Rumors are just breaking that Sam Raimi has pulled out of directing Spider-Man 4, and with him goes Tobey Maguire and the rest of the cast.

Nikki Finke is reporting that at a meeting on the Sony Studios lot this morning, it was announced that Sam Raimi has left the production of Spider-Man 4, and with his departure the movie is officially dead.  Instead of moving forward with the series under the helm of a different director, Sony has opted to start the whole series over … yes folks, Spider-Man is getting a reboot.

Instead of trying to work out creative differences with Mr. Raimi, Sony is just going to start the whole series over again with a new cast, a different director at the helm, and this means we will get to see the same blaster stories over again.  Oh, joy … another retelling of the spider biting Peter Parker!  HUZZAH!

We get to fight the Green Goblin again!  HUZZAH!

We get to fight Doctor Octopus again!  HUZZAH!

Ugh … my brain already hurts.  Sony had the world on a platter with this series, and because they couldn’t just let Mr. Raimi do things they way he wanted to, which proved successful with the first two films, now we lose all the ground work that has been laid out over three films.  I guess we’ll never see Dr. Conners turn into The Lizard now.

Sony … you suck.

An official statement is expected from Sony fairly soon.  You do have to wonder how Sony arrived at the plan for a reboot this quickly when the fourth film was only put on hold last week.

UPDATE: It’s official, here’s the press release.

Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012.

Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.

The new chapter in the “Spider-Man” franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.

“A decade ago we set out on this journey with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire and together we made three ‘Spider-Man’ films that set a new bar for the genre. When we began, no one ever imagined that we would make history at the box-office and now we have a rare opportunity to make history once again with this franchise. Peter Parker as an ordinary young adult grappling with extraordinary powers has always been the foundation that has made this character so timeless and compelling for generations of fans. We’re very excited about the creative possibilities that come from returning to Peter’s roots and we look forward to working once again with Marvel Studios, Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin on this new beginning,” said Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

“Working on the ‘Spider-Man’ movies was the experience of a lifetime for me. While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job,” said Sam Raimi.

“We have had a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration and friendship with Sam and Tobey and they have given us their best for the better part of the last decade. This is a bittersweet moment for us because while it is hard to imagine Spider-Man in anyone else’s hands, I know that this was a day that was inevitable,” said Matt Tolmach, president of Columbia Pictures, who has served as the studio’s chief production executive since the beginning of the franchise. “Now everything begins anew, and that’s got us all tremendously excited about what comes next. Under the continuing supervision of Avi and Laura, we have a clear vision for the future of Spider-Man and can’t wait to share this exciting new direction with audiences in 2012.”

“‘Spider-Man’ will always be an important franchise for Sony Pictures and a fresh start like this is a responsibility that we all take very seriously,” said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures. “We have always believed that story comes first and story guides the direction of these films and as we move onto the next chapter, we will stay true to that principle and will do so with the highest respect for the source material and the fans and moviegoers who deserve nothing but the best when it comes to bringing these stories and characters to life on the big screen.”

The studio will have more news about Spider-Man in 2012 in the coming weeks as it prepares for production of the film.

It’s official folks, The Jay Leno Show has been canceled in the 10 pm EST time slot.

Nikki Finke is reporting that the announcement was just made at the winter meeting of The Critics Association. Diane Haithman, who is reporting for Nikki Finke at the meeting, states:

The Jay Leno Show. On February 12th, Jay Leno will no longer air at 10 PM. While it was performing at acceptable levels for the network, it did not meet our affiliates needs, and we realized we had to make a change. My goal right now is to keep Jay, Conan and Jimmy as part of our late night line up. I have spoken to all of them and proposed that The Jay Leno Show move to 11:35 PM, Conan move to 12:05 AM, and Jimmy to late night at 1:05 AM. As much as I would like to tell you it’s a done deal, we know that’s not true, “ adding that the talks are ongoing.

So all the rumors from the other day are true, and what Conan will do is still unclear. Unnamed sources close to Conan told The New York Times on Jan. 9th that he has not yet accepted NBC’s plan, and is not likely to very soon.  What this means is anyone’s guess, but it could very well mean he will leave NBC.  TMZ has a break down of Mr. O’Brien’s three options:

Option 1: Quit the show and spend the next four years at the beach. If Conan does this, our sources say NBC would have to pay him the value of his contract. We’re told it’s a five-year deal, worth as much as $20 million a year. With four years to go, Conan could conceivably get $80 million. But given his skin pigmentation and, possibly, his ego, the beach is unlikely.

