Update: Sony has confirmed Marc Webb has in fact landed the Spider-Man directing gig with an option for sequels. The studio looking to spend around $80 million on production to begin this year and cast an unknown as the webslinger. The story will be based on the “Ultimate Spider-Man” comics by Brian Michael Bendis released over the past decade that focus on a high school teenager who struggles with his uncle’s death that he had the power to stop but did not (via THR).
Is (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb on the cusp of closing a three-picture Spider-Man deal with Sony?
According to New York Entertainment’s Vulture column, Sony’s announcement that Webb is the man who will helm not one but three new Spider-Man reboot films is imminent. In other words, an official announcement by the studio could be made as early as tomorrow.
The reboot will allow Sony to save a considerable amount of cash rebooting Spider-Man versus the original plan of shooting Spider-Man 4 with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire. Those two alone are named by Vulture as being in line to gobble up more than 25% of the film’s total gross which combined with other costs and salaries would have put the film’s profit potential in jeopardy.
Webb’s work with teenagers in (500) Days of Summer seems the perfect match for the franchise after Sony’s remarks about the reboot focusing more on Peter Parker’s private life than Raimi’s films did.
The first Spider-Man reboot film is expected to begin preparations for production within the next few weeks and arrive in theaters sometime in 2012.
Source: Vulture
