James Absolon explains how this Pope-themed film, despite its risky premise, works
Alex Pollard reviews Hollywood's biopic of the controversial Margaret Thatcher
The story of rebooting the Spiderman franchise has been steadily developing for a little while now. Once it became obvious that Sam Raimi wasn’t going to stay on as director, the plans for Spiderman 4 dissolved; shortly after that, both Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst dropped out. In January the idea of the reboot materialised - the plot will take the Peter Parker character back to his high-school days and there’ll be a whole new production team and cast for the project. Although this idea has proved divisive within the fanbase, I’ve got four (as this’ll be the fourth Spidey film!) reasons to look forward to it.
1 - Andrew Garfield
The most recent Spidey-related news is the casting of Andrew Garfield (Boy A, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) in the title role. Personally, I’m quite excited to see a British actor taking on an iconic American role. He certainly looks the part and I think it’ll be refreshing to see someone other than Maguire portray our friendly neighbourhood Spiderman. However, I must admit I am puzzled by the choosing of a 26-year old actor - surely he’s going to struggle to convince as a high-school student!
2 - The Avengers
We live in an age where tie-ins between superhero films are becoming mandatory. With the Spiderman reboot and The Avengers (both from the Marvel comic book universe) set to be released in Summer 2012 I can’t help but wonder if there’ll be a number of connections between the two. The news surrounding The Avengers is already getting very intriguing, especially concerning some of the casting decisions (Jeremy Renner, Nathan Fillion and Eva Longoria Parker!). There’s no doubt some tie-ins with the new Spidey film would greatly add to the buzz around the Joss Whedon-directed project.
3 - Marc Webb
Talking of directors, it has been confirmed that Marc Webb will be the director of the new Spiderman film. As somebody who really enjoyed (500) Days of Summer, I couldn’t be more pleased with the choice of director. Especially when the new film’s script (written by James Vanderbilt) has been described as more gritty and contemporary. This reboot will provide the perfect opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the first three films (the casting of Mary Jane being one). It’s not often you get a chance to start afresh and make amends. You only need remember how Batman Begins changed the tone of its series to understand why a reboot is a potentially great idea.
4 - How can it be a bad idea to have more Spiderman?
My fourth reason and final reason is kind of subjective, but I’m hoping that if you’re reading this you’re already a fan of the Spiderman character. My logic is that if you are a fan of Spidey you’d probably prefer to see the franchise re-imagined than the end of it altogether! Are you really ready for Spiderman to end? I don’t think I am! With the Lizard recently confirmed as the villain and some rather fascinating figures involved in the project, I feel there’s reason enough to look forward to Spiderman’s next appearance on the big screen.
You must log in to submit a comment.
