Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield did their best with the source material on five Spider-Man movies, but it looks like we are getting the "definitive" version of Spider-Man now. And the coolest thing? We didn't even ask for this edition ...
Let me explain.
Via a press release at Marvel.com, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios have announced that they’ve found their next Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. It’s Tom Holland, the 19-year-old British actor best known as one of the stars of The Impossible. The studios also announced they’ve chosen a director to make the next Spider-Man movie, and it’s a surprising choice: Jon Watts, the director of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival selection Cop Car.
When Sony finally put a bullet in the dying (suffering!) Amazing Spider-Man series and agreed to team up with Marvel Studios to bring Spidey into the Marvel cinematic universe, the internet rejoiced for about two seconds. And then it got all grumpy and weird and slightly racist, but that’s just the internet for you. Well, get ready for everything to grumpier and weirder and slightly more racist because Marvel is supposedly deep in their search for the new Peter Parker right now and one of the names on their list has been revealed.
According to some reports (but not others), Sony has found the filmmaker to restart the Spider-Man franchise one more time, with The Sinister Six writer/director Drew Goddard swinging off of that project and onto a new Spider-Man franchise. But that still leaves the issue of who will play the new Peter Parker. Latino Review’s report on the Goddard rumor claimed they wanted a “new actor, probably an unknown” who’d start off in high school and grow with the part “a la Harry Potter.”
Last year, back when it still seemed possible that Sony may try to continue their Amazing Spider-Man reboot and before they teamed with Marvel to relaunch Spidey in a new film series that will connect with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ScreenCrush Editor-in-Chief Mike Sampson and I put together a list of ten directors we thought could save the Spider-Man franchise. One name we both immediately thought belonged on the list was Drew Goddard, the man who directed The Cabin in the Woods and was then slated to direct the Amazing 2 spinoff The Sinister Six.
We spoke to Hugh Jackman earlier today for his upcoming movie ‘Chappie’ (we’ll have much more on that movie soon), and as we were making small talk, we asked Mr. Jackman whether he had heard the news yet about Marvel and Sony Pictures coming to terms on an agreement that would allow Spider-Man to crossover into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He had not. He was very surprised.