Option 2: Go to either FOX or ABC. This is where it gets complicated. If Conan were to strike a deal with either network to do a competing show, any salary Conan pulls in would offset the obligation owed by NBC. So, for example, if Conan made $20 million a year at NBC and ABC were to pay him $15 million a year, NBC would only owe Conan $5 mil a year for the four years remaining in his contract.

Option 3: Eat crow and take the 12:05-1:05 time slot. If Conan takes this option, our sources say it’s likely NBC would negotiate a new contract with the same salary Conan was getting before. Even though the salary isn’t supported by the time period, it’s cheaper than paying him off. NBC, we’re told, prefers this option, because Conan would not be splintering Leno’s rating by going to another network.

Why in the world would he choose option 3? If he can go for option 2, go for it, barring that, option 1 sounds pretty sweet. The only winner in option 3 is NBC, and somehow I don’t think he’s going to be too excited about helping out his current employers.

More news is sure to come this week.

So, I finally watched Transformers Revenge of the Fallen … what the hell was that mess?

The plot, what there was of it, was just beyond silly, and since it has already been ravaged just about everywhere you could think of, I thought I would just address the total disconnects from logic that happened.

Demolisher was destroyed in China

It seems that there were at least two of each Constructicon, which makes absolutely no sense.  Demolisher was the name of the big Decepticon destroyed in China, yet he shows up in Egypt to help form Devestator.

During the Devestator fight, there are also Constructicons in the foot battle in the village.  Mix Master (cement truck), Long Haul (green dump truck) and Rampage (bulldozer) are in both places at the same time.  Either there were two of each Constructicon (which nothing like that has ever happened anywhere in Transformers history with the exception of Generation 1 Decepticon planes, but each of them had different names and color schemes), or it is a total continuity error.  Yes, I realize it costs money for each new computer model, but come on, this was a bit obvious.

What happened to Wheelie?

Wheelie, the little blue RC truck, is with everyone when Jetfire forms the Space Bridge to Egypt.  You see him in Egypt when they arrive … and then he is never seen or mentioned again.  He plays an important part through the first two acts of the film, and then in the third act he is just dropped like a hot potato to never be heard from again.  Nice.

Okay … I lied … lets look at some of the script issues.

Does Leo Spitz serve any purpose?

Near as I can figure the character of Leo Spitz served only as comic relief and an excuse to get Sam and Mikaela back together with Simmons.  This could have been accomplished with Sam looking up info on the Web and stumbling across Simmons’ Web site.  Leo could have been completely eliminated from the script and you wouldn’t have missed a minute of plot development.

The National Security Agency character was totally unneeded.

Theodore Galloway, the American National Security Advisor, is another character that could have been totally eliminated. Replace him with General Morshower reluctantly conveying messages from the White House and you gain even more script space.  I think Michael Bay just always likes to have an annoying government character around to aggravate people.

Was I supposed to fear The Fallen?

He ran around for a few minutes, said some menacing things … got his ass kicked.  The whole movie was named for him and he was a total joke.

Why did the Twins change vehicle modes in the opening minutes?

Skids and Mudflap were the combined ice cream truck in China, they get home and immediately scan into new vehicle modes … why?  If anything screamed “lets add some more toys to the movie!”, this was it.

Sam tells Bumblebee he no longer needs a guardian

Sam walks into the garage and tells Bumblebee he no longer needs a guardian … while fireman are still extinguishing the fires from the fight Bumblebee just had with several mini-Decepticons that Sam yelled for him to protect him from.  Yep … all the danger is gone … because the firemen are right outside … where Mikaela is changing clothes …

Michael Bay has the memory of a gnat

Oh, wait, it’s just that he thinks his audience has no capability to remember anything five seconds after it happened.

There really are an endless stream of things you can say negatively about this movie, but what’s the point?  It made over $800 million worldwide, pre-production has started on the third film with Mr. Bay still in charge, so what does it all matter?  It will just be another giant suckfest.

As I’ve said before, I don’t care if movies totally disconnect from reality so long as they don’t do stupid things that insult the audience’s intelligence.  Disappearing characters, jumps in a film’s own established logic, etc are what irk me, and that is Mr. Bay in just about everything he does.

Only 46 posts this week … I’m slippin’!

