Chapter 260 Spider-Verse 2 Versions
Chapter 260: Two Versions of Spider-Verse
In Wang Hao's previous life, Sony's "Spider-Man 3" actually faced the same situation as it does today after its release.
But at that time, Wang Hao, the father of the "movie universe", was not there, so Sony made a difficult decision - "reboot".
They replaced the original filming and acting team of the Spider-Man trilogy and filmed the story of the birth of Bugs all over again.
This is the new Amazing Spider-Man series.
Of course, although Sony once again told the origin of Spider-Man, the style of the story is completely different.
The production team of "The Amazing Spider-Man" believes that the core story of Spider-Man is the story of a boy growing up into a man.
Therefore, the new version of the movie will focus more on Peter Parker's life, starting from his student days, and be able to show the youthful atmosphere of Parker.
However, even after changing the team, redefining the style, and even making more ambitious and long-term plans, Sony Pictures still failed to extend the life of the "Spider-Man" series.
"The Amazing Spider-Man" had to face the situation of a bad ending after only two films were released.
There are actually quite a lot of problems involved.
The situation with The Amazing Spider-Man was actually okay at the beginning, although most news media said that filming Spider-Man's origin story again was pure idleness.
But most ordinary audiences also think that this new Spider-Man is more lively and interesting, and Peter Parker is also very "teenage".
Especially the Parker played by Garfield, who is closer to the image of the little bug in the first publication of the "Spider-Man" comics in the 60s than the serious version of Toby.
So "The Amazing Spider-Man" released in 2012 received a 72 on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- rating from the audience, which is an above-average reputation.
The film ultimately grossed $2.62 million in North America and $7.57 million worldwide.
It seems that this result is not as good as the old version of "Spider-Man 2", but as the opening of the series, this result and reputation are also good.
But when we actually do the math, it turns out that Sony's investment in the film was $2.3 million, while the North American box office was only $2.62 million and the global box office was $7.57 million.
In addition, in 2010, Marvel took back the operating rights of Spider-Man movie-related derivative products, which resulted in Sony Pictures actually making a loss on the "Amazing Spider-Man" project.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which followed closely, performed even worse than the first film in terms of performance and reputation. With a production cost of $2.1 million and a publicity and promotion cost of $1.9 million, its global box office was only $7.08 million, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 51 and an MTC score of 53.
Such a poor performance, coupled with the fact that a hacker attack exposed the subsequent script of "The Amazing Spider-Man", Sony's "The Amazing Spider-Man" series was completely stillborn.
Although "The Amazing Spider-Man" series failed, Wang Hao also drew a lot of inspiration from it and learned a lot of lessons from the other party's failure.
The first "Spider-Man Cinematic Universe" plan he handed over to Sony mainly highlighted Spider-Man's "youthfulness" and his "good street neighbor" characteristics.
The story does not begin with "Spider-Man", but with the later Marvel TV series "Street Heroes".
Through characters such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Kingpin, a nearly real New York landmark called "Hell's Kitchen" is first portrayed.
Then, through Kingpin's criminal activities, the character of Spider-Man is introduced.
After Spider-Man comes out, we can continue to expand outward with him and the "street heroes" team to create more villains, thus forming a "Spider-Man Cinematic Universe". As for the later stage, the story of this Spider-Man has been told almost, and we can open up the new theme of "multiverse" and introduce other Spider-Men.
The whole plan is quite standard and can be said to be very safe and down-to-earth. Although it is not very eye-catching, if it is based on Wang Hao's plan, there will definitely be no major risks.
In comparison, Wang Hao's second plan for the Spider-Man Cinematic Universe was much bolder.
Using the "multiverse" as a selling point, first shoot movies of different styles such as Shadow Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Gwen Spider-Man, and then let these different Spider-Men team up and go on adventures together.
Based on the volume of Spider-Man comics and the number of different Spider-Men, there is no need to worry about not having a solo movie to shoot.
However, it is indeed a bit ahead of its time to throw out the concept of "multiverse" at the very beginning.
Moreover, too many solo Spider-Man movies can easily distract fans' attention.
If the story is not designed well, it is very likely that the entire Spider-Man Movie Universe will become a mess.
The senior executives of Sony Pictures who were in charge of the review certainly saw the pros and cons of Wang Hao's two plans, and were also confused.
If these big companies had followed their past practices, they would have chosen the safer option one.
However, for the current Sony Pictures executives, they urgently need better results to boost the morale of Sony Pictures and eliminate the negative impact of the decline of the parent company.
Based on this premise, the stability of Plan 1 often means mediocre results and a long period of realization.
At least in the early stages, it is difficult for them to see specific results.
"Mr. Wang Hao, I have a question."
At the conference table, a middle-aged woman with wavy hair who looked to be in her forties or fifties suddenly asked:
“Why are the early projects in the two planning proposals you submitted so small?
I have noticed that in your Plan 1, the early story is based on TV dramas about street heroes such as Daredevil, and the first Spider-Man movie also uses ordinary people like Kingpin as villains.
As for Plan 2, the time background of the first work "Shadow Spider-Man" is the 20s. The strength of both the good and evil factions is not strong, and the story style is more like a police and gangster action movie.
I would say that the beginnings of these two series are too childish, with investment costs of less than 20 million US dollars, which is not suitable for the size of our Sony Pictures. "
The middle-aged woman's words prompted many senior leaders present to nod in agreement.
Indeed, a movie with a cost of 10 or 20 million can only be considered a small or medium-cost movie in today's Hollywood.
Not to mention the $2.3 million cost of "The Amazing Spider-Man", even the $1 million cost of "Spider-Man 1.39" is not as high as it.
This is indeed a bit petty, and it makes people wonder whether it is because Wang Hao is too young, has no experience in managing large projects, and lacks confidence, so he plans and designs in this way to avoid his own shortcomings.
(End of this chapter)