Sony Announces Animated "Spider-Man" Movie for 2018

[MarvelMaster616]

I like this news, but I'm somewhat nervous about it because Marvel has shown it is way behind the curve when it comes to quality animation. For a time, they had shows like Spectacular Spider-Man, Wolverine and the X-men, and Avengers EMH. Since then, they've replaced those shows with much poorer iterations like Ultimate Spider-Man, which have little depth and are impossible to take seriously. I think animated movies are an untapped market. DC has shown with its movies that there is a market for it and they are way ahead of Marvel. With a movie like this, Marvel could raise the stakes. Pixar has already shown that quality animation can be lucrative. So why not Spider-Man?

[Iron Fist]

Sounds like they're admitting defeat and letting Marvel do live action, which is for the best.

[Shadow]

Continuation of Spectacular?

[Ceebiro]

I like this news, but I'm somewhat nervous about it because Marvel has shown it is way behind the curve when it comes to quality animation. For a time, they had shows like Spectacular Spider-Man, Wolverine and the X-men, and Avengers EMH. Since then, they've replaced those shows with much poorer iterations like Ultimate Spider-Man, which have little depth and are impossible to take seriously. I think animated movies are an untapped market. DC has shown with its movies that there is a market for it and they are way ahead of Marvel. With a movie like this, Marvel could raise the stakes. Pixar has already shown that quality animation can be lucrative. So why not Spider-Man?

Spectacular Spider-man was ALL Sony. That was the major difference.

[Ceebiro]

How is it sony does some cartoons and marvel does others. I.swear the deals marvel made are confusing and convoluted.
So marvel and sony can make animated projects or did marvel jus let sony make spectacular spiderman as part of a one time deal and this movie is tied to the sharing spidey deal.

I mean back then marvel needed sony probaly to get spidey cartoons out. So maybe they were joint ventures. But t nv is movie is sonys so either i dont understand the deal at all or its a result of the sharing spidey deal

I think the only thing Sony maintained prior to the New Deal was the live action film rights to Spider-man. They probably gave up the animation rights to maintain the live action rights. Remember it was 5 years between Spider-man 3 and Amazing Spider-man. That's a pretty big gap. Additionally, the animation rights were probably not proving profitable (most action cartoons in recent memory have not). So letting those go most likely allowed them more time to get ASM off the ground and released.

Sony making a new animated film is undoubtedly tied to the recent restructuring of their Spider-man deal.

To keep things in perspective, Marvel had time of production requirements for other properties like Ghost Rider, which is why Sony had the second film on a rushed production schedule. I believe Daredevil also had one, which was why Fox was attempting to reboot as a 70's crime drama but they couldn't get the film into actual production and Marvel got the rights back.

[Alastor]

Continuation of Spectacular?

It better be.

This is a huge opportunity and could turn out to be the best Spidey movie we might ever get. At least if they get all the important things right (hire people like Weisman and the voice cast of Spectacular etc.). The involvment of Avi Arad and Amy Pascal, however, leaves me in a rather skeptical mood. Has it already been announced whether this is going to be traditional 2D animation or CGI?

[Zeitgeist]

The animated film is said to "co-exist" with live-action Spidey film projects, though it "will exist independently of the projects in the live-action Spider-Man universe, all of which are continuing."

O-Kay. I think I get that... maybe.

[Ceebiro]

O-Kay. I think I get that... maybe.

It's basically the Ultimate Universe to film Spidey's 616, and will exist alongside it.

I still think this is a bad idea though. Just give Miller and Lord the live action Spider-man and call it a day. It's like Sony Pictures has no idea of the concept of moderation.

EDIT: Thinking about it, this animated line would have really been a good opportunity to make a Mayday Spider-girl film.

[Jerkstore]

re: the rights questions - Sony has always held theatrical animation rights, dating back to the original deal.

[Thennary Nak]

I honestly thought the previous deal Sony made with Marvel/Disney was to give M/D the TV rights to the character. If so then there was never anything stopping them from making an animated movie other than wanting to do it.

[MindofShadow]

This is both slightly confusing, slightly exciting, and slightly smart.

[Project Initiative Cascada]

All I ask is that Gwen Stacy, Felicia Hardy, and Mary Jane Watson have roles in this film and play prominent roles. None of them have to be romantically involved, but I just want to see a proper adaption on the big screen.

[Vakanai]

To put my thoughts behind some of the questions raised in the thread...
1. Is this a continuation of Spectacular? No! As much as we would all love that, let's be honest, the show has been off the air for a while, Ultimate Spidey ain't going anywhere anytime soon, the only thing this will share with Spectacular is being animated and by Sony, that's it. Didn't it already (in a weird way) say it'd be based or whatever on the upcoming live action stuff? So there's the final answer, Spectacular Spider-Man is gone, and won't come back just because we loved it more than the current cartoon.

2. Will this be 2D or CG? CG, obviously. 2D in theaters hasn't done well in a long time. We can argue reasons for that, but anything shown in theaters for the foreseeable future will all be CG.

Personally I'd have preferred a series of direct to video 2D films, but this could still be good or great even, no telling till we see more info. But there's no reason to not be realistic about it, it won't be Spectacular back from the dead, and it probably won't be 2D if it's going to be on the big screen.

[Ceebiro]

re: the rights questions - Sony has always held theatrical animation rights, dating back to the original deal.

My mistake. I thought the rights were split live action and animated, not theater and TV, but that makes much more sense.

Making an animated Spider-man film when you're trying to re-establish your live action Spider-man on the other hand...not so much.

[Jerkstore]

I honestly thought the previous deal Sony made with Marvel/Disney was to give M/D the TV rights to the character. If so then there was never anything stopping them from making an animated movie other than wanting to do it.

Exactly, it's just never come up before now. According to the Sony leaks - the studio is free to make a Spider-Man animated film as long as 1) the budget is at or above 75 million 2) it opens with a minimum of 2000 screens. Easy as hell nowadays.