FunJug.com

• People of Walmart Rap

iPhoneTouch.BLORGE.com

• Top 10 free iPhone and iPod Touch apps for weight loss

Photo.BLORGE.com

• Samsung NX10 gets officially announced
• CES flooded with new point and shoot cameras

RememberingChristmas.com

• Use Your Christmas Tree Year Round For Other Holidays

SeanPAune.com

• Top 10 Posts of 2009
• Survivor HEROES vs. VILLAINS Cast Announced
• CobWEBs Daily Edition: Budget problems? Slap an Apple logo on it!
• Bono Is A Tool
• CobWEBs Daily Edition: 3D – nothing to see here so move along buddy
• Spider-Man 4 Indefinitely Delayed
• Survivor: Heroes vs Villains – Jeff Probst Cast Assessment
• CobWEBs Daily Edition: And you thought you’d had enough CES news and opinion NOT!
• Scattercast Episode 77: CES Has Burned Out My Eyeballs
• NBC Shoots Itself In The Foot With Jay Leno Mistake
• Internet Turns Into Cry Babies Over Netflix Deal With Warner Brothers
• Blake Lively Cast As Carol Ferris In Green Lantern

StarterTech.com

• The Internet Is Killing Old School Etiquette
• TweExchange Lets You Search For Twitter Names And Domain Names Together
• Skype Launching Video Call Enabled Televisions
• DivX TV Bringing Streaming Internet Content To Your TV
• Microsoft And HP Announce The HP Slate
• Netflix Popping Up In Every Device This Year
• Physical Keyboard Released For The iPhone That Is A Total Waste

Tech.BLORGE.com

• Despite the war with studios, Redbox has a record breaking day
• Microsoft tries to lure small businesses to upgrade with discounted prices
• Dating site expels members over holiday weight gain
• Apple App Store passes three billion downloads milestone
• ESPN to launch 3D sports network in June
• AR.Drone in an iPhone controlled helicopter
• Minneapolis completes $20 million dollar Wi-Fi project
• Ford goes Internet crazy with MyFord Touch
• Panasonic releasing Full HD 3D camcorder
• Panasonic says 1 TB SD cards could hit this year
• Netflix agrees to Warner plan for 28 day rental window
• CES flooded with new e-readers

TechnoBuffalo.com

• 5 Free Apps For Making Cheap Calls On Your iPhone
• What Was Web 2.0?
• What Would We Do With 1Gbps of Bandwidth?
• Is Twitter A Fad?
• The Saga Of Redbox
• Is Blu-ray Really Taking Off?
• Do We Really Need 3D TV Sets?
• Skype Coming To Your Living Room TV
• The Role YouTube Plays In Product Launches
• The Evolution of Social Networking

It seems that Ryan Reynolds’ Hal Jordan/Green Lantern has found his Carol Ferris for the film due out in 2011.

Ryan Reynolds was cast as Green Lantern back in July of last year, and while I wasn’t overly thrilled with the casting, I’ve grown to live with it.  Almost as equally important to the story of the space cop is his long time love interest, Carol Ferris.  Well, she’s finally been cast and it is Blake Lively of the television series of Gossip Girl.

I must confess I have never even seen a moment of Ms. Lively’s acting, so I will reserve all judgement on this as it wouldn’t be fair.  I do hope they dye her hair as Carol has always been black/brunette, but that is a trifling issue.

Apparently the part of Carol was a hotly sought after role in Hollywood recently with the likes of Eva Green, Keri Russell, Jennifer Garner and Diane Kruger all being in contention for the role.  The only thing that worries me about Ms. Lively is her age.  At the time of this writing she is 22-years-old, and considering by the time Hal becomes Green Lantern, both he and Carol have a romantic history, and are established in their careers, she just seems a bit young.  Mr. Reynolds is 33, so we’ll see how this goes.

Filming is expected to begin in March with a June 17, 2011 release date.

Am I missing something in this Netflix deal with Warner Brothers, or am I the calm one for once?

Netflix has struck a deal with Warner Home Video to delay renting the studios latest releases for 28 days after initial release.  This is due to the fact that DVD sales fell 13% in 2008 while rental revenues increased thanks to companies like Redbox.  The deal includes the benefits for Netflix of purchasing copies of the films at a lower price so the company can stock newer films in greater depth, and Warners also agreed to allow more of its library to be streamed over the company’s Watch Instantly streaming movie service.

Netflix has made many comments over how it plans to focus more heavily on its streaming service as the company spends over $600 million a year in postage as opposed to a streaming film costing them only $.05 in bandwidth costs.  Netflix CEO Reid Hastings has also stated that new releases from all suppliers only account for 30% of the company’s mail-order rental volume at any given time.

