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Marc Webb, the (500) Days Of Summer director, has climbed to the top of the Sony Pictures' list to rebirth the Spider-Man franchise. While the studio has a wish list of star directors like James Cameron, David Fincher, and Wes Anderson, the emergence of Webb as director comes as a huge surprise. But Mike Fleming's sources tell him Webb met about the Spidey reboot with the pic's producers and executives looking to get the picture into production later this year for a Summer 2012 release. Why will the pic take so long? Because it's likely to be shot in 3-D, and Sony Pictures plans to make an announcement about that "at the appropriate time".
Though he has the perfect name for the job, Webb has no prior superhero experience. (Hey, I saw Darkman and that was more of a science experiment that a superhero.) Then again, neither did Sam Raimi. And Chris Nolan was the director of Memento when he signed on for Batman Begins. Webb is also a newbie if Sony greenlights 3-D. But among directors, almost all would be.
What has Sony execs excited is the fact that (500) Days of Summer introduced a director with a grasp of how to depict the way young people think and feel. This is critical because the Jamie Vanderbilt script covers the formative years of a high school-aged Peter Parker, and that POV is as important as the action sequences. Especially after Sony and Sam Raimi retired the original Spidey franchise because they realized the film would have been same old/same old at a huge budget. Injecting new blood with an up-and-coming director is a bold stroke. Too bad Webb’s (500) Days star Joseph Gordon-Levitt is too old to play the high school-aged wall crawler. He’d be perfect.
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt has always been my dream Spidey
“Webb has no prior superhero experience. Then again, neither did Sam Raimi.”
What’s Darkman!? Chopped liver??
JGL is definitely the best choice. If Tobey Maguire wasnt old enough, then neither is fantastic actor.
Many consider the second Hulk a ‘reboot’ but if you look at both films you have Banner taking off for South America at the end of the first, and find him in Brazil in the second. The origin flashbacks in the second film are completely re-imagined but if you can handle someone getting fanboy on you then how can you trust what’s in Banner’s mind after all he’s been through?
in short, despite the ‘reboot’ status it was a quiet sequel. I’m guessing something similar here.
500 Days of Summer was a good movie, but not “amazing.” I’m surprised that they’ll take such a risk like giving the steering wheel to a relative newbie and yet constrain a proven winner like Raimi. This Hollywood business… it’s fascinating.
because he’s a newbie he will have no pull and will have to read all their idiotic script notes and is vulnerable to claims that he is an egomaniac who is obstinately refusing to take good advice (like casting Miley Cyrus as the new Doc Ock)
Incredibly overrated film. But they are bombarding us with freebies for its creative team, so good for them. It was just missing any actual depth or emotion, even though what’s his face will keep harping about the girl who did him wrong. Yet people are treating it like this generation’s When Harry Met Sally.
A proven winner? Did you see Spiderman 3? Sam Raimi has been riding on the cult success of Evil Dead and Army Of Darkness since he began. He’s an average director at best. 500 Days Of Summer is intelligent, emotional storytelling at it’s best. If you couldn’t relate to 500 Days, you’ve obviously never had your heart broken.
only losers have their heart broken! 500 days of summer sucked. They should get rob marshall to direct new spidey and then there could be singing and dancing in it! that would be fierce grrrr
This is such an odd development. They take a billion dollar franchise and decide they can do better. Are the same people running Sony running NBC? Re-boots are becoming pretty passe, especially after the brilliance of how they did Star Trek as a sequel/re-boot.
I believe this 100% about the studio wanting all the control. Raimi was too big for this property and they didn’t want to argue. They obviously also want 3D. And why not? It worked for Avatar, right?
It’s never been more obvious that the same people who got us in the current financial crisis and the people running Hollywood are one and the same. They are determined to run their business into the ground with this endless series of unoriginal programming and trying to capture magic in a bottle.
Also, EW says they’re looking for a “grittier” take (worked for Dark Knight, right?). This is primed to fail.
they definitely didn’t want him for ‘Moneyball’ so the fact they would give him this doesn’t ring right…
Marc would be perfect…. he’s a helluva director….
