Studio Exec Who Kept DEADPOOL in Production Purgatory Says Smartest Thing Ever About Sony's SPIDER-MAN Franchise
There's been plenty of negative things said about studio executive Tom Rothman when it comes to his time as an exec at 20th Century Fox because he's the guy who Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld outed on Twitter as being the person who prevented the studio from green lighting DEADPOOL.
"Tom Rothman single handedly kept Deadpool from getting made at Fox. Not a fan. Scratches Sony off the list...., "Liefeld wrote on February 24, 2015.
Despite Rothman's refusal to move ahead with production on DEADPOOL, the movie was green lit once he was no longer at Fox and it's been one of the most profitable movies in the history of cinema. With a low budget, reportedly $58 million, DEADPOOL has brought in over $778 million worldwide and anyone would have thought that a low budget like this would have been an easy selling point to convince Rothman... it obviously wasn't.
Oh the burn that must be felt by not green lighting DEADPOOL sooner. But that didn't prevent Sony Pictures from bringing Rothman on board last year.
In February 2015, Rothman was announced as the replacement for Amy Pascal as Sony Pictures' chairman. Several weeks after Rothman joined, Sony Pictures and Marvel were announced to have partnered up to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Studios' Marvel Cinematic Universe. Easily the best move for Spidey as well as Rothman being a new member of the Sony Pictures team.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Rothman said one of the smartest things he could have ever said about the Spider-Man deal that he could have possibly told the trade site.
“Sony has the ultimate authority... But we have deferred the creative lead to Marvel, because they know what they’re doing.”
Sure, there's a little flexing of muscles in this comment, since Sony does in fact own the movie franchise rights to all-things Spider-Man live-action, but it's the second part that's so smart. Do you want the guy who shot down DEADPOOL really having any creative control over Spider-Man? No you don't. You want Marvel Studios to have that power, which Rothman has confirmed they do have.
If Rothman was trying to get back into the good graces of comic book movie fans, he's been taking steps in the right direction when it comes to his decision making for Spider-Man. And he has had to have learned a very hard lesson about comic book movies after DEADPOOL proved him oh so very wrong.
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING has begun filming at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta and releases on July 7, 2017.
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