Sony’s (Mis)Understanding Of Its Properties
Yes, a studio is in the business of making money, but it helps if it understands its licensed properties’ strengths and weaknesses – or even anything about them. For instance, Brian Michael Bendis revealed in a Yahoo! interview how he was once called in to Sony’s offices before The Amazing Spider-Man to discuss if Spidey had organic or mechanical webshooters.
“They sat me down in Amy Pascal’s office with this big roomful of producers and writers and directors, and she looked at me and said, ‘Organic webshooters or mechanical webshooters?’ I said ‘Mechanical,’ and half the table said, ‘Goddamn it!’ They were mad because I was clearly the deciding vote, even though I didn’t know that.”
They could’ve just picked up a comic, you know?
If Sony’s serious about building its own universe to compete with the MCU, it needs to hire a figure like Kevin Feige, who’ll balance the movie side of things with knowledge of the source material. This isn’t the ’90s anymore where fans will take any superhero project thrown at them and accept sub-standard films. There are options – numerous ones, in fact – and fans vote with their wallets.
Don’t get us wrong: If done properly, a character like Kraven has a rich-enough backstory that could be turned into a terrific film. However, we wouldn’t bet against Sony seeing him as some kind of evil Steve Irwin rather than taking the time to read a few books and getting to know him.
