The news about Marc Webb's official status as Spider-Man director quickly went from rumor to fact yesterday, and after we reported Vulture's scoop that Webb was the guy, THR chimed in with some details of their own. Basically we now know that Webb's movie will be cheaper and younger than anything Raimi's made-- and that change begins with the casting.
Apparently they'll be focusing on bringing together a cast of unknowns, which means that it won't be Robert Pattinson or Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Zac Efron or whoever in the lead role-- think more like Chris Hemsworth suddenly becoming Thor. Those unknown actors will help them keep the budget under the $80 million they have targeted, though the question remains how they'll manage to make the movie look remotely good on that budget-- do they have Neill Blomkamp-style connections at Weta or something?
And the final bit of confirmation that should surprise no one is that the movie will focus heavily on high school angst, based on the "Ultimate Spider-Man" comics series from the most recent decade. Knowing not a thing about the comics, I'm not really sure how well that will translate to the movies, but it'll obviously be a markedly different take than the one we saw Sam Raimi take. Obviously this Spider-Man incarnation will be leaner, cheaper and younger than anything we've seen before, and that will help distinguish it from the franchise that came earlier. But will it be worth watching? Even with someone as great as Webb behind it, I've got my serious doubts.