Well, leave it to the Internet to get all up in arms over this deal. MG Siegler wrote a story over at TechCrunch entitled Netflix Stabs Us In The Heart So Hollywood Can Drink Our Blood which makes me wonder if he is a card carrying drama queen.  While Mr. Siegler is but one man, many people on blogs and Twitter have expressed their outrage over this deal, with many of them even claiming they would cancel their subscriptions with the company.

Okay, what is wrong with the world when I’m the one saying this is not a big deal?

I have been known to rant about the silliest of subjects, but I don’t get the uproar about this at all.  You aren’t going to be forced to go and buy these movies just because you can’t rent them the day they come out, you can just wait four weeks and rent them then.  If the movie was that important for you to see, why didn’t you see it in the theater?  How will waiting four more weeks to see a movie on DVD really impact your life in any meaningful way?  It won’t.  So you wait four weeks … big freakin’ whoop.

Instead of getting to rent a movie on Nov. 2nd, you rent it on Nov. 30th and you still don’t buy a copy.  Are you saying that you are that impatient to see a movie (that was already in theaters) that this four week rental delay will cause you to run out and buy a copy?  Are you dying?  Will you not be alive those 28 days later?  (well, yeah, okay, there was that horror movie 28 Days Later, but what are the odds of that happening?)

The only salient point Mr. Siegler makes in his 1400+ word opus on the matter (I put it into a word counter as I couldn’t believe the length) is that there may be an uptick in online piracy.  However, somehow I don’t see that many new people learning how to run a BitTorrent client just because the newest movie has been delayed again by a measly four weeks.  Do you realize how many people don’t even know, or care, what the release date of a DVD is?  The vast majority of people won’t even notice this, and if they see a movie on the sale rack at Best Buy, then try to add it to the Netflix queue, it will still be added, they just won’t get it right away and they still won’t notice the difference!

Mr. Siegler keeps saying how this is a bad deal for the Netflix customers.  How?  A company that he professes love for just cut its costs meaning it can have a healthier bottom line, you get more selection of films on its streaming service and they increase their copy depth when they do eventually get the movie meaning less chance of you having to wait in line.  Again, how is this a bad deal for the customer?

Oh yeah, you have to wait four weeks to see it.  Boo-freakin’-hoo.

Again, I fully admit that I have ranted about some pretty silly things in my life, but waiting four weeks to rent a DVD is so astronomically low on my priority list that it doesn’t even register.  And you could do something really crazy if you just have to see that movie right when it comes out … go to a local mom-&-pop video store (they still exist) and support them.  I know, there I go again talking crazy.

(not counting these words, this post was 758 words … I am almost 50% more sane than MG Siegler)

If the rumors are true, NBC is about to head for the biggest PR disaster in the history of the network.

Rumors have been flying for a bit now that poorly rated The Jay Leno Show will be off the air when NBC is done with its Winter Olympics coverage. While people at first assumed this meant Jay Leno would be out of a job, it appears that they are simply moving him to his old time slot of 11:35 pm EST. The problem with this? That is the time slot of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.

The rumor goes, and I stress this is rumor, is that Jay will have a new show from 11:35 pm EST to 12:05 am EST.  The Tonight Show will move to 12:05 am EST to 1:05 am EST and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will move to 1:05 am EST to 2:05 am EST.  Conan will get to keep The Tonight Show name as it is in his contract, although the show will move from its traditional time slot.

Now, if Conan chooses to leave due to the time change, Jay Leno will go to an hour long show and Jimmy Fallon will retain his current time slot.  NBC would have the option of blocking Conan from working anywhere else for two years, but the rumor is that they will not do so as he seems to be the odd man out in this whole deal.

So, in other words, NBC completely botched everything with its plan for The Jay Leno Show, a show that shouldn’t even exist, and a long term promise made to Conan O’Brien will get broken to continue to keep Leno happy for no good reason?

When is everyone going to finally realize that Jeff Zucker, President of NBC, has absolutely no clue what he is doing?

NBC used to be a number one, but under Mr. Zucker’s stewardship, the network has fallen to fourth place and continues to make mistake after mistake.  WHDH in Boston even tried to rebel and not even air the show, but they were later told they had no choice if it wanted to retain its network affiliation.  Even the affiliates knew this was a bad idea!  Yet, Mr. Zucker soldiers on and now is stuck in a potential PR disaster that will see his network getting egg all over its face as it tries to explain why the 11:35 pm EST show is not The Tonight Show, or why one of its long time hosts has left the network.  If any of these rumors prove to be true, it will do nothing but make the network that much more of a laughing stock.

There is one very simple solution that will mitigate the disaster to some degree: simply cut Jay Leno loose.  Conan retains his show, Jimmy doesn’t have to move, and Leno is gone.  You end up with one black mark as opposed to multiples.

