Wonder Wednesday 06-02-10 Who Will Be The New Spider-Man?

I think everyone's feelings about rebooting the Spider-Man movie franchise is the same: WHY?! Spider-Man (the first one) just came out in 2002 and at this point, Spider-Man's origin is as well-known as Superman or Batman's. Okay, recasting I can see, but they're essentially starting over from Point A and will be retelling his origin and everything (all together now, "With great power comes great responsibility"). They are apparently drawing greater inspiration from the comic book Ultimate Spider-Man, which is... I sooooo don't want to have to explain this. Sigh! Okay, here ya go: It's a "rebooted" Spider-Man comic which launched in 2000, featuring a modernized version of Spidey, set in the present (example, he was hired to be a web designer for the Daily Bugle instead of a photographer). The regular Spider-Man comics continued to be published. This was just a side series that existed on its own without decades of continuity. Initially, it was aimed at attracting younger readers, and was sold in places like Target. But I don't guess that panned out, so it got FAR FAR darker. Even so, you had a modernized, teenage Spider-Man and villains that were less goofy than the original's silver age foes. (Example, Green Goblin wasn't a guy in a stupid suit, he was a man transformed into a living behemoth.)
So for the new, younger Spidey, several names are rumored to be in the running:

Jamie Bell:

YUM!!!

Jamie Bell is so freakin' HAWT! Clean thoughts, clean thoughts, clean thoughts... You may remember him as Billy Elliot, but he's grown up quite a bit since.

That "clean thoughts" thing is SO not working out. I kinda think he's too old at this point, though. He's 24 and presumably, the producers expect to make at least three of these pictures, so if you put a year or two between releases, he'll be in his thirties by the time he "graduates high school." And I assume they'll keep them set in high school, because otherwise, what's the point of the reboot.
That's right baby, you keep right on smoldering. He's done an American accent a few times, but nothing really jumps out at me. Maybe a few years ago, he'd have been a better choice, but I just think he may be slightly too old now.

Alden Ehrenreich

Recently starring in Coppola's (Francis, not Sophia) Tetro, just out on DVD. I haven't seen it. Probably won't. Kinda goofy-looking. I never pictured Peter Parker with such a round head.
These pics don't help. He looks better... but too good. He's got that pretty boy thing going on. I just don't see it.

Andrew Garfield:

Hmmm... we may have a winner. But then, I can't quite decide if he looks geek chic adorkable or hipster douche.
Kinda leaning toward hipster douche. But dammit, he is gangly and lean like Spider-Man ought to be. I dunno.
He kinda reminds me of Hal Sparks. Anyone else? Huge problem... he's 27! See my comments about Jamie Bell above!

Frank Dillane:

The third Brit on the list after Jamie and Andrew, Frank played Tom Riddle (whoever that is) in the last Harry Potter movie (whatever that is). Kinda a bitch face, though.
Huh, actually, that's better. That kinda works for me. He's definitely cute versus hot, which works better for the role. And he looks like an actual kid. He's only 19, so that gives him an edge in my book over the others... I just realized that I probably shouldn't have said that.

However....
Ick, lose the ridiculous tan and baby, that Rob Pattinson look ONLY works for Rob Pattinson! And five thousand necklaces? I think you just douched yourself off my list!

And finally, Josh Hutcherson:

This kid has already been in a gajillion movies, Bridge to Terabithia, Zathura and the upcoming Red Dawn remake. He was also in Journey to the Center of the Earth as Brendan Fraser's son and now that Brendon has dropped out of the sequel, it looks like they are restructuring the film to focus on Josh's character. Also, and I KNOW I'm not the only one who thinks this way, but I've always thought he was cute in a "damn, he's gonna be hot in a couple of years" kinda way. (See Jamie Bell above.)
I think we've arrived. I think the "thing" with him is that he kinda looks like Zachary Ty Bryan and we saw how that turned out:
Raow! Suck it, JTT! Josh still has a few years to go before he achieves this degree of perfection, but I think we can all agree that he's already on the right path. That said, is he right to play teenage Spider-Man? Strangely, at 17, he's the youngest of the choices, yet he doesn't really seem that young. Also, he's a bit on the beefy side, so he'd make a better Flash Thompson than Peter Parker. I dunno, I could see it, but it's a bit of a stretch, so I'm not sure he's perfect.

One more odd choice, Donald Glover:

If anyone watched Community (yeah, didn't think so), he's on that. He's jockeying for the role, but... maybe he doesn't realize that Black Spider-Man isn't actually black.
We'll see, I suppose. I guess I have no chance of convincing them to scrap this plan altogether and make a Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends movie instead, huh?
My bet... they'll chose NONE of these. I think this is a distraction. Look at all the names that got bandied about for the role of Captain America. I think this is just a ruse, to get people talking. D'oh! I've been tricked!

Next year is going to be a supapalooza, with THREE big name super hero movies coming out. Marvel's Captain America and Thor. The first pic of Chris Hemsworth as Thor came out a couple of weeks ago:
Prett NICE! Of course people are bitching. That's what geeks do. "His armor looks like rubber!" Your mom looks like rubber! OOOOOHHHHH! Burn!!! Wonder if he'll wear the helmet though. He MUST! Speaking of costumes, in a twist no one saw coming...
There IS no costume for Green Lantern! Well, not a traditional one, anyway.
Ryan (above, accompanied by his bodyguard, ha ha) wears a motion capture suit throughout filming and the GL uniform will be composed entirely by CGI! It depends on how this turns out, but I'm not really that concerned by this. Thinking about it, I think his suit in the comics has always been created by his power ring, so this makes sense.

Angela Basset has been cast in the GL movie as Amanda Waller and everyone is speculating that her role will be the same as Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in the Marvel movies, in that she will appear in every DC super hero movie, paving the way for a Justice League movie down the line, the way Marvel is doing with The Avengers. But DC's been dragging its feet for years now on their movies and haven't really made any effort to tie the ones they have made together. Superman Returns and Batman Begins would seemingly exist in two different universes. (That may change now that Christopher Nolan is directing Superman's next movie.) And The Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman movies they keep mentioning have been in development for ages... literally decades in Wonder Woman's case! So guess we'll see how that works out... if it works out. (Betting on no...) We shall see!

EDIT:
After posting this, a picture has surfaced, rumored to be the movie Captain America costume:
VERY nice! I approve! I wish the gloves and boots were redder, but I'll live! You can click on it for a larger view.