In a piece in the LA Times about The King’s Speech Tom Hooper’s next gig, I learned something very interesting — that Kathryn Bigelow turned down the Spiderman reboot now to be directed by Marc Webb. The folks at The Playlist had this back last year, but I completely missed it.
She turned down the movie to work on Triple Frontier which will go in front of the cameras later this spring, and for the pilot she did for HBO that did not get picked up, as well as another indie written by Mark Boal.
While it seems that Spiderman is not her cup of tea at all based on her body of work, it makes one wonder how cool it would have been to have a woman at the helm of film that will cost over $100 million dollars. It clearly would have changed the conversation again about what women were capable of directing because Spiderman is critic proof. The film will make a ton of money just because it is Spiderman. But she is probably being offered tons of jobs right now that no one knows about because she is now in the top tier of directors due to her Oscar win.
Kudos to Amy Pascal for putting out the offer to Bigelow. It just makes me wonder when — and if — a woman will get a chance at the superhero type of movie again.
Look for Bigelow giving out the best director award this Sunday at the Oscars. I just want her to get back to work so we can see what’s next from her.
