[Javabean]

There was almost a minor crossover between The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man:

I was paired with Avi Arad and Matthew Tolmach for my 1-on-1, which was very nice of Sony, especially since I’m not sure how welcome I am in certain Marvel camps (I didn’t get invited to Brave, which is Pixar, which is Disney and so is Marvel – coincidence or paranoia?). I would have loved to talk to the cast, but I got what I was looking for.

Some recent Marvel Movie Universe fans might think that Kevin Fiege is the be-all-end-all of Marvel news, but back before there was a Marvel Studios, all we film obsessed Marvelites had was Avi Arad, and my discussion with him and Matt comes from that fanboy perspective. I tried to hold them accountable for something, and I did, only to find myself agreeing with their reasoning…I’ll be less vague about this when I get to the actual transcribed interview.

Marvel fanboys are tough to please, but I try to represent us as appreciative. We don’t wish death on the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises so they can revert back to some master studio (especially when that master studio plays it quick and cheap sometimes, ask Jon Favs), but we long for Spider-Man to meet Iron Man or everyone to try and kill Wolverine.

Imagine my surprise when I heard a rumor that the Oscorp Tower from Amazing Spider-Man was “this close” to becoming part of the sky line for Avengers. (Hint: pretty surprised).

Here’s the story – last week, The Amazing Spider-Man’s production designer J Michael Riva passed away after suffering a stroke at the age of 63. Not only did he design the Oscorp Tower for ASM, but he has a staggering resume of awesomeness including The Goonies, The Color Purple, A Few Good Men, Congo, Evolution, and the upcoming Django Unchained.

Oh – And the Iron Man movies.

That design overlap, and the stunning look of the Oscorp Tower (seriously stunning) was enough for Marvel Studios and Sony to have the discussion about inserting Oscorp into The Avengers skyline. The Unified Marvel Manhattan Skyline almost existed.

By the time the Oscorp building was fully designed, The Avengers digital Manhattan was already basically rendered and there was some up-conversion that needed to go down, so – for timing – it was scrapped.

BUT – Sony and Disney were going to let this happen. THAT’s the key thing here. Timing just didn’t work out.

That makes me sad. I told Avi and Matt that I realize it’s a business impossibility to share the characters, (“Thank you for understanding that” - Matt Tolmach to me), but wanted to get across that these small, small things are enough for the fanboys.

Matt said they’d love to do more like this, meaning crossovers on the smaller level.