It looks like the reboot is pretty official, and things are moving along pretty rapidly. Honestly, I'm becoming more and more optimistic about this all the time. For starters, they got the guy who directed 500 Days of Summer to do this one. Also, they're going to focus on a teenage Peter Parker. As I've mentioned before, this might sound to some like a move to attract the Twilight audience - and it very well may be - but it does have its precedent in the comics. Peter Parker was in high school for the first dozen or so issues of the original series. Also, I've read that the new series of films will be inspired more by the Ultimate Spider-Man line of comics, which has kept Peter in high school throughout its 100+ issues. I happen to love Ultimate Spider-Man, so that's just fine with me.
What's also interesting is that they're going to go somewhat low-budget for this new movie. That doesn't necessarily mean that it'll be good or bad, but usually a smaller budget means that the creators have more control. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the screenwriter is James Vanderbilt, who wrote the screenplay for Zodiac. I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing, as it's a very different sort of a movie, but it certainly isn't a bad thing. As I've stated before, one of the main reasons why the third Spidey film went wrong is due to studio interference, as Sam Raimi wasn't even interested in using Venom in it.
I guess the only bit of news that has me somewhat concerned is that they're supposedly going for a "darker" tone. I don't even remember where I read that, but let me just say that "darker" is definitely not where you want to go for Spider-Man. Unless it means no more "Staying Alive" types of scenes like we saw in the third one, then "dark" is not a word to describe Spider-Man's adventures.
Tony Hicks from the Contra Costa Times recently wrote about his thoughts on the reboot. While I vehemently disagree with him about Spider-Man 2, I thought that he had some interesting points. He, for one, did not like Tobey McGuire as Spider-Man. I've been a Toby defender since day one, and I think that he perfectly captured Peter Parker. I was suspecting Hicks' comments to be along the lines of others that I've heard, where they show that they simply don't get the character. However, Hicks' problem was that McGuire didn't capture the Spider-Man part just right.
This got me to thinking - he's right. While I still think that McGuire was a good choice, people who only know Spider-Man from the movies aren't as familiar with the wise-cracking hero that the comics fans know. Sure, you'd hear Spidey crack a joke or two here and there, but in the comics, he's a motormouth - he even annoys some of his fellow members of The Avengers with the simple fact that he doesn't seem to ever shut up. Of course, all Spidey fans know that he does this to distract his opponents, as his lame jokes tend to get them all frustrated and sloppy. I think that this will be a tough thing to get right. If it's done in the wrong way, it'll be downright campy and silly. If it's done right, it'll be awesome.
What's the last bit of news I read? They're going for unknowns for the actors. Hmmm...maybe this will have us Spidey fans going "Tobey who?" We'll see.
Oh, and I was going to (and might still) write about my thoughts on the upcoming Green Lantern movie. It looks like they're going to do a lot of the things that I'd hope they'd do.
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