MANHATTAN – The reason the fourth Spider-Man movie got stuck in the web was because the director became infatuated with the film graphics in Avatar, New York Magazine reported.
Director Sam Raimi and lead actor Tobey Maguire disappointed fans of the friendly neighborhood hero's movie franchise by backing out of the film earlier this week. They didn’t publicly explain the reason for their decision.
But a tipster told NY Mag that the meltdown happened because Raimi wanted more money for computer-generated-imagery after seeing James Cameron’s precedent-setting 3D action flick.
Avatar cost almost half a billion dollars to produce and market, reportedly making it among the most expensive movies ever made. But it's raked in $450 million domestically since it's Dec. 18 release, making the second-highest grossing film worldwide to Star Wars.
Columbia Pictures and parent company Sony reportedly balked at the additional price tag and a delay on the May 6, 2011 release date.
The date will now reportedly be taken over by another Marvel super hero film, actor/director Kenneth Branagh's "Thor."
