There have been rumors floating around saying that Spider-Man franchise helmer Sam Raimi may be interested in taking on The Hobbit as Peter Jackson‘s relationship with New Line has gone down the shitter and the film currently remains in limbo between New Line and MGM.
It seemed clear to me that MGM wanted Jackson back for The Hobbit, but New Line has serious interest in getting anyone else and a name like Raimi would help, since their rights will run out before MGM’s, which means they would need a name to convince MGM to share the wealth.
So, when Sam Raimi expresses interest to Entertainment Weekly it is a bit of a story as he told the magazine, ”Peter Jackson might be the best filmmaker on the planet right now. But, um, I don’t know what’s going to happen next for me right now. First and foremost, those are Peter Jackson and Bob Shaye’s films. If Peter didn’t want to do it, and Bob wanted me to do it — and they were both okay with me picking up the reins — that would be great. I love the book. It’s maybe a more kid-friendly story than the others.'”
Now that is class, “if Peter didn’t want to do it.” Exactly Sam, I could never imagine a director stepping on another director’s toes no matter how big the film is, and especially if the previous director was turned out the result that was the Lord of the Rings franchise.
Now, is this a possibility? Well, that is a tricky one and something I am sure Columbia Pictures doesn’t even want to think about as they have already started David Koepp working on a Spider-Man 4 script. Certainly if Raimi decided to take on The Hobbit it would be a massive undertaking and one that would push a fourth Spider-Man movie into the background where Columbia doesn’t want to see it. After all, it seems like it will be hard to get their main principals back if they didn’t have Raimi aboard to direct. Entertainment Weekly quotes Kirsten Dunst talking about making another Spider-Man film without her, Tobey or Sam aboard, ”It’s disrespectful to the whole team, I think, to do that. And audiences aren’t stupid. It’d be a big flop without me, Tobey, or Sam. That would really not be the smartest move. But they know that already. [Sony chief] Amy Pascal would never do that.”
Who knows what will happen. One thing is for sure, there is a lot of money involved, and the final quote of the piece is from Sony’s President of Production Matt Tolmach and he says, ”Listen, we’re making Spider-Man 4. Our hope, dream, and intention is to do it with Sam. But I don’t have a crystal ball.”
Yowsers.
