Mike Fleming

UPDATE: Sony Pictures Entertainment will imminently offer the role of Mary Jane Watson to Emma Stone, who starred for the studio in Zombieland and Easy A. It’s another good role for Stone, who is currently shooting the Tate Taylor-directed adaptation of the Kathryn Stockett bestseller The Help for DreamWorks. She plays Skeeter, the college student who comes home determined to expose the class differences between the matriarchs and their house servants in the South in 1962.

That leaves the four other actresses I mentioned yesterday (with the possibility they could widen the search) for the role of Gwen Stacy.  Those contenders are Glee’s Dianna Agron, Mia Wasikowska, Georgina Haig and Dominique McElligott. Stacy, played in Spiderman 3 by Bryce Dallas Howard, is a plum part for the first installment of the 3D Marc Webb-directed reboot of Spider-Man, because she is the first love interest of the high school-aged Peter Parker, played by Andrew Garfield. Mary Jane–played by Kirsten Dunst in  the Sam Raimi-directed trilogy–becomes more pivotal in the later installments of the Spidey saga.

EARLIER: The search for a young actress to star alongside Andrew Garfield in the rebooted Spider-Man is intensifying. I’m told that Sony Pictures Entertainment has added a couple of contenders for the role. They are Dianna Agron, who stars in the hit series Glee and Georgina Haig, star of the Ben C. Lucas-directed Wasted on the Young, which premiered to acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Agron just tested last night, though there are questions of availability because she is such a major part of a hit TV show. They join a small group of actresses previously in the mix. The main other contenders are Zombieland and Easy A star Emma Stone, Alice in Wonderland star Mia Wasikowska, and Dominique  McElligott, who starred in the 2009 Sony Pictures Classics release Moon. These actresses are being considered for the roles of Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker’s first love, and Mary Jane Watson, who became his later love.

It’s a fluid situation, they might add another candidate or two, but these are the five main contenders. SPE and director Marc Webb might well take one for Gwen, and another for Mary Jane. All this should be wrapped up shortly and then we can get on to speculating about the villain. Early unconfirmed talk: they want to bring back Venom and they are looking at Philip Seymour Hoffman. Discuss!