The Spider-Man rebootThe Amazing Spider-Manwas a sizeable hit this summer at the box office, but the film was surrounded by an air of production troubles.A The film was only directorMarc Webbas second feature, and was a huge step up from his swell but small-scale debut(500) Days of Summer.A A fair amount of reshoots took place, and when the film hit theaters we saw that much of the footage from the filmas marketing (including the entire aUntold Storya storyline)had been removed from the finished pic.Sony hiredTransformersandStar TrekscribesAlex KurtzmanandRoberto Orcito rewrite the scriptfor a sequel before the first film came out, but Webbas involvement in the follow-up was less clear.A Though many assumed another director would be brought in to helm a more commercial (ie.
action-centric) sequel, it now looks like Webb is coming back after all with his leads in tow.A Hit the jump for more.Though the involvement ofAndrew GarfieldandEmma Stonewas all but guaranteed forThe Amazing Spider-Man 2, Webb was a bit of a question mark.A Columbia Pictures presidentDoug Belgradsaid in July that Webbmight not direct the sequel due to aobstacles,awhich seemed like an interesting comment to make on the heels of the first filmas success.A We learned a few weeks later that Webbmade a previous deal with Fox Searchlightto direct two movies for that studio, and with(500) Days of Summerfulfilled he still owed them one more feature.
A In short, Fox Searchlight wanted the now-hot Webb back and had first-claim on him beforeSpidey 2.A solution was floated that Fox would let Webb directThe Amazing Spider-Man 2if he agreed to helm two more films for Fox Searchlight instead of one, but we have no solid word on whether that kind of negotiation took place or not.A What we do know is that Webb is confirmed to return for the webslinger follow-up, and I sincerely hope that heas given more creative freedom on this film than he was on the first reboot.Amazing Spider-Manwasnat a bad film, but it was obvious that a fair amount of post-production tinkering and homogenization had taken place to streamline the pic for the widest of possible audiences.A Webb showed tremendous promise with(500) Days of Summer, and the intimate character-centric scenes ofAmazing Spider-Manwere by far the best parts of the movie.A Hopefully we see that developed further in the follow-up.Sony notes that a deal is closed with Garfield to return as the titular superhero, while Stone is in talks to return as well and is expected to reprise her role as Gwen Stacy.
A She has effusively stated that she wants her character to meet the same fate that she does in the comics, so it’ll be interesting to see how the arc progresses in the follow-up.
A We know thatThe Amazing Spider-ManAwas the first in a planned trilogy, so we can reasonably expectASpidey 2Ato continue an arc that may or may not be fulfilled inSpidey3.Screenwriting credits forThe Amazing Spider-Man 2Ago to Kurtzman & Orci andJeff Pinker(Fringe,Lost), based on a previous draft byJames Vanderbilt(The Amazing Spider-Man).A Production is set to begin in early 2013, with the untitled sequel set for release in 3D on May 2nd, 2014.
