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Sony's Amy Pascal hints that the Sony / Marvel Studios deal might be coming to an end. Talks about the future of the Sony's Spider-Verse, or "S.U.M.C"

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ZattMurdock

ZattMurdock

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Here are the highlights:

Venom's success and Spider-Man: Into Spider-Verse's critical acclaiming has made Pascal and Sony once again bold on stupid ideas, like the leaked Drew Goddard's Sinister Six project:

Though Pascal and the rest are still waiting to see how Into the Spider-Verse fares at the box office, its awards-friendly buzz—coupled with the outsized success of Venom—means that Pascal's previously shelved plans for Spider-Man could actually come to fruition in the live-action domain as well. Sinister Six, an all-Spider-Man-villain team-up movie based on an old script by Drew Goddard, is very much alive in Pascal's mind: "I'm just waiting for Drew to be ready to direct it. I would do anything with Drew Goddard. I'm just waiting for him to tell me he wants to," she said. Goddard himself seemed game as recently as October.
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And yes, even an Aunt May spin-off isn't off the cards:

2014 whispers about a potential prequel centered on Peter Parker's mild-mannered Aunt May were once considered "silly" by the studio, and laughed at by Sally Field,who played the role in the Amazing Spider-Man movies. But four years later, after Marisa Tomei's young, hip take on the character for Marvel Studios—and Lily Tomlin's wry animated turn in Into the Spider-Verse—an Aunt May spin-off suddenly doesn't sound so crazy.
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I haven't seen Spider-Verse, but that idea still sounds stupid and crazy.

Dan Slott is eager to return to write Spider-Man comics:

"Yeah, no kidding," Lord said. "Once you open up your mind to alternate universes," Miller added, "and it doesn't have to be canon, then you're a little more forgiving to try thought experiments that could be fun or interesting. Lily Tomlin did an amazing job—the idea was that she would be the Q to Spider-Man's Bond in this universe." That fresh take was a hit with the Marvel comics crew as well. "Lily Tomlin's voice is now my Aunt May in my head," said Slott—who is so reinvigorated by Into the Spider-Verse that he says he wants to start writing Spider-Man comics again.
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YES. Paging Slayven.


Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters, or S.U.M.C., yes they have a name for this thing:

when Pascal speaks of the October surprise that was Venom's record-breaking box office, she does so with pride, but no sense of ownership. She thinks Venom is "amazing" and called its marketing campaign "brilliant," but Eddie Brock isn't her baby the way Spider-Man is. Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch is the one overseeing what has been called, internally, Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters, or S.U.M.C.

In fact, Pascal was pretty firm that the animated Spider-Verse and the live-action S.U.M.C. are wholly distinct: "Just look at what the Green Goblin is in Into the Spider-Verse, as opposed to the Green Goblin that we did with Sam Raimi," she said. Should Sony proceed with both its planned S.U.M.C. Silk film and the animated Spider-Woman team-up Pascal mentioned, the two depictions would be "as different as Doc Ock in Spider-Verse and Doc Ock as Alfred Molina."
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giphy.gif



Dan Slott's enthusiasm with the character he co-created, Silk, coming to the big screen:

But Dan Slott, who created the character of Silk on the page, pointed out that the animated universe can help the live-action realm, and vice-versa. He sees a world in which an all-female team-up cartoon inspires girls to "have Silk action figures and Silk t-shirts. You could then turn around and do a Silk live-action movie, because you've then, on some level, done a world-wide publicity campaign for Silk." Pascal generally agreed; she said that the animated and live-action Spider franchises simply "make each other better and bigger."
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On their next S.U.M.C. project (ugh), Jared Leto starred Morbius, and other projects in development like Kraven the Hunter, Jackpot, Nightwatch, Black Cat, Sable and yes, even freaking Carnage:

Along with Silk and Venom, the S.U.M.C. has a Morbius project in the works—starring Jared Leto as the titular vampire and frequent Spider-Man nemesis—and is in the process of developing movies on a wide range of additional heroes, anti-heroes, and villains, like Kraven the Hunter, Jackpot, Nightwatch, Black Cat, Sable, and, if the Venom end of credits are to be believed, Carnage. It's a decidedly mixed bag of characters, and Venom, with its wild swings in tone from slapstick comedy to overly serious body horror, doesn't exactly provide a blueprint of what to expect. Will the S.U.M.C. end up matching the upbeat vibe of both Holland's Spider-Man and Into the Spider-Verse? Or is something much grimmer in store?
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On Tom Holland's Spider-Man meeting Tom Hardy's Venom:

The film's PG-13 rating prompted some fans to wonder if the notoriously blood-thirsty Venom has been toned down in order to allow a future team-up with Holland's Peter Parker—something the filmmakers have denied. But if that pairing ever does happen, it would be years in the future, after Holland's Marvel contract expires. In fact, the S.U.M.C. moved Brock out of his usual haunts in New York City all the way to San Francisco, presumably, to get him off of Peter Parker's turf.
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Damn you, Sony, won't you ever learn?