Raimi had done Darkman… and while that wasn’t based on a comic book, it was very much a comic book movie. Plus he had a lot of credit with geeks because of the Evil Dead movies…
Good point.
While it’s funny as hell – and quotable to boot! – Army of Darkness was very much a classic hero movie.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt would have been good, but I’m optimistic about the number of talented young actors out there that could play Peter Parker. And like it or not, it would have been more of the same with Raimi helming the fourth film. I bet this reboot fulfills all of Sony’s monetary expectations. It’s not going to fail, especially with the emerging draw of high-tech 3D (see: Avatar). And I have to say this: Despite it’s critical and box office success, Spider-Man 2 was a snooze. Other than the great train scene, it was boring.
how dare you sir. spiderman 2? you sir, are a moron. i slap you with my glove of taste.
May I also assist you sir. Such utterings require swift action.
you know, it’s beginning to seem to me that these Spider-Man movies are just about making money.
spray that spider – announce a Dr Strange movie
Well said! I’ve been waiting years for a Doc Strange flick. Marvel did an Strage origins animated feature a few years ago to prep the way for that possibility, so maybe our wait will yet be rewarded.
500 days of summer was the most trying to be too clever overrated movie of last year. i turned it off after the first 20 minutes which puts it in the league with hitman, punisher war zone, among others in my book. there were major problems for me with the story in terms of setting up their first connection and then with the flashback structure of it. a good director makes good stories first and foremost and webb did not show an inkling that he could handle that in 500. the only relatable thing to the two is that theyre both about teenagers. spiderman 4 is in deep trouble.
Ah, the subtleties of Punisher: War Zone are lost on today’s audiences. That movie has Oscar written all over it! or was it maybe ‘I Lexi was very high when she made this…”
So, let me see if I follow: Marc Webb is perfect for SPIDER-MAN because he understands young people like those in (500) DAYS OF SUMMER … BUT the people in (500) DAYS OF SUMMER are too old for SPIDER-MAN. Could the statement be any more self-contradictory?
PS – (500) DAYS OF SUMMER is about characters facing frustration with their jobs and trying to find a long-term relationship. These are not “young people,” not high-school kids. They’re people about the age Peter Parker would be – IF THEY DIDN’T REBOOT.
Ridiculous.
500 Days Of Summer is not about characters facing frustration with their jobs at all. It’s about one character who believes in love and one who doesn’t who try to make it work. It’s also about what it’s really like to be dumped by someone you love. Simple as that.
“(500) Days Of Summer” resonated with me because I was caught up just like the character of “Tom Hansen”on my last relationship. It was simple, honest, and a movie I needed to see. It isn’t overrated IMO. It is a movie that could have been cliche bullshit like most romantic comedies, but it refreshingly wasn’t It was realistic.
I don’t know if Webb can actually handle a movie as big as Spidey 4. But people can surprise you. Let’s just hope if he gets the job, he knows how to stage and frame a good action sequence. Because as much praise as Nolan gets with fanboys, his Batman movies contain some really incoherent action sequences.
Except it had a completely undercooked female lead, and even wasted the fine JGL by never having him say or do anything interesting, and his character wasn’t even that likeable. Good direction, though. Poor script, even though I like that they were trying to make a less predictable movie.
“This is NOT a love story” says the narrator at the beginning of 500 Days. Not sure about you, but I took that to mean it wasn’t a love story. If it had been a straight ahead romantic comedy, the undercooked female lead would have been a very bad thing indeed. However, it wasn’t. It was a coming of age story in the vein of High Fidelity. It was about Tom Hansen. We see Summer through his eyes. She was undercooked because she was, for most of the movie’s running time, a figment of Tom’s imagination, his dream girl and not a real person, which was the point of the movie.
