It’s all but official. (UPDATE: It is official-- Sony Pictures has confirmed it on their Twitter feed.) The Spider-Man franchise has a new director to preside over its destruction and his name is Marc Webb. He’s best known as the mind behind the much loved (500) Days of Summer and now according to NY Mag Sony is about to announce him as the director of their brand new series of three Spider-Man movies which will start the Spidey story all over, they say with more of a focus on Peter Parker’s private life. In my head, I’m translating that as Spider-Man: Twilight. You know it’s true.
Marc Webb however, is a supremely talented director and, under any other circumstances I’d be excited to see him direct Spider-Man. But this is not any other circumstances. Under these circumstances he’s getting his job only because the previous director wouldn’t shut up and follow orders. So now Sony has brought in a young, inexperienced (albeit talented) director. Why would they do that? Sorry, but it seems like they went out and hired a puppet. Somebody without the experience and history of Sam Raimi, somebody who doesn’t have the power to stand up to them. At the same time they’ve hired someone talented, perhaps in the hopes that it’ll get all the angry Spidey fanboys back on their side, and I’m sure they’ll blabber on about how excited they are and how interested they are in his vision. But they aren’t. They’re interested in their vision. They announced the course of this new franchise before he was even hired. Marc Webb may end up being listed as Spider-Man’s director, but this is Sony’s movie. Not his.
Mostly I feel sorry for Webb who, after (500) Days, proved he deserved a high-profile project like this one, and who understandably took one when it was offered. But whatever this movie is, his talent means nothing, he won’t be able to make it his way. And after he finishes making these unwanted Spidey movies which aren’t his own, as his reward he’ll end up as the whipping boy for all the frustration of Spidey fans who, like everyone involved in the previous franchise, are being screwed over by a shortsighted movie studio that seems to have no idea what its doing with the biggest and most beloved superhero franchise on the planet.
