’ve discovered is that there are so many ancillary characters, that have enormous cinematic potential that there may be other ways to exploit those characters, in a way that is exciting and fun and worthwhile.”
Naturally, this does make things a bit dangerous to do in a way because anytime you add more villains, you reduce overall screen time. The first film handled things right by doing a change in focusing on The Lizard while the sequel doubles up by giving us Electro and the Rhino. There’s certainly a foundation for bringing in the Sinister Six along the way in the third film. But as noted, there are a lot of characters that comes with Sony’s Spider-Man rights and finding a way to use them could definitely expand a self sustaining film universe.
[Source: Comic Book Resources]
