Sony and Marvel Make a Spider-Man Deal, Warner Nabs Project For ‘Sniper’ Producer, AMC Wants You To Re-Shoot ‘Mad Men’ Pilot

Spider-Man Is Swinging Back Into Action At Marvel, But Not the Way Everyone Originally Thought

Under the deal, Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film that is part of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, and then Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion franchise, on July 28, 2017. There had been rumors that Sony might sell the webslinger back to Marvel and Disney, but that’s not what is happening. Instead, Sony keeps its top franchise but this opens the door to Marvel Comics’ biggest superhero being able to cross pollinate in the Marvel universe. Marvel head Kevin Feige and outgoing Sony topper Amy Pascal will produce. (DH)

Warner Wants To Stay In Business With ‘American Sniper’ Producer Andrew Lazar

Lazar has been developing an adaptation of the book Queen of the Air, which tells the tale of Lillian Leitzel, a trapeze artist in the first part of the 20th century who rose to become one of the most famous women in the world at the time. Warner Bros. is set to make a pre-emptive purchase of the script, written by Cat Vasko, whose script Romantic Comedy made the 2014 Black List. (THR)

AMC Is Giving Young Filmmakers a Chance To Reshoot Every Scene In the ‘Mad Men’ Pilot Episode

In preparation for the final half season of the Emmy-winning series, the network has unveiled an ambitious project to harness the collaborative creativity of the show's most die-hard fans. They've cut the show's pilot episode into 154 separate scenes, spanning anywhere from eight to 58 seconds long, and are challenging fans to reshoot each one to eventually create Mad Men: The Fan Cut. (FCC)

Blair Underwood Follows the Trend By Optioning a Book To Turn Into a Movie In Which He Will Star

Actor-producer Underwood has picked up the rights to David R. Stokes' best-selling book Camelot's Cousin: The Spy Who Betrayed Kennedy, as a starring vehicle. The espionage thriller, set against the backdrop of the Kennedy administration, follows Templeton Davis, a scholar and media personality, who becomes lost in an investigation, after the discovery of a long-buried journal suggests that one of President Kennedy’s most trusted friends was actually a Soviet spy. Underwood will of course play Templeton Davis. (SAA)

Because Why Not? Werner Herzog’s Next Film Will Be a Bolivian Volcano Thriller

The film is called Salt and Fire, which will star German actress Veronica Ferres, and is about a scientist (Ferres) butts heads with the head of a corporation responsible for an ecological disaster. When a local super volcano starts to display ominous signs, however, she has to team up with her antagonist to stave off a natural disaster. (EMP)

HBO Gives a Third and Final Season To Hospital Comedy ‘Getting On’

Show, which is based on a U.K. show of the same name, stars Laurie Metcalfe, Niece Nash, Mel Rodriguez and Alex Borstein, follows the staff in the women’s geriatric long-term-care ward of a dysfunctional Long Beach, Calif., hospital as they battle the medical bureaucracy. Production on the final six episodes will begin later this year. (VAR)

Sundance TV Is Bringing a German Period Drama To American Television

Cable net has partnered with FreemantleMedia International to co-produce Deutschland 83 with UFA Fiction. Created by Anna and Joerg Winger, the eight-part period drama will become the first ever original German-language drama to air in the United States. Show is described as a gripping coming-of-age story set against the real culture wars and political events of Germany in the 1980s. (IW)

Talk About a Vote Of Confidence! Martin Scorsese Adds His Name To Ben Wheatley’s Next Film

Scorsese will act as executive producer for Free Fire, follows the aftermath of a gun deal gone wrong, and is “a hard-boiled crime film set in 1970s Boston. A secluded meeting between two gangs in a warehouse suddenly explodes into a shoot-out and a fight for survival.” Film stars Luke Evans, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde and Michael Smiley. (SF)

The Folks Over At ‘Editors Guild Magazine’ Have Polled Their Members and Come Up With a List Of the 75 Best Edited Films Ever

Which films made the list? The Top 10 is made up of Raging Bull, Citizen Kane, Apocalypse Now, All That Jazz, Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather, Lawrence of Arabia, Jaws, JFK, and The French Connection. The oldest film on the list, Sherlock, Jr., was released in 1924, while the newest, The Tree of Life, came out in 2011. Check out to see if your favorite film is on it. (TP)

Online Film School: Six Filmmaking Tips From Mike Leigh

The unique, Oscar-nominated writer-director made a name for himself with acutely humanist works of British social realism that bore some inheritance to the “kitchen sink” tradition, but imbue drama with a type of wit, spontaneity, and empathy that is simply inimitable. Leigh’s patient, improvisatory, and collaborative process produces human dramas that are deeply felt and strikingly insightful. (FSR)