Had Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 4″ stayed in one piece – and not made like a freeze-dried T-1000 and broke off into all sorts of different directions – Tobey Maguire’s red-spandexed roof-jumper would’ve been dealing with John Malkovich’s birdish baddie The Vulture and his daughter, the sexy but noxious The Vulturess (played by new “Dark Knight Rising” Catwoman, Anne Hathaway).
But, of course, just as interesting as the villains in these movies are, those that make up Parker’s friends, family and workmate roster have equally as interesting arcs.
Had J.K Simmons gotten the chance to reprise Daily Bugle Newspaper head J.Jonah Jameson for “Spider-Man 4″, he would’ve had some really interesting stuff to play with. In the film, the cigar-chompin’ baritone-voiced chief-of-staff would’ve lost his job.
“J. Jonah Jameson was going to be somehow exiled or disgraced or demoted and end up in some little cubicle somewhere and be railing, even more than usual, against the world,” Simmons tells MTV.
“I’m still reeling from the rug being pulled out of us,” he said. “I had just bought a house I can’t afford!”
“There wasn’t a script-script yet, but I had seen Sam a few weeks before that and we talked about story ideas, because on those movies, we always started on the script and we expanded on it,” he explained. “There was a lot of either us coming up with stuff in the room or doing it literally on set — a lot of improv-y stuff with the whole cast in those office scenes.” Simmons added: “He was saying, ‘This is the basic outline, now go bring me funny stuff.’”
Now, of course, we’ve got a “Spider-Man” remake as opposed to a third sequel to Sam Raimi’s film in the works. Andrew Garfield is playing the web-slinger, Emma Stone is Gwen Stacy, and Rhys Ifans is the iniquitous rogue, the Lizard. The character of J.Jonah Jameson? Not in the film.
The 2012 release is currently shooting in Los Angeles and some new pics of Spider-Man (‘s stunt-double) have emerged, giving us a good-look at the crime-fighter’s new (and improved?) costume – featuring mechanical web-shooters.
