Sony just confirmed an earlier report from Vulture that Marc Webb, of (500) Days of Summer, will direct the Spider-Man reboot film set for summer 2012. In fact, it seems he has options to direct two sequels as well.
While I’m admittedly not a fan of (500) Days of Summer, my problems with that film didn’t have to do with Webb’s direction. Rather, I think his work and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s presence were fantastic. I just didn’t really like the script. I simply could never buy someone who was so in hopelessly love with Zooey Deschanel’s character. Or perhaps more accurately, I can buy it in real life, but I don’t consider sitting through a movie about such a pathetic circumstance entertaining. I can acknowledge those characters as appearing in real life, but I have little sympathy or even empathy for them.
Anywho… I think Marc Webb’s whimsical style would be a great fit for Spider-Man, and without being cheesy or ridiculous. He should be able to make it genuine and consistent while grounding the humorous elements of the character in reality. It’s no secret that I hate Raimi’s take on Spider-Man, so I’m hopeful for something better this time around.
Er, wait. As I’m writing I see this from Risky Business. They report the projected budget at around $80 million which is about what X-Men cost back in 2000 or what It’s Complicated cost last year. Granted, Marc Webb probably doesn’t command tons of money after one movie and the proposed cast of relative unknowns will bring things down, but still, that’s incredibly low for a summer blockbuster. It’ll be interesting to see what percentage of the story is high school drama and how much superhero action is present.
The current script for the reboot is by James Vanderbilt (The Rundown, Zodiac) and returns the character to the high school setting. It’s unclear, however, whether the film will explicitly redo the origin story.
