92615_RAA_LooseCannon_Text_R1_PROOF

years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars; now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire.” That’s great as a throw-away line, but it’s hard to hang a whole flick on it. You want to shorthand your main character, it’s time for the transporter accident that splits the Captain into milquetoast and sex offender. Making your bad guys clones has been done . Gimme the story only Josh Richardson can do, I tell him. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. When I was a kid, Spider-Man was my favorite comic, and I just gave up in disgust when they did the Clone Saga. The Spidey I grew up with wasn’t the real Spider-Man? Comics shouldn’t treat me like that.”

And believe it or not, that’s when my Spider-Sense began to tingle.

Josh, man, I’m getting ideas.

“What are you talking about? What ideas?” He knows it always ends up with the fun when I say this.

I’m with you, I tell him. Comics shouldn’t treat you like that. But you know what would redeem that Clone Saga story? If Hollywood treated you like that. The Clone Saga would be the most revered bit of Spidey history, ever.

“What do you mean?” Josh wailed. Seriously, he wailed. “What do you know?”

Nothing you haven’t read on the Internet, too, I tell him. Thomas Haden Church is in it. Smart money says he’s the Sandman. James Franco’s in this one, too, so it’s hard not to think maybe the Hobgoblin finally shows. But Topher Grace has signed up, and he’s a bad guy. But what if he’s not a bad guy, but… a clone?

Josh looked at me blankly. “What?”

If I was Raimi, and I’ve cast an actor who looks enough like my lead actor to be his twin brother… or his… clone, this is what I’d do.

“What?” Josh said again, weakly. There’s a bit of fanboy fear behind his eyes now.

You tell your story, yeah, and you have your fistfights and your swashbuck ling and your romance, sure. You even have a clone subplot to make the end sing.

“What?” Josh said. This time blankly and weakly.

212