14 DAY TRIAL // A few days ago, Sony announced that it was going forward with a “Spider-Man” reboot, thus ditching all plans of making a fourth film in the previous franchise with Tobey Maguire, which was officially dead. Since this was a reboot, a fresh face was also needed and it was found in British actor Andrew Garfield, known for his talent among critics but not with fans.
It would seem that Sony managed to kill two birds with just one stone by locking Garfield in a contract for the Peter Parker role: not only is he talented, young and good-looking (yet still in a geeky way), but he’s also agreed to get only a $500,000 paycheck for the film, reports cited by ComicBookMovie say. Granted, for a regular Joe Doe, that’s a lot of money but we’re talking Hollywood here and one of the biggest, most popular and loved movie franchises in the world. If one also considers how much Maguire was paid, then it becomes clear that Garfield may have drawn the short stick on this one.
“Tobey Maguire was paid $4 million for the first film. It has been reported that he was paid $17.5 million plus 5% back-end for ‘Spider-Man 2,’ and $15 million plus 7.5% back-end for ‘Spider-Man 3.’ And he was supposedly offered $20 million plus a small percentage of backend for ‘Spider-Man 4’ which of course was scrapped in favor of this reboot. According to Deadline: ‘I’m told Garfield’s pay scale on the film is around $500,000 salary on the first film, $1 million for the second one, and $2 million for the third film. All of the finalists were presented with those terms in a deal for one film and two options’,” the e-zine says.
The idea for a “Spider-Man” reboot was also prompted by considerations of a financial nature: the franchise simply got too big, too expensive and too alienating for fans. This also explains why, until not long ago, word of a fourth film was still making the rounds and even why new members continued to be attached to the cast. Sam Raimi too is out of the picture, having been replaced by Marc Webb, who previously got critical acclaim for “(500) Days of Summer” but who, at the end of the day, remains a relatively unknown name on the scene. The same goes for Garfield.
“And of course Garfield is a relative unknown. Appearing in mainly indie fare like ‘Boy A,’ the ‘Red Riding’ series, ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’ etc. But gaining huge praise and plaudits for his work. So it seems like Sony has managed to nab some big time talent for hardly any cash at all. I think that might be a good thing. Obviously a film like Spider-Man needs special effects, but without millions upon millions to splurge, sometimes a movie will focus on story and character more than it might have before –which is never a bad thing,” the aforementioned movie-oriented publication further writes.
The new (and hopefully improved) “Spider-Man” is scheduled for theatrical release on July 3, 2012, with production starting by the end of this year.
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