That said, who wrote this article because they sound like they work for Sony. Nowhere else have I heard the cynical move by Sony to give Raimi and friends the boot described as a mutual decision:
“Especially after Sony and Sam Raimi retired the original Spidey franchise because they realized the film would have been same old/same old at a huge budget. Injecting new blood with an up-and-coming director is a bold stroke.”
They realized? They retired? No, that’s wrong. Raimi was very much into doing Spiderman 4, especially since he had disappointed himself with 3. So saying it was a mutual thing is total P.R. spin and B.S. And if the Webb rumors are true, it’s because Sony is looking for a young director who will be easier to push around than Raimi.
yeah well i bet everyone thought Marc Foster was a great choice for the last bond movie and look how that turned out. Just because someone can direct good indies doesn’t mean that as soon as they get a big budget they turn into James Cameron.
Alex — I don’t know what you base that on but Sony didn’t reject him from Moneyball — that was ultimately Brad Pitt’s preference, and a close call even at that. Sony loved him and that process is probably what led to them looking for another big project to do with him.
Not all superheroes are the same. Batman is grim and gritty, along with Wolverine and the Punisher. But Superman, Spider-Man, and Iron Man are not. Captain America straddles the middle (surprisingly, but he fought Hitler after all), and all superhero movies really hinge on the question of character.
Superheros are not primarily about action, but about character. Batman is a guy who through his parents murders became a miserable, revenge-obsessed loner who gains satisfaction by ACTION. Superman is a boy scout at heart burdened by duty and his ideals. You could use the same characters without superpowers and still be interesting if they were just, respectively, millionaires and reporters.
Webb is not necessarily a bad choice because Parker is a guy who despite or because of his intelligence, is overlooked by girls, is shy/quiet/nerdy, but by complete accident is given the ability to be the secret HS super-jock he always wanted to be, but with a good dose of responsibility and duty he never wanted. Sexual/romantic frustration, release, leading to maturity and adulthood. That is Spider-man.
Webb is not necessarily the worst choice around because “500 Days of Summer” covered some of that ground, he’s familiar with the frustrations and emotions of those guys who are not the Alpha male big-shots, which is about 90% of guys.
However, I think Sony’s vision of Spider-Man is to feminize/gay it up with “Twilight with Superpowers.” And sure they can do that, but Spider-Man as a sparkly hunky vampire is sure to drive away fans the way Singer’s conception of Superman as a gay Christ figure did.
Whoever is cast as Spider-man has to be able to express both the geek/nerd side and hidden toughness and determination. A major part of Spider-Man is that he is a wisecracking tough guy like a WWII Soldier (Lee drew on a lot of war material, i.e. 19 year old dogfaces and Marines) that his enemies underestimate. [As the Axis did the Americans.] This doesn’t mean bodybuilder Hollywood tough but American tough. It will be tough to cast — Maguire never exuded toughness (self-pity yes). I can’t think of a single young actor who can play both toughness and vulnerability at the same time.
And without that quality in the lead, the movie just dies. No matter how much action you throw at the screen.
Is Amy P looking to get the boot?
Sony and the producers just want a relatively new, less experienced director so they can pay him less and make sure he does what they want ultimately.
Nikki, come on… Raimi pulled off one of the finest superhero films of its day with 1990’s DARKMAN!
DARKMAN.
DARKMAN.
DARKMAN.
Webb has a mediocre, derivative romantic comedy and a Jesse McCartney video.
My Spidey-Sense is telling me this will end poorly.
So…let’s make a new Spider-Man franchise after we just made one. Does this mean that every ten years we’ll have a new “reboot?” How many superhero movies can be made? How many movies based on old TV shows and boardgames?
At what point will Hollywood have cannibalized itself completely?
The original idea is dead.
Yes it is, dead and gone these last 394 years since Shakespeare died.
What’s that? William Shakespeare was rewriting folk tales and greek tragedies. What a hack!
When will this endless recycling end?
Hey How about James Franco for Spider-man. He’s good and a producer and director too and a damn good actor. Knows the ropes and is very likeable.maybe give him a chance.