When this whole concept was announced back in Dec. 2008, I predicted it would be a disaster.  Guess what … I was right.  This whole concept was flawed from the start, and though pundits, critics and even affiliates tried to warn Mr. Zucker it was a bad move, he went ahead with it.  How has this man kept his job?  If he was a football coach, he would have been fired by now for his win/loss record, but instead he gets to go on and make even more boneheaded decisions that just make the world laugh at this once great network even harder.

Mr. Zucker, please, for the good of the network, step down before you make another foolish mistake like this.

Scattercast is 77 … and overwhelmed by technology.

- I do not get the sudden tech industry love affair with 3D.

- Skype is coming to TVs … wow.

- Ford seems determined to make you have a car accident.

Here’s

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for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!

For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!

Tonight Mark and I discuss numerous announcements from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) happening out in Las Vegas right now. From the FemtoJack to the long awaited Plastic Logic reader that both made us die a little inside from its price, we cover it all in this episode.

Push the big green button and have a listen in!

Survivor host Jeff Probst showed up on YouTube to discuss the cast for Survivor: Heroes vs Villains that were announced recently, and it is interesting to say the least.

I make no bones about the fact that I still watch Survivor as I find it fascinating to see how after hundreds of players people still do unpredictable things (I’m looking at you Russell!).  The reason I’m fascinated by this upcoming season is that everyone is entering the game with a label.  Normally we have to get to know the cast, see how they play and then we pick who we root for and who we loathe.  This time we already have our “heroes” and “villains”, but will any of them do anything to surprise us?  Will the Heroes sit around the camp singing songs?  Will the Villains be backstabbing each other before they even get their shelter built?

The answer to both is “no.”

I think this season has a chance to push our boundaries of perception, and we may walk away realizing that first of all, reality TV is so heavily edited that we really don’t have a clue or secondly we could realize that depending on your circumstances, your actions change.  Don’t expect this season to be as clear cut as many suspect it will be.

Don’t be holding your breath for Spider-Man 4 to make its planned May 5,2011 release date.

Nikki Finke announced yesterday that Spider-Man 4 is on an indefinite production hold due to problems with the script.  The script has already gone through several writers, and Sam Raimi and Sony Pictures have been rumored to be arguing over who the villain(s) will be this time around.

In the first two films, Mr. Raimi wanted the villain to be someone who somehow reflected what was going on in Peter Parker’s life.  With the third one, he had Venom forced upon him by the studio, and we all know how that disaster turned out.  Mr. Raimi had previously said he never wanted to use Venom because he just didn’t find him all that interesting, but Sony saw a chance to launch Venom into his own series of movies, so they told the director he had no choice.  While the film still made money ($336,530,303 domestic, $554,341,323 foreign off a $258 million budget), no one was creatively satisfied with the film, and it looked like the series might be dead.

After a significant amount of financial wrangling, and Tobey Maguire reportedly snagging $50 million for the fourth and fifth film, the films are back on track, but with the same problems.

The rumor is Sam Raimi wants to use The Vulture as the villain, but Sony is saying that it isn’t a marketable character.  This isn’t about marketing folks, these movies sell themselves.  We go to see an iconic hero being portrayed well, whomever the villain is, while cool, is not the reason we flock to the theater because, I’ll let you in on a little secret, Spider-Man wins in the end.  He is never going to lose one of these fights, so what does it really matter how “marketable” the villain is?  Sony got its way last time and they ended up with a critical disaster on their hands.  Venom sucked.  Period.

Sam Raimi has made you a lot of money, let him do his own thing and leave it at that.

Some feel the film may make it out for July 2011, but the May 5, 2011 date is quickly slipping away.

UPDATE: The Thor movie just changed release dates from June 17, 2011 to May 6, 2011 … this pretty much confirms Spider-Man 4 is delayed.

Welcome to another week of the daily edition of CobWEBs, the flagship podcast of The Cynical Bastards!

For those who don’t remember from the other episodes, this is a new format for the show as we are going to try giving you daily bite sized chunks of our patented brand of cynicism over everything in the tech universe. The show will have a rotating host schedule between Steven Hodson, Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and myself. You’ll always get two of us, you just never know which two!

Tonight Steven and I discuss the Google Nexus One and how it was all hype and no bite.  We also delve into 3D TV and why it is just a silly ass idea that is pointless.  Actually … we call a LOT of stuff pointless tonight.  We’re quite friendly.

Push the big green button and have a listen in!