On the future of the Sony and Marvel Studios partnership on Spider-Man:

The bigger question here, then, is what will happen to the Sony-Marvel Studios collaboration when their initial deal expires.

"I think about crying," Pascal said of a future in which Spider-Man and Marvel retreat to separate corners. "I can only hope for a future where things work out. I've known Kevin since he was Avi's very, very quiet assistant, who for many years sat in that room listening to us and being so much smarter than any of us without any of us realizing. I will say that working with Marvel has been one of the highlights of my professional career."

After the initial custody dispute over Spider-Man, Pascal and Feige's working relationship has reportedly been convivial; in fact, Feige gave her thorough, friendly notes and feedback on her earlier Spider-Man films long before Marvel was legally on the hook to do so. And their joint deal has certainly been financially lucrative for both companies. But the union hasn't come without its sticky complications: Sony's insistence that Holland's second stand-alone film, Far from Home, be released in 2019 threw a wrench in Marvel's preferred degree of secrecy around Avengers: Endgame, for instance.

But regardless of whether Feige and Pascal continue to collaborate officially, it seems like the woman who has been watching cinematic Spider-Man grow from his infancy has learned a very valuable lesson from her time with the M.C.U.—and is the first to acknowledge missteps in the past. The key to the Spider-Verse, she said, is "character and emotion. That is the thing that makes all of Marvel so rich, and that's what Stan Lee did—and I think that is the most important thing is never to forget that, never to get confused that it's about anything else."
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Once again, FUCK YOU, Sony and Pascal.

Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywoo...=owned&utm_source=twitter&mbid=social_twitter

There're more in the link above, with talking about possible developments on the animation Spider-Verse front if Spider-Man: Into Spider-Verse does well, but there's a separate thread for that part. I think this bit deserves its own thread so we can collectively tell Sony Pictures to go fuck themselves. Alice was spot on her post on the other thread.
 
Cipher Peon

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As happy as I was for the MCU to get Spidey, Holland has been by far my least favorite Spider-Man.

Liked Venom just fine, so sure, anything to get less Holland Spidey. Maybe next time I'd dig it!
 
MadLaughter

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Oct 25, 2017
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odd that she talks about the importance of character given that VENOM didn't have a single good or even passable character in the entire movie

or action scene
or line of dialogue

Venom is not a good movie. Don't gaslight yourselves into thinking it is.
 

Deleted member 20892

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I thought you'd be happy about this, don't you like hate Marvel. Still got that boycott against them, no?
 
BDS

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This is typical dumb Sony shit. They see the success of Venom and automatically think "any movie starring a third-rate Spider-villain will succeed" while somehow being completely oblivious to the fact that Venom was successful because it starred a very well-known character.
 
OP
OP
ZattMurdock

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Calvero said:
I thought you'd be happy about this, don't you like hate Marvel. Still got that boycott against them, no?
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In one side, it's exactly what Disney deserves. In the other hand, Spider-Man deserves better than Sony botching the character into oblivion. If Gunn is brought back, I might be open to consume Marvel licensed stuff like I used to back then, watching their films, etc., but I will NEVER watch Venom or ANY of their live action "S.U.M.C" films.
 

SasaBassa

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Oct 25, 2017
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Sony's live action division is such trash compared to their animated division when it comes to Spider-Man. They can't even touch insomniac. Spider-Man 2 was fifteen years ago.

This is not a good development on the heels of so much success for the brand. The pessimist in me thinks they'll kill it again because live action Sony Spidey is not their forte. At all.

It also sucks because Spiderverse is legitimately a top tier movie and maybe the best of all of em. Live action or not.
 
HibbySloth

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Sony is making a big mistake if they end the Marvel deal.

I fail to see why they cannot make movies like Venom, Spiderverse and work with Marvel on Spider-Man. Is Sony so shortsighted that they are risking the chance of having X-Men or FF characters in their films?
 
Blader

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"I think about crying," Pascal said of a future in which Spider-Man and Marvel retreat to separate corners. "I can only hope for a future where things work out. I've known Kevin since he was Avi's very, very quiet assistant, who for many years sat in that room listening to us and being so much smarter than any of us without any of us realizing. I will say that working with Marvel has been one of the highlights of my professional career."
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This bit about how she has loved working with Feige and Marvel, and would hate for their collaboration to end, is supposed to be a hint that their collaboration is about to end? :lol

I don't see any reason why they won't re-up. Marvel does all the work in making the live-action Spider-Man movies (and Sony can hitch their star to the Avengers brand), meanwhile Sony gets to concentrate their resources on these ancillary characters + animated movies.

