Sony Launches Female Superhero Movie Mining Spider-Man Universe
EXCLUSIVE: Having pushed the next installment of its Spider-Man franchise out of 2016 and into 2018, Sony Pictures is doing a top-to-bottom revamp of its most important property, insiders say. And that includes a female superhero movie which is being eyed for a 2017 release date, Deadline has learned.
Sinister Six, the next installment from writer-director Drew Goddard, was announced in April and its release date revealed during this year’s Comic-Con. It will bow November 11, 2016. The villain bash is the first of several planned character and story expansions for the Spider-Man franchise which the studio is hanging onto by developing other character spinoffs — much like Fox has done with its successful X-Men franchise. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are producing Sinister Six, which revolves around all the villains of Spider-Man converging after the evil Dr. Octopus summons them.
There are a lot of different Sinister Six team-ups so it has yet to be revealed which characters might appear, but one possibility is Vulture, Mysterio, Electro, Kraven the Hunter and Sandman. And Goddard is said to be a supreme comic book geek — not that there’s anything wrong with that — who truly understands all the aspects of the Spider-Man universe and its characters and storylines which is key for that movie and the next. “Having Goddard on board places the movie in the hands of someone who has lived in this world,” said one person who knowledge of the property. “If you look at Cabin In The Woods, he did such a phenomenal job on that in redefining and commenting on the genre while also completely embracing it. He’s a fanboy which compliments his talents as a filmmaker.”
After the villains emerge, get ready for the power of the women from the Spider-Man universe. Which characters they will develop is up for speculation, but we know that Lisa Joy Nolan (Westworld) has been hired to script and that again Arad and Tolmach are producing. There are several strong possibilities — Silver Sable, Black Cat, Stunner, Firestarter and Spider-Woman, to name a few.