Another entry from the Sony Wikileaks treasure trove. A.V. Club’s Sean O’Neal read a tweet by Twitter user ‘Duke,’ who had made an enlightening find on the Sony Wikileaks searchable database. It was an email sent to Amy Pascal from Nick Shore, a former MTV exec who had moved on to a company called Astronauts Wanted. Shore was suggesting that Spidey could maybe be more ‘millennial.’
From the A.V. Club:
Shore’s entire email (which begins “a couple of rando thoughts,” though you should force yourself to keep reading) offers a poignant glimpse into the desperate demographic-chasing that takes place behind the scenes of most modern entertainment. And it confirms that, for all the flak Sony’s taken for the handling of Spider-Man, it could have been so much worse:
And here’s the email from Shore to Pascal:
Spidey thought
Hey Amy – just a couple of rando thoughts from 35,000 LAX-JFK:
– A rising trend we see with Millennials are the really extreme forms of experiential exercise like Tough Mudder (a sort of filthy triathalon), the Color Run and even things like Hot Power Yoga, veganism etc. Millennials will often post “N.B.D.” on their social media after doing it , as in No Big Deal, also known as the “humble brag”…..wondering if Spidey could get into that in some way….he’s super athletic, bendy, strong, intense….and it’s all NBD to him, of course.
– EDM (electronic dance music) is the defining music for Millennials. Wondering if there’s an EDM angle somewhere with Spidey? His movements are beautiful, would be awesome with a killer DJ behind it
– Snapchat just launched a “story” functionality, which is sort of “day in the life of me” told in a series of snapchats that expire after 24 hours. It has a very VIP quality about it, since invitation only. Getting invited into Spidey’s Snapchat circle would be huge, and very buzzworthy and cool.
Pascal then forwarded the email on to Sony’s Michael Lynton, with a two word response: “LOVE THIS!”
At some point, it seems, cooler heads prevailed and someone took this idea aside and said “Oh HELL no.” And the planet is a better place for it.
–George Berryman!
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A big NO too the whole humble brag thing, unless he is being quippy in costume. EDM? Naaah, but I guess they kinda put more focus on being modern in the ASM 2 movie with Pharrell. Snapchat? Again no. Unless they were doing it as a marketing thing which I could see working fine.
I don’t really want something that might be dated just a few years later because the trend has died down and it’s not really what Spider-Man is about. I’m okey with them taking things in a new direction as long as it stays true to the character. If we look at classic Parker he has shyed away from things that might out his powers.
But I suppose we can be happy that they haven’t gone too far with these millennials things. Well maybe except for Peter kinda coming off as a bit of a “hipster” in the ASM movies. Also, I wasn’t really a huge fan of the skateboard.
The Spider-Man in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ was much more 2012 than the 2002 film. I don’t know where they’re going with this. It’s a bunch of people in their 30s trying to replicate the experience of a teenager in the present day just based on what they see in the news. It’s inauthentic. As a millenial myself, I’ve never participated in experimental exercise (is veganism exercise?), and EDM is definitely not my style of music. I mean it could make for a fun sequence, but it doesn’t exactly sound revolutionary. Snapchat based narratives could be interesting but also very gimmicky.
But it’s a sure sign that people won’t want to watch it in two years. I mean the 2002 film is dated but it’s still watchable. Not as dated as Daredevil has become, anyway.
I enjoyed ASM2 for the most part but with all these ideas floating around I’m glad they pulled the plug.
This is the same kind of ‘Spider-Man is about youth’ bullshit we see from many places in Marvel. Spider-Man is a goddam humble sorta introverted nerd who was raised by someone from two generations behind his. He’s NEVER going to reflect the modern trends of the times because that’s part of his character. He’s behind the times and not cut from the modern cloth of youth. Literally the first page he ever appears on mocks him for not knowing about then modern music and dance conventions. Because Peter Parker is categorically NOT ‘hip and with it’.
I’m surprised they didn’t say, “Spidey is always drinking coffee at Starbucks, maybe he could have a funky green apron and have knowledge of lattes??” or “Maybe he could be friends with this hip and sexy model that looks like Hansel from Zoolander?? Hansel’s so hot right now.”
I know merchandising and audience appeal is one of, if not the major driving force behind movie franchises but this kinda talk is just mind-bogglingly stupid. It’s not enough to trust the source material, make changes where they feel appropriate and let the audience decide, every talking head or empty suit has to chip in to say they “worked on the last Spider-Man movie and CA-RUSHED it.”
If nothing else, emails and articles like this just reinforce to the public that Sony has no idea how to run a movie franchise. They probably couldn’t run an Arby’s franchise.
Love the site & the podcast, btw!
RH
Oh the hip MTV generation,so impre……WAIT,MTV?!? Oh I forgot….they don’t exist anymore,LOL! Disaster averted. I DO miss the days when MTV actually WAS MTV though. All this fake reality crap is just that,crap. Funny how they call it reailty tv when there is NOTHING about it that’s reality. It’s all scripted and badly acted,just like game shows have always been rigged. LOL!
Good thing this didn’t go anywhere.
J-R!
At the end of every sentence this image kept popping into my head. And this is a millennial talking. Peter Parker shouldn’t be the hip kid into all the current trends, unless they’re science or tech based. And didn’t he quit the Basketball team in USM because he didn’t wanna risk revealing his powers?
God Almighty.