The New Peter Parker Has Been Found
Sony Pictures didn’t want to wait until Comic-Con after all to name the new face of a rebooted Spider-Man franchise. Instead they chose to announce almost 2 years to the day prior to their 2012 release date that British actor Andrew Garfield has been cast as Peter Parker.
Garfield, 27, appeared in THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS, and has more than just a bit part in the upcoming NEVER LET ME GO as well as David Fincher’s Facebook movie THE SOCIAL NETWORK. For a reboot that is supposed to take Peter Parker back to high school though, the obvious concern should be Garfield’s age. Tobey Maguire was pushing the limit on how much longer he was going to be able to play the character, as he just passed his 35th birthday, and, even knowing that, he appears to be a lot more boyish than Garfield appears in every picture I’m seeing him in right now. Unless there’s a shift in the reboot’s setting (as Drew McWeeny over at HitFix is indicating with Peter Parker being taken back to college rather than high school), casting an older Garfield over some of the younger names that had been tossed around on the final list doesn’t make a lot of sense to The Kidd.
For all the talk surrounding Logan Lerman for quite awhile and Jamie Bell and Josh Hutcherson recently, they all came up short with Garfield settling in as the guy Sony and director Marc Webb ultimately fell in love with. However, there is no telling how well this will be received by the fans who will be judging every piece of information about the reboot/prequel against Raimi’s trilogy of SPIDER-MAN films.
In talking to a lot of movie geeks, comic book nerds, and fanboys, there was a lot of anticipation being built towards the idea of SPIDER-MAN 4, even after the debacle of SPIDER-MAN 3, and I can’t say I’ve been hearing much optimism about these plans for a rebooted franchise. “Reboot” and “prequel” seem to be dirty words right now in a lot of fan conversations, and that has a lot to do with the inferior products that have been produced with those labels attached. The 3-D will draw casual fans in the door in addition to the Spider-Man name… but will they come back for more, once they realize that this isn’t the SPIDER-MAN they had grown accustomed to? As for the fans, a lot of this will rest on how the film begins to look as the first stills and teasers are released later down the line. Casting will have a great deal to do with this, too. Who’ll be the villain chosen for this first film, and who’ll play that villain? Michael Fassbender turned down the opportunity to play Magneto in X-MEN: FIRST CLASS already, so who else is on Marc Webb’s target list?
I am not entirely sold on this idea at all, and Andrew Garfield’s name does nothing to change that. I feel as if Sony really cut the legs out from under themselves by setting up SPIDER-MAN 4 to fail, so they could go younger, go cheaper, and hold more control over the direction of Spider-Man than any one person… and, while Spider-Man’s name value could easily be considered too big to fail, the same was thought about Batman at one point… Superman, too. And look how that turned out. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The Kidd’s gut tells me though that Sony is absolutely dead set on getting repairs done one way or the other. We’ll have to wait and see if they were ever needed.
Here’s the full press release from Sony Pictures:
After a comprehensive worldwide casting search, Andrew Garfield has been chosen to portray Peter Parker when Spider-Man swings back onto the screen in 3D on July 3, 2012. The new film will begin production in early December directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt. Laura Ziskin and Avi Arad will produce the film from Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios.
Today’s confirmation culminates what has been one of the most eagerly anticipated casting announcements in recent memory. Bloggers, pop culture speculators, and everyday fans have pored over and analyzed every conceivable online rumor in an attempt to discover the identity of the next actor to play Peter Parker. Garfield will immediately begin preparing for the coveted role.
The Spider-Man franchise is one of the most successful in film history and the three previous motion pictures have collectively grossed more than $2.5 billion in worldwide box office.
On selecting Garfield, director Marc Webb said, “Though his name may be new to many, those who know this young actor’s work understand his extraordinary talents. He has a rare combination of intelligence, wit, and humanity. Mark my words, you will love Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker.”
Commenting on the announcement, Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Matt Tolmach, President of Columbia Pictures said, “Spider-Man is a classic superhero — a young man who balances his responsibility to serve humanity and crush evil with the shyness and normalcy of someone struggling to find himself. The role demands an extraordinary actor. You need someone who can magically transform himself from Peter Parker into Spider-Man. An actor who will depict the vulnerability of youth and the strength and confidence of a legendary figure at the same moment. We have found that actor in Andrew Garfield. From the first time we saw him in the upcoming film The Social Network, to his glorious screen test, which floored all of us, we knew that we had found our new Peter Parker.”
Producer Avi Arad added, “I’m incredibly excited about Andrew Garfield. In the Spider-Man tradition, we were looking for a smart, sensitive, and cool new Peter Parker who can inspire us and make us laugh, cry, and cheer. We believe we have found the perfect choice to take on this role and lead us into the future.”
Producer Laura Ziskin said, “We are thrilled to have Andrew Garfield for this new incarnation of Spider-Man under Marc Webb’s direction. We were fortunate enough to meet with a group of fantastically talented young men. In the end, we all agreed that in addition to being an extraordinary actor, Andrew had the right mix of humor, youth, and pathos, along with an underlying sense of strength and power necessary to bring Peter Parker and Spider-Man to life on screen.”
Garfield is fast becoming one of the most respected and sought-after young actors working in the industry today. In a short career, spanning only five years, he has already been directed by, and starred alongside, some of the greatest names and received a BAFTA for a role that won him international praise.
Garfield most recently worked with director David Fincher on the upcoming film The Social Network. He previously starred for Spike Jonze on his robot love story I’m Here, which premiered at Sundance this year. He plays the lead male opposite Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan in Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go, due for release later this year.
Other notable screen credits include Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus playing opposite Christopher Plummer, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law and the late Heath Ledger, Robert Redford’s Lions For Lambs, where he starred alongside Redford, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep; Revolution Films’ “Red Riding Trilogy – 1974” directed by Julian Jarrold, where he lead a stellar cast including Rebecca Hall and David Morrissey, and his unforgettable portrayal of a young ex-con in John Crowley’s “Boy A,” for which he earned the best actor BAFTA in 2008.
Garfield’s career began in theatre and in 2006 his performances in “Beautiful Thing” (Sound Space/Kit Productions), “The Overwhelming,” and “Burn / Chatroom / Citizenship” (Royal National Theatre) won him the Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer at the Evening Standard awards and the Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the Critics Circle Theatre Awards. Other notable theatre credits include “Romeo and Juliet” (Manchester Royal Exchange) and “Kes” (Manchester Royal Exchange), for which he received the Most Promising Newcomer Award at the Manchester Evening News Awards 2004.
UPDATE: Here are some images from Sony Pictures from the casting announcement
