While tens of thousands of hacked Sony emails are being dumped online, Bleeding Cool has posted a very interesting take on the Spider-Man deal with Sony and Marvel. In essence, Rich Johnston postulates that rumors about a Spidey/MCU crossover in the fall actually led to it happening – and he uses the Sony email hack releases to make his point.
According to Johnston, it started with rumors posted by HitFix’s Drew McWeeney (who once wrote for AICN as ‘Moriarty’) and culminated with email exchanges by Marvel’s Isaac Perlmutter and Sony’s Michael Lynton.
One highlight stood out in particular – an email from Sony subsidiary TriStar’s chairman Tom Rothman, who explained to Sony’s Amy Pascal:
the answer is: YES THEY DO NEED IT, AND I AM TELLING YOU THEY WILL MAKE THE DEAL– not right away maybe, but if they BELIEVE you will never give them the other thing, then they will make the deal for spidy in capt. why wouldn’t they???? trade spidy in capt for hulk/widow/thor/or capt in spidy. fucking STICK. they will fold.
Another interesting thing to take from this is that while Marvel & Sony appear to be communicative and willing to work with one another, Marvel has a very different tone with Fox, who currently has rights to X-Men pictures and also running the Fantastic Four property into the ground. Here’s Marvel’s John Turitzin writing to Fox’s Bob Cohen regarding Variety’s article announcing the Deadpool movie:
I’m writing to you to correct the misimpression left by reporting concerning Fox’s plans for a Deadpool motion picture. According to a September 18, 2014 report in Variety, “Fox and Marvel have slotted Deadpool, their long in development X-Men spin-off for Feb. 12, 2016.” (http://variety.com/2014/film/news/deadpool-release-date-fox-marvel-1201308783/). As you are aware, Marvel has no involvement in the decision to produce a Deadpool film, let alone when that film will be released. The article continues with the falsehood that Kevin Feige is producing the film with Lauren Schuler Donner. Kevin Feige will have no involvement in a Deadpool motion picture, should Fox decide to produce one, and we will not be designating Kevin as an executive producer for any of the films made under the X-Men license (unless we advise you otherwise). We are, however, designating Stan Lee as our executive producer for the upcoming X-Men films of which we are aware are in production (i.e., Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse). Additionally, Tom Cohen who was designated as Associate Producer should be removed from any credits.
We can’t determine, of course, the extent to which that misimpression was created or fostered by Fox, but please ask your people to be careful not to imply that Marvel Studios or its personnel are producing any of the X-Men films licensed to Fox by Marvel and to correct any reports that suggest otherwise. Misrepresentations in press reports lead to inaccurate speculation that there could be cross-overs between Marvel Studios produced movies and those produced under license by Fox.
Ouch! There goes my hopes of one day seeing Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine appearing in an MCU film! The Wrap also found another tidbit concerning Marvel, Daredevil and Drew Goddard, who had worked on the Netflix Daredevil series and who has been rumored to heading the new Spidey MCU reboot. From the Wrap:
Before the May 24, 2014 announcement that show-runner Drew Goddard was dropping out of Netflix’s “Daredevil,” things got difficult and litigious for Marvel, Sony and Goddard’s team. “It looks like they are giving us no choice but to litigate this matter,” Marvel TV EVP Jeph Loeb wrote in an e-mail in April. In a followup e-mail, Marvel’s Ike Perlmutter forwards the Loeb e-mail to Pascal and adds even more panic: “Since we spoke on Wednesday, the problem we are having with Drew Goddard is getting even worse…We should both be very concerned about this situation.”
Check out more at Bleeding Cool and the Wrap!
–George Berryman!
