Spider-Man Movie Writer Not Interested in Returning to Superhero Movies

David Koepp, screenwriter of the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man, says “never say never” about penning another comic book-based movie but admits the genre has changed since he was interested in superheroes circa 2002. Koepp plotted a Spider-Man trilogy — he boarded 2004’s Spider-Man 2 after writing duo Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, whose work was followed by Michael Chabon and ultimately solely credited screenwriter Alvin Sargent — but had exited the franchise by the time Raimi concluded the trilogy with Spider-Man 3, scripted by Sargent, the director, and brother Ivan Raimi.

“You know, never say never on anything,” Koepp told The Hollywood Reporter while promoting psychological horror You Should Have Left, scripted and directed by Koepp. “I mean, I had a great time with the Spider-Man movie, but superhero movies have evolved so profoundly and in such a sophisticated storytelling way. They are just very different from when I was interested in them. So, I like to watch them, but I like to think of new stuff whenever I can.”

Koepp was later recruited by Sony Pictures to map out sequels to 2012 reboot The Amazing Spider-Man, which nearly allowed Koepp to fulfill unrealized plans for Raimi’s Spider-Man 2.

“There was a time maybe seven or eight years ago when I was gonna come back for a couple Spider-Man movies, after they’d done their first Amazing Spider-Man. On the very first Spider-Man I sort of planned out what I thought the first three movies should be, and then all the assorted personalities it didn’t work for me to keep writing the Spider-Man movies,” Koepp recently told Collider. “So I was excited to come back and try to finish the story I started telling in the first one, and as we were about to agree that I was going to do that, I pulled out all the old stuff and I started outlining those two movies and I thought, ‘Boy, you can’t go home again. That moment has passed. The time when I was really feeling it was 10 years ago, and there’ no point in trying to recreate it.’ So I bailed.”

Koepp’s You Should Have Left, about a married couple and their young daughter who are plagued by strange events when they rent a secluded countryside house concealing a dark past, is now available on VOD and Digital HD from Universal Pictures. Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried star in the new horror-thriller from Blumhouse.