Hey folks, Harry here... Today's been one of those crazed phone daze here at Geek Headquarters... It all began this afternoon at 3:40pm Monday when I got the following E-mail...
Hey Harry:
Love your site. It's a great venue for keeping up on all things cool.
Anyway, the latest (unconfirmed) rumor I've heard is that Tobey McGuire will NOT be in SPIDER-MAN 2. The scuttlebutt is that he has a back injury that will keep him out of action long enough for the film to miss its projected opening weekend.
Cast as Peter Parker is Jake ("Bubble Boy") Gyllenhall.
I'll let you make of that what you will.
If you use this, just call me GREEN MAN.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Ok, now... I'd never received a scoop from GREEN MAN before, but the source of the email was something to take a bit more serious than the typical anonymous email address... So I began my investigation. However, I didn't want to call the studio or any of the principles simply because, I needed to have a little bit more confidence in the rumor before calling them to bother with such a bizarre outlandish rumor. I mean, why on earth would Tobey want out. I'd heard no back injury reports on Tobey from SEABISCUIT. Poking around I found that some other people in the world of 'reporting' had heard the same rumor, but by that time, I decided to follow up call today (Tuesday) when California came to life with more official questioning. That's when that dastardly evil man, Chris Gardner filed his story over at Hollywood Reporter which is basically an article confirming that he too has heard the rumors, but that all the key people deny that there is a problem. Tobey Maguire's people say he only has a sore back and that he's definitely still on-board. Universal Studio's told him that Tobey is in the final stages of healing his sore back due to all the horseriding required on Gary Ross' SEABISCUIT. Apparently he's still working out and doing Special Effects meetings for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and as for Jack Gyllenhall, apparently he's never been offered the part.
So, what was this? Was this just a rumor that was being fed to key press outlets due to some sort of behind the scenes salary dispute with Tobey to tell him, not directly, that they'd go with Jake Gyllenhaal if necessary? Was it an insidious Warner Brothers plot to take some of the heat off their own madness that they are dealing with?
Speaking of which, seems I've been receiving 30 emails every 5 minutes telling me that Brett Ratner has been kicked out of Metropolis and will no longer be helming SUPERMAN. And some of them even accurately reported that Zorianna Kit from Hollywood Reporter (The Real Lois Lane) - had reported that there was still no news if Warner Brothers had renewed their option with Brett Ratner to direct SUPERMAN, as the option expired on Saturday. Then tonight, the lovely Zorianna is reporting that both Brendan Fraser and Matthew Bomer are both out of contention for the title role. And today... Today is the day that Warner Brothers decides to either do the right thing and show Brat Ratner the door or continue down their current path to their mutual destruction. Tick Tock... Tick Tock... Hmmmm... Wonder why we haven't heard what Michael Bay's next project is yet... Wasn't he gonna do that Bruckheimer KING ARTHUR project that Antoine Fuqua is now doing? Hmmm... Wonder if Joel Silver will come aboard? Hmmmm... Let's see how all of this plays out...