Autumn said:
So what happens to Tom Holland?
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Marvel and Sony's deal together is for five movies while Holland's is for six. So if, for some reason, Sony decided to break things off with Marvel after Far from Home, they'd have an option for one more movie with Holland.
 

Seeya

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I'm not seeing anything of her suggesting they will pull out of the agreement. Besides since the hack, her role is kind of symbolic, no?
 
NotLiquid

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Don't get me wrong, I love getting a good movie like Into The Spider-Verse which is an extremely good movie, probably the best Spider-Man related movie ever.

But it still bums me the fuck out that Sony are likely to see its success as a carte blanche to double down on the festering cancer that never left, at least as long as Avi Arad is still involved. It makes me feel dirty for rewarding them, because Sony have not changed in the slightest. If you give them an inch they will take it a mile and twist it into something awful.

I hate Sony's movie division, but not as much as I hate the fact that Into The Spider-Verse is so god damn good that I forget that this company will inevitably drag Spidey through yet another shitshow, because they never learn the right lessons from their successes.
 
berzeli

berzeli

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She doesn't work at Sony anymore but besides that and the fact she says she wants to work with Marvel this is a well thought out thread and title.
 
Spinluck

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Kernel said:
I blame everyone who paid money to see Venom
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Well, if SpiderVerse is as good as advertised, then I understand it. Most saw this coming (assuming they do actually end the deal or decide not to renew it).

It seems to me they greenlighted the MCU deal so they can try a bunch of crazy shit and take some risks. This was a huge year for the property and he's straight up surpassed Batman once again in profitability. He also got to be in Disney's $2 billion superhero epic, as if he needed anymore advertisement, and I think he also has an animated show on Disney if I'm not mistaken.

If they do end it, I hope that they don't shit the bed again, but right now the character is in a good place on the big screen.
 

Jiggy

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Nothing in that interviews actually implies that Pascal wants the deal to end (in fact it seems to imply the opposite), but it wouldn't be her call regardless

Spiderverse isn't going to do well enough to become a cinematic universe, and nobody's watching a Morbius movie starring Jared Leto. Look at the total non event his Yakuza movie was.
 

Deleted member 4260

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thread title is bad and inaccurate too, seems like Sony is willing to work with Marvel Studios in the future.
 

Deleted member 8468

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This is just stupid. I hate that Marvel doesn't control all their own properties. I get its a product of circumstance at the time, but its still incredibly frustrating as a fan. I always liked Spidey as an Avenger.

Spider-verse was great though, glad to hear we're getting more of it.
 
OP
OP
ZattMurdock

ZattMurdock

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Seeya said:
I'm not seeing anything of her suggesting they will pull out of the agreement. Besides since the hack, her role is kind of symbolic, no?
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Nope. She is a fully fleshed producer, working next to Feige in the Spider-Man MCU films.

Blader said:
This bit about how she has loved working with Feige and Marvel, and would hate for their collaboration to end, is supposed to be a hint that their collaboration is about to end? :lol

I don't see any reason why they won't re-up. Marvel does all the work in making the live-action Spider-Man movies (and Sony can hitch their star to the Avengers brand), meanwhile Sony gets to concentrate their resources on these ancillary characters + animated movies.


Marvel and Sony's deal together is for five movies while Holland's is for six. So if, for some reason, Sony decided to break things off with Marvel after Far from Home, they'd have an option for one more movie with Holland.
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While I agree with you that it makes no sense, I think it's clear from the article that Sony via Pascal is starting to get ideas that they can move forward without Feige and they have "learned their lesson". If you read the article throughly you'll see they clearly have not.
 

Deleted member 25108

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Honestly, after into the spider-verse and venom, I couldn't give a shit. Sorry if your favourite Spandex boys can't play together. All I care about is whether the film's are good and right now they are. Honestly, after homecoming, the less MCU in Spiderman films the better.
 
HibbySloth

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Baconmonk said:
This is just stupid. I hate that Marvel doesn't control all their own properties. I get its a product of circumstance at the time, but its still incredibly frustrating as a fan. I always liked Spidey as an Avenger.

Spider-verse was great though, glad to hear we're getting more of it.
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This is why Amy would be crazy to end the deal now. Venom was a success and Spiderverse will likely be as well. They can basically have their cake and eat it too by sharing Spider-Man with Marvel.

Within half a decades time Sony could be looking at Wolverine or Johnny Storm showing up in a Spider-Man film.
 
Sephzilla

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OP is super misleading since there's nothing stating that Sony wants to end the deal
 
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