So we all know that Gary Ross is rewriting the Spider-Man 4 script (he's the third writer to work on the project). But what we don't know is how this will affect the final outcome. Do several re-writes indicate trouble with the script? Or are several rewrites just a typical part of the movie making process? I did a ridiculously brief google search and it seems that rewrites are somewhat common and not necessarily a bad thing (it happened on Iron Man and look how that turned out).
The next thing to look at then would be the quality of the writer (or in this case, the writers). The first writer, James Vanderbilt, is listed on iMDB as having writer's credit on Darkness Falls, Basic, The Rundown, and Zodiac. I've seen Rundown and parts of Basic. Neither seemed horrible to me, but I wasn't overly impressed either. The Rundown was fun and delivered a bit more than I expected (which wasn't much). The second writer, David Lindsay-Abaire, is listed on iMDB for Robots and Inkheart, neither of which I've seen (and neither of which were critically acclaimed). Ross has, among others, Big, Dave, Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, and The Tale of Despereaux under his belt, all fairly large productions, most critically acclaimed. I've seen all of these except Despereaux and I was generally impressed with each one. He is a quality writer.
Can he do superhero? Nothing in his resume comes close to the superhero genre. But does that matter? Well, Batman Begins had David S. Goyer, an experienced superhero/comic-book character scribe, and the film was great. But Dark Knight had only the Nolans, with almost no comic-book writing experience (outside of BB) whatsoever, and that film was spectacular.
So I'm going to go with the general rule that solid writers, with a good grasp of character and story, can do superhero, despite lack of pertinent experience. Anything they don't know about the super-hero genre, they can learn. Fundamentals of storytelling - that, they have to bring with them.
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MMB: SPIDER-MAN
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I think a rewrite could mean perfecting the imperfections, just like any other piece of writing. Any written work has to go through the editing process to make it better, not worse. I'm of the opinion that editing, most of the time, helps.
ReplyDeleteI'm also not worried about the writer with no superhero experience. If he's good, he's good. He'll definitely have to do his homework though. If he does, it should work. I hope it turns out great.
Although I agree with Michelle's comments, I am wondering how a comic book movie would turn out if a comic book writer wrote the movie? Has that ever happened before I wonder? Like imagine if Frank Miller or Walt Simonson or Mike Baron (Nexus) wrote the movies? I really would love to see how that would come out.
ReplyDeleteBut I am not worried about a re-write...how often does someone get something perfect the first time around?
Well Frank Miller is actually credited as the writer of the big-screen version of Sin City. I thought Sin City had its ups and downs, but overall I enjoyed it. It certainly was extremley faithful to the source material.
ReplyDelete(And believe it or not Frank Miller is listed as a writer on Robocop 2 and Robocop 3! I don't remember how good they were. I know I liked the first one).