Wes Anderson directing a Spiderman film? That would be interesting. Would probably be full of Rolling Stones songs and end with a slow-mo scene. Just a guess.
I think this is a sign that Hollywood is beginning to value hipster doofuses as much as fan boys.
So if Marc Webb gets Spiderman, that’s the same thing as Sam Raimi – a guy who had over 15 years of experience under his belt – getting Spidey in ‘01?
And why does Michael Fleming refer to himself in the 3rd person?
mike,
You turned off 500 Days of Summer after 20 minutes and now declare it an overrated movie. Hmm. you’re not even past the first act and now you’re pitting it into the same friggin’ category as The Punisher: War zone and flipin’ Hitman? ADD? ADHD, maybe?
Does this make any lick of sense? If you’re gonna say something like that, watch THE ENTIRE MOVIE FIRST. You lack credibility already.
This list feels fake to me. I don’t buy Wes Anderson being on a list for this for one second.
I like Webb a lot. He’s an inspired choice.
That said, the studio is taking a massive leap of faith if it goes with him since this is a tent pole film that is going to attempt to change the course of the franchise.
I know for a fact that Webb in on every short list in town. He’s a likable guy and talented and has good story instincts.
Can he pull off epic action sequences at this scale? I don’t know. That’d be the biggest question I’d have in my head if I were making the choice.
Personaly, I think this is total BS. Looks like the studio is doing anything they can to prevent this property from going back to Marvel/Disney.
Yeah, I was kind of thinking that too. That’s the big scramble right now… Good thing too. Spidey with Christian family-friendly dialogue… BLAH.
One of the odder choices ever. 500 Days felt about as original as the early 90’s slacker genre flicks. It was practically an homage to those films. Maybe the youngsters don’t remember those films, but there was a lot of a similarities. Personally, couldn’t stand it, but did sit through it.
It’s hard to imagine a studio head of that era trusting a job this big to someone who hasn’t directed an action sequence, but…I guess this is a different time and I guess there is the precedent of Tim Story going from “Barbershop” the Fantastic Four.
As talented as Webb may be and as good as 500 Days of Summer was, it is not comparable to what would be required of him in a Spiderman movie. He would need to learn how to make a big budget Hollywood movie with producers looking over his shoulder and constantly second-guessing him. He’d need to learn how to shoot action scenes and incorporate believable special effects into the film. And, if rumor is correct, he’d also need to learn 3D filmmaking techniques. That’s a whole lot to put on a guy who’d never made a feature film before 500 Days (videos and shorts don’t count here). Either this is a false lead or Sony has lost their minds.
This reminds me of another respected, critically lauded, newcomer filmmaker given his first superhero picture at an overly controlling studio. Wolverine, anyone? And how did that turn out?
Isn’t that exactly what they’re doing with Pierre Morel and the Dune remake? He knows how to shoot (crappy) action scenes, but he’s never handled a huge budget before or visual effects and they handed him the reigns to Dune. What it comes down to is vision, and Sony creating a team to help him focus that vision.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead for MJ…& the thought of it being in 3D is pretty lame on the studio’s part.
I think Whiskey’s post hit the nail on the head.
Personally I think Webb COULD be a terrific choice. Instead of some pre-established Michael Bay clone, they’d be going with someone who, for me, did an excellent job with a movie like 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, utilizing some visual flair, good use of widescreen, etc., in what could have been a conventional looking film if nothing else. How he handled the story and the characters with honesty and insight — framing it through Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s eyes — would be adaptable to a Spider-Man film. (BTW whoever said the “female lead was undercooked” in 500 DAYS OF SUMMER completely missed the point of the film).
I also liked Maguire, but didn’t think he was completely right for the part — Raimi didn’t seem to completely nail the humor of Spider-Man’s character in any of the movies. As Whiskey point out, he’s not Batman — this is a young man with responsibilities not entirely out of whack with any of his peers, but he doesn’t go around brooding and sulking about having his powers either. He DOES learn great responsibility come from his actions, but it’s not the same as Batman having a psychological complex!
