The Amazing Spider-Man

Reboot officially titled ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’. Columbia Pictures announced a while ago that the title of the next Spider-Man film will be ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’. The studio simultaneously released a photo of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, the first shot of Garfield in the famous full mask and suit. Andrew Garfield portrays Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Emma Stone stars as Gwen Stacy and Rhys Ifans stands in the spotlight as the film’s villain, under the direction of Marc Webb.            
Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters nationwide in 3D on July 3, 2012. Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager dealing with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.         

Marc Webb, the director of the Golden Globe nominated Best Picture (500) Days of Summer, will direct the next chapter in the Spider-Man franchise. After a comprehensive worldwide casting search, Andrew Garfield has been chosen to portray Peter Parker and Emma Stone as the female lead Gwen Stacy. At the heart of the story of Peter Parker is not only the amazing Spider-Man, but also an ordinary teenager who is wondering what he has to do to get the girl. The film, which is now in production and is being shot entirely in 3D, will be released on July 3, 2012

A decade ago we set out on this journey with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire and together we made three Spider-Man films that set a new bar for the genre. When we began, no one ever imagined that we would make history at the box-office and now we have a rare opportunity to make history once again with this franchise." Sony just announced that they are rebooting the Spider-Man franchise from scratch, taking Peter Parker all the way back to high school, in a new movie due out in 2012. It looks like they're finally saying goodbye to Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire and everyone from those past movies!

Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios will be now working together on a brand new Spider-Man movie that "focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises." The script that they are using is one written by  James Vanderbilt that will re-tell the origin story of Spidey. This new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have an entirely new cast and filmmaking team. Raimi will not be back, Maguire will not be back, Dunst will not be back. I do hope they bring J.K. Simmons back as J. Jonah Jameson, though.

I hate to say it, but this is just one gigantic cop out. We knew Sony was having problems with Spider-Man 4 and Sam Raimi and the script and so on. They couldn't see eye-to-eye on villains for the next movie (which is a ridiculous problem to have to being with), but instead of working it out, they decided to throw the entire franchise out the window and start from scratch. Come on? Does anyone really think this is going to fix the problem? I don't want to watch a new Peter Parker become Spidey all over again. Sony was already on the edge after Spider-Man 3, but I think now they might lose all of the fans that they had built up over the years.

Here's the thing. I absolutely loved Sam Raimi's version of the Spider-Man world. Sure, Spider-Man 3 was awful, but Spider-Man 1 is a great origin story and Spider-Man 2 is still one of the greatest comic book movies ever made. Rebooting this from scratch means they're going all the way back tot he drawing boards. Who is going to play Peter Parker? Zac Efron? Taylor Lautner? Some young actor you don't like? And what are they going to do to the story and the style to differentiate it from a franchise that ended just barely three years ago? We've got another year on this, but come on. Is there any hope for Spider-Man now?