'Mortdecai' Director & 'Spider-Man' Screenwriter David Koepp Thinks There Needs To Be More Spidey Movies

At one time, David Koepp was the noted screenwriter behind the first entry in Sam Raimi‘s "Spider-Man" trilogy, Steven Spielberg‘s "War Of The Worlds," and he got a credit on David Fincher‘s "Panic Room." But he also has his fingerprints on "Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull," "Premium Rush," and, more recently, the big box office flop, "Mortdecai." Still, his dalliance in the world of Marvel does mean he has some insight into how he’d approach the character, particularly now that the series seems to be in trouble at Sony. Speaking recently with Empire, Koepp shared some of those ideas.

Now, it should be said, he readily admits he’s speaking as if money isn’t an object, but his plan to fix Spider-Man? More movies. His concept basically is that there would be a few different iterations of the character all at once, each focusing on a different take and demographic. Here’s what he had to say:

When I was doing Spider-Man the first time, I remember distinctly having thoughts about three movies, each of a different kind. The way the comic-book lines switched, it was Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man… there were a number of them.

So rather than try to persue the same course, or any kind of similar tone, you’d have strikingly different tones. The classic Spider-Man, that would be the top-of-the-line, studio Sam Raimi ones, then the Amazing Spider-Man ones, they’d be done for $75-80 million, and have a rougher, edgier, almost R-rated feel to them – if not R-rated, though I don’t think they could ever bring themselves to do that. Tougher, nastier, a rougher look… shorter movies. I don’t like superhero bloat, personally.

And these series didn’t have to be consecutive, they could be released concurrently. Then I also thought there should be a Spectacular Spider-Man series, because Spider-Man leaves out a large group of its audience. Little kids are fascinated by Spider-Man by the time they are three, or younger. But when I was a kid, I loved the animated series, so I always thought there should be separate lines to cater for different ages of Spider-Man fans.

Concurrent Spider-Man movies in a few different flavors? This is a whole different kind of bloat than just one long movie. And "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" proved even one movie can wear its welcome fast — now add a few more to the mix. Koepp also believes that other characters in the Spider-Man universe, like Black Cat, deserve their own movies.

What do you think? How would you fix Spider-Man (without giving it back to Marvel)? Let us know below.