Raimi also completely MISSED the Mary Jane role IMO. Kristen Dunst could have been good — but instead of a fun-loving, upbeat, spunky female character who, in the comics, is the one that breaks Peter out of his shell and makes him fall totally in love after a period of time, we got a miserable, weepy, WEAK heroine (with a bad family) that just needed rescuing over and over. Raimi got her completely, totally wrong, to the point where I think fans had more than enough of her by the third movie.
Although Erica Durance (Lois Lane on SMALLVILLE) is too old for MJ, if she had been younger, she’d be perfect. How Lois is portrayed on SMALLVILLE is how the character of MJ ought to be — and that’s something else they need to think about when making the new movie.
Casting, again, is going to be key. I don’t want to see them “rethink” Spidey, and I don’t want them doing a “Twilight” flavored adaptation — but I doubt they will. Even with its flaws SPIDEY 3 made huge amounts of money around the world — I would think they’d go after that general appeal again. Hopefully they have the right guy and the right concept…but time will tell.
For the director chair there´s an pack of filmakers with strong visual style and sense of storytelling, just to name some: Timur Bekmambetov, Zack Snyder, Robert Rodriguez, Len Wiseman, Gore Verbisnky and Brad Bird. Anyways in a perfect world i would love to see Quentin Tarantino doing any Superhero flick.Why not dream of.
Marc Webb’s music videos.
Watch before you’re too quick to judge this fella.
Well, keep in mind that Raimi was melting down during the Spider-Man 3 shoot and post production, and he put out there that he was sick of Spider-Man. The studio was interfering a lot too. They wanted Venom added to the film because they wanted a Topher spin-off.
The Spider-man movies literally kept the studio gates open, but, hey, that means more Evil Dead movies!
While Mike Webb’s high gloss style would make a film visually consistent with Raimi’s, I’d prefer a more balanced choice for Director.
-Edgar Wright is, in my opinion, the best choice to helm this film. He’s directed 2 visually stunning, heartfelt, and comedic genre films so far. SCOTT PILGRIM, his indie comic adaptation, has also received amazing buzz.
-Ruben Fleischer also has the action/comedy chops and has delivered a monster hit for Sony already.
-Paul Greengrass is also out there right now. Somebody will be smart to enough to nab the guy who reinvented the spy movie for their superhero feature. Do it now Sony, before Disney or Warner’s beat you to it.
Here’s another reason Sony may reportedly be interested in Marc Webb: he knows how to make a fast-paced, great-looking movie with many different set-ups on a low budget!
(500) DAYS cost only $7.5 million – remarkable considering the film’s great production value (including a fantasy sequence with dozens of dancers in downtown l.a.) – and it looked better than most studio-driven romantic comedies which often cost $40 million or more…
I disagree with Terry, (500) Days was an AMAZING movie. It is in the top 250 IMDB films and has a 87% tomato rating. It also managed to get an extended release when starting on a limited release (1000 theaters topped). Its per theater earnings were nearly equal to that of Spidey 3 from the 5th week on (which didn’t even bring in as much as Spiderman 1).
Money,money,money, thats why sony is doing this. Thats why there is a reboot. They dont care about a qaulity movie they care about making more money, even if that means CRAP.
Except that I thought 500 Days of Summer was a God awful, cutesy movie – why on earth this makes him a good choice for Spiderman is going to have to remain a mystery to me. If they are using the “we need the kids” logic, then why don’t they hire the Twlight writer to pen the script and hire whatever dopes directed those movies? If you’re lowering your sites just for ticket sales, why not go whole hog? Maybe they should add a brooding teenage vampire too.
Well Jon Favreau wasn’t exactly Mr. Superhero Movie when he directed IRON MAN, and that turned out pretty well. The reason it succeeded on such a level (and women went to see it) is because there was a great, charismatic character at the heart of all the action and special effects. And that’s exactly what Marc Webb will bring to the movie.