Tagged: Marc Webb

Dream casting for Spider-Man reboot

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Spider-Man movie franchise reboot being headed up by director Marc Webb. There’s a lot of ways he could bring a fresh take and a lot of ways to screw it up.

Casting is vitally important.

Too often in casting today, directors will choose actors in their 30s to portray high school kids because they still look young at the time of casting. Trouble is, that works for one film and by the time a sequel would be made, they’re looking their age.

So, while I hold no illusions that Marc Webb reads a snarky site like HollywoodIdiocy, here’s some of my dream-casting for the Spider-Man reboot, with actors close to being age-appropriate for the roles.

First and most importantly, Mary Jane Watson. She’s the emotional core of this series, so getting her right is vital. It’s hard to find a young actress who can pull off the demands placed on MJ’s role in the Spider-Universe as she ages into it, but I think I’ve found just the candidate.

Saoirse Ronan would make an ideal Mary Jane. First of all, she’s only sixteen, making her the perfect age to begin playing MJ for three or four films before the next reboot. Plus, she proved quite capable of carrying a major motion picture with her role in The Lovely Bones. Sure, she’s closer to blonde than red-head, but so was Kirsten Dunst when she was cast. It’s called a dye-job. Big whoop.

As for Peter Parker, you need someone who has that mixture of geekiness and leading man potential. You’d have to nerd him up a bit, but at 17, Taylor Lautner has already proven his ability to be part of a huge, money-making movie franchise with his role in the Twilight Saga. Put a pair of glasses an him and he’d make a decent Parker.

To round out the romantic triangle and give MJ someone to worry about when vying for Parker’s affections, I can think of no one better-suited to the role of Gwen Stacy than Dakota Fanning, whose acting talent is beyond reproach.

So there you have it for the key roles; Lautner, Ronan and Fanning. Cast these three, Marc Webb, and no one will be whining over the loss of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Bryce Dallas Howard for very long at all.

Spider-Man 4 dead; Sony to reboot franchise

Word has hit the street that Sony has put the kibosh on Spider-Man 4, releasing director Sam Raimi, star Tobey Maguire and the rest of the existing Spidey cast from all future contractual obligations to the Spidey franchise. So instead of one more go-round with Maguire, Dunst and company under Raimi’s direction, Sony will back-peddle and allow a new director and cast to start over.

Considering the vast success of the first three Spider-Man films, it’s unlikely the new franchise will attempt to retell Spider-Man’s origin story, which took up much of the first film, but an early version of the prospective script, penned at this point by Jamie Vanderbilt, will toss Peter back to his high school years and cover territory missed between Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. However, any rumors that Parker’s biggest enemy in the new flick will be severe acne are patently untrue.

Sony is currently touting director Marc Webb, whose biggest achievement to date is (500) Days of Summer, a rom-com that was barely a box office blip a few months ago. However, the studio liked his ability to capture the angst of youth, which is a major player in the teenage Peter Parker’s life.

No word on whether some supporting actors, like J.K. Simmons, who played J. Jonah Jameson to a “T,” will reprise his role in the reboot, but he’s one bit player who I’d love to see return and would be hard to replace.

Of course, there are any number of young actors in Hollywood who could take on the roll, and they need to look about 15 years old at the time the Spidey reboot launches in 2012 – one year later than Spider-Man 4 was set to debut. That means kids who are no older than 16 or 17 right now, at most. One prominent name that springs to mind for the role of Peter Parker is current Glee cast member Kevin McHale, who plays wheelchair-bound Artie on Glee. However, McHale is already 22 right now and will only look older in two years. Plus he’s contractually bound to Glee.

I’m sure Webb or whoever eventually wins the reigns of the franchise will find apt replacements; the other big change to the franchise is that Sony wants the Spider-Man reboot to be done completely in Avatar-esque 3D… meaning your friendly neighborhood wallcrawler will be swinging right at you in a couple years’ time.