Heat Vision Blog is reporting that Mark Webb, director of the upcoming Spider-Man reboot, which will take the webslinger back to high school and may or may not pull from the Brian Michael Bendis Ultimate Spider-Man series, has narrowed down his list of actors who might be donning Spidey’s suit in the near future.
As of now, no screen tests have been done with any of the actors, so everything is still up in the air.
Here are the five candidates, and my thoughts on each of them.
Age: 27
Previous Work: “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”, “The Red Riding Trilogy”
Current/Upcoming Work: “The Social Network”, David Fincher’s upcoming film about the creation of Facebook.
Pros: Having the blessing of Fincher is always a good thing, and Russ Fischer at Slashfilm thinks that he is the best choice for the part based on his take in “Parnassus”, which I’ve yet to see. He was excellent in the Red Riding Trilogy, a recently released British trilogy of serial killer films.
Cons: As the oldest of the bunch, it may be hard for Sony to buy into Garfield, especially if they want to get another three (or more) films out of the reboot of this franchise. Garfield doesn’t look particularly old, but assuming he gets the part and the length of time it takes to make these movies, if the first one was a success, he would be nearly thirty by the time the sequel rolled around. It would seem counter to the point to setting the reboot in high school to cast him. Though he would be a good addition to the film, perhaps not as Peter Parker – maybe a new Harry Osborne?.
Age: 20
Previous Work: A starring role in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tetro”, which looks pretty cool from the trailer, at least, but was not widely seen.
Current/Upcoming Work: Alden has a small part in Sophia Coppola’s next film, titled “Somewhere”, but from that hasn’t done a whole lot apart from a few bit parts on “CSI” and “Supernatural”
Pros: He’s an unknown, which saves the studio huge amounts of money, and to be noticed by Coppola and apparently discovered by Steven Spielberg sways things in his favor for sure.
Cons: Being completely unknown might not be a completely good thing though, especially since Sony wants this film to become another juggernaut for the brand and spawn videogames and merchandise. The writers would have to create a truly original and engaging story or use the supporting cast to get people in the theaters, which would be harder to do unless they cast Zac Efron or Robert Pattinson as Eddie Brock.
Age: 24
Previous Work: “Defiance”, “Jumper”, Peter Jackson’s “King Kong”, “Undertow” and “Billy Elliot”
Current/Upcoming Work: Swords and sandals epic “Eagle of the Ninth” with Channing Tatum, and the lead role in Steven Spielberg’s mo-cap animated extravaganza “Tintin”.
Pros: Bell is a veteran actor and knows his way around drama, and will really be able to commit to any emotional scenes the film has to offer and if you do a bit of googling, you can find that Bell has shaped up nicely for “Eagle of the Ninth” and would be able to look good in an otherwise unforgiving outfit.
Cons: While younger than Garfield, Bell does look older, what with the whole intense dramatic roles usually gravitates to (I’ll ignore “Jumper” if you do), which again gets him into the issue of how old he’ll look with any potential sequels. On top of that IMDb is listing Bell on a “Tintin” sequel although the film doesn’t open until December of 2011, so there may be issues getting him to commit to another series of films.
Age: 19
Previous Work: Young Tom Riddle in “Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince”
Current/Upcoming Work: IMDb does not list any upcoming projects for the actor.
Pros: No one knows who this guy is, but the Harry Potter franchise does have a certain way of taking kids, even those who play supporting characters, and catapulting them into superstardom. Who knew that Cedric Diggory would ever explode into Edward Cullen? Not Robert Pattinson, that’s for sure.
Cons: While Dillane is an unknown, he doesn’t come with the pedigree that Ehrenreich does, but does face a similar problem of getting butts into seats. Dillane is also the least experienced of the group.
Age: 18
Previous Work: “Bridge to Terabithia”, “The Polar Express”, “Zathura”, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant”
Current/Upcoming Work: Currently in the independent film “The Kids Are All Right”, the upcoming “Red Dawn” remake, and is slated to play the lead in the Journey to the Center of the Earth sequel after Brenden Fraser dropped out.
Pros: Hutcherson is a solid actor and his resume has a good balance of dramatic and more comedic and action based roles, which seems to cover all the bases that a Spider-Man film should cover, and while Hutcherson isn’t hugely famous, he’s right on the cusp of superstardom that would allow the studio to keep its costs down but has the movie star good looks and the acting chops that could catch the attention of moviegoers. On top of that, he is just old enough to look like he’s a high schooler and Stacey Dash could be cast as his teacher, not his classmate, which would help ground the whole “Spider-Man in high school” a bit more.
Cons: Hutcherson seems the most obvious choice, but the studio may not want to go in that direction. He also might look a bit too “cute” for the role and not have the rougher edges the story might ask for and which is indicative of most recent comic book adaptations.
I think the role is Hutcherson’s to lose, but only time will tell.
What are you thoughts? Tell me in the comments!
I vote for Jaime Bell<3
Thanks, I always love a good read.