A Tobey Maguire ‘Spider-Man’ stand-alone film may be on the way
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Tobey Maguire, who swung around New York as Peter Parker in four “Spider-Man” films over 22 years, could be donning the old spandex suit once again in his very own Spidey flick, according to a former co-star.
Thomas Haden Church, who played the villainous Sandman in 2007’s “Spider-Man 3,” told The Post that a new Maguire-led flick might be on the way.
“Sam Raimi is doing, from what I’ve heard, he’s going to do another stand-alone ‘Spider-Man’ movie with Tobey,” Church, 63, said.
Sandman’s inclusion, added the actor, has “gotten sort of floated a little bit.”
Raimi directed Maguire’s aughts trilogy, as well as the more recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movie “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”
In a gift to fans, 48-year-old Maguire and Church returned to their Marvel roles in 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” alongside fellow Peters Tom Holland (“Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Spider-Man: Far From Home”) and Andrew Garfield (“The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”).
“They had an option for me to do another,” Church said. “Of course, everybody’s asking, like, well, does [‘No Way Home’] fulfill that? And so [Raimi] said, ‘No, no, we still want to have the option to use him in a stand-alone Tobey movie.’ ”
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige told Entertainment Weekly in February 2023 that a fourth film starring Holland was in development — even after the catastrophic events of “No Way Home.”
“All I will say is that we have the story,” he said. “We have big ideas for that, and our writers are just putting pen to paper now.”
But that move would not necessarily prevent Sony, who owns the film rights to the character, from pursuing an altogether separate Maguire picture.
After all, the studio has had huge recent successes (and an Oscar) with the animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”
As for Church, he now appears in the film “Accidental Texan” alongside Carrie-Anne Moss and Bruce Dern. He plays Merle, a Lone Star State oil driller whose business has fallen on hard times.
Actor Rudy Pankow from Netflix’s “Outer Banks,” stars in the movie as a young actor named Erwin who gets axed from a movie, flees LA and becomes stranded in Merle’s rural town. Church said Erwin’s tale was a lot like his first days in Hollywood.
“Having been fired from a big job myself early in my career, that was — and I think I told Rudy about it — that was a key element of the story that I could really connect to. Even though it was 30-something years ago. It was something I could connect, still connect, to in a sense-memory way.”
Off-screen, the “Wings” actor imparted wisdom to his 25-year-old co-star, including that there’s no shame in flying around wearing a cape.
“I saw there was a story the other day that Leonardo DiCaprio had told Timothée Chalamet, ‘Don’t do a superhero movie,’ because, you know — stay a serious actor,” Church said.
“And, look, I appreciate everybody’s opinion. But you look at Robert Downey Jr. — I mean the guy’s an amazing actor. Then he did ‘Iron Man’ and he did all those movies. And he’s literally about to win an Academy Award for ‘Oppenheimer.’ ” (He did.)
“You can’t get discredited by a Marvel movie by any means as an actor or [not] be taken seriously as an actor.”