Rumor mill: Fugit, Angarano top list for Spider-Man 4
Another day, another Spider-Man 4 casting rumor … Last week it was confirmed that Sony Pictures has renewed its film rights to the Spider-Man franchise, which may account for the latest rounds of gossip about who may play Peter Parker.
Latino Review reports that, although no offers have been made, Patrick Fugit (Saved!, Almost Famous) is the top pick of producers Laura Ziskin and Grant Curtis to replace Tobey Maguire.
If Fugit doesn’t pan out, the website says Michael Angarano (The Forbidden Kingdom, Sky High) is another favorite.
Maguire, whose interest in a fourth installment waxes and wanes, said last year that if director Sam Raimi were to return, he might consider playing Peter Parker again. However, Raimi’s involvement remains uncertain.
The Ticker
• Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons says he thinks Zack Snyder’s adaptation will be as faithful to the comic as it can be: “I think that as long as it’s true to the spirit of the comic book, and as long as — in broad strokes — it follows the plot and the characterisations…I don’t think you can ask for every individual detail to be replicated.” [Den of Geek]
• Fans playing connect the dots with the Marvel Studios movies may want to pay special attention to the opening-credits sequence of The Incredible Hulk. If you do, you’ll catch glimpses of the words “SHIELD,” “Nick Fury” and “Doc Samson” (who is said to actually appear in the movie). [Sci Fi Wire]
• Although the Justice League movie has stalled indefinitely, Green Lantern appears to be inching forward. “Whatever free time I have left is pretty much thinking about Green Lantern,” writer/director Greg Berlanti says in a profile. “That’s all I’ve got time for mentally right now.” He’s co-writing the picture with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. [Out.com]
• Rainn Wilson of The Office has been cast in a small role in Transformers 2. [MTV Movies Blog]
• No country for old men? Heroes don’t age gracefully in Hollywood. [Variety]
• Looking for spoilers for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek? Well, here you go. [TrekMovie.com]
May 28th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Stark Trek…that is a very telling typo. IronMania is still running wild!
May 28th, 2008 at 9:50 am
fugit looks like he could do it. needs to cut the hair to look the part tho.
although i haven’t seen him in a movie for 7 years since almost famous, i remember him at least showing he has talent.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:52 am
I don’t know about Fugit but Michael Angarano would be a horrible choice for Peter Parker.
I saw Forbidden Kingdom and liked it despite Angarano’s limp performance. And Sky High stunk.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Good news for Green Lantern.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:59 am
If you look under Tony Stark’s arm in the scene where the machine is taking his armor off, you can see Captain America’s shield. Next to it is a phaser, a light saber and sled called “Rosebud”. Damn guy built everything.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:14 am
I find it interesting that both Fugit and Angarano are rumored to play Parker since Angarano played the young William Miller to Fugit’s William Miller in Almost Famous.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Maguire would be stupid to turn down Spidey 4. Has he done anything since the last movie? Meanwhile, Shia LaBeouf has walked off with his career. I’m sure it’s a bitch of a movie to shoot, but it pays well and, ultimately, will be what he’s remembered for. I like both Fugit and Angaro but I don’t think either could believably pull off the role.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I think Fugit is a bad choice. Using an actor like him runs them into the same problem as Maguire: if they make a franchise of it, he’s going to be too old by the time you get a couple movies in. Fugit’s youngish now, 25, but by the time they even got one movie in the can he’d be approaching thirty. If they want to get and stick with one actor across a few movies, they’d be best suited with someone in their early twenties.
They’re at least moving in the right direction, though. Tobey Maguire was one ugly guy. They seemed to miss the point that Parker was always a good enough looking guy who was merely socially oblivious. He was never the funny looking, socially awkward and creepy putz Maguire portrayed him as.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Just so long as we get a new creative team and cast for any new SPIDER-MAN movies, I’m in. S-M3 pretty much burned me out on the franchise as it stands right now.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I love how the nostalgia theme of the article for “Heroes don’t age gracefully in Hollywood” has a main focus on the original heroes - but franchises in general fall into this.
From the Bond films, Superman Returns. Batman (& Robin), Spider-Man even Hulk all keep trying to use a nostalgic crutch to put cheeks in the seats and often leave the meat of a good story behind.
The actors can be ancient but the movie good if the story is. That is the bottom line.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:34 am
I say keep Tobey and the others if they can since they have already built the franchise around them. It’s too late to reboot the franchise a la the Incredible Hulk. Audiences have already become attached to this cast (at least I have). I really enjoyed the first two movies, and even though the third wasn’t as good I still liked it. That’s what happens when Venom is shoved down Raimi’s throat I guess. As much as I like Venom, the movie would have been better without him.
Maybe Fugit is their top choice since he looks just like Maguire. I still haven’t seen him in anything other than Almost Famous, and while good, I don’t know if he could pull off Spider-Man.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Spider-man, where are you coming from
Spider-man–
Nobody knows who you are…
May 28th, 2008 at 10:41 am
If you’re looking for something recent that Fugit’s in, and quite a good offbeat movie, check out the newer release Wristcutters: A Love Story…
May 28th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Patrick Fugit - you mean this guy?
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3424098304/nm0297578
Wow - maybe now they can get an MJ who’s also not taller than the hero!
May 28th, 2008 at 11:13 am
how about Justin Long.
May 28th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I loved Fugit in Wristcutters…I think he’d make a great a Spider-Man.
May 28th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Michael Angarano would be terrible. I saw forbidden kingdom, and guess what? I wasn’t watching the movie for him
May 28th, 2008 at 11:38 am
liked him in almost famous, so i’m all for him being spidey as long as we don’t see him doing any dance numbers. It would be nice to see a Spidey with a sense of humor, though; just ask mark waid! And can we finally please get a hot MJ???
May 28th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Justin Long?? Weeping Jesus On The Cross!!! NO!!!!
May 28th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Hrmmm…
I have hopes for Watchmen. I’ve lost all confidence in a good DC Universe movie. The Incredible Hulk looks pretty good. Hopefully it won’t suck. The next Spider-Man movie is going to be somewhere around 2012 or 2013, right? Or sooner? How relevent is casting? If it’s 2010, that might make sense…I’m losing track of all the Marvel movies that are coming - there are SO MANY!!
May 28th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
wooo green lantern. the one superhero film i’m dying to see.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Should have been Peter Parker in the first place. His role in Almost Famous was absolutely the essence of what Peter Should be.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Fugit was great in Spun.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I think if Hollywood or Marvel had any real sense in them, they would see if the dream team of Sam Raimi and Tobey McGuire would return for a fourth movie. They made the three movies a real success, why make a fourth one and have a huge possibility of it not living up to the other three. I’ve got nothing against this actor that is listed to maybe be the next Peter Parker/Spiderman, but Tobey McGuire really nailed it, he got the role right so if he doesn’t end up doing the fourth film, it would be a mistake, that’s just my opinion.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Jonathan said: “They seemed to miss the point that Parker was always a good enough looking guy who was merely socially oblivious. He was never the funny looking, socially awkward and creepy putz Maguire portrayed him as.”
Discounting Ditko’s version, I’d agree. Ditko was smart enough to know that the regular person would not relate to movie-star-looks Peter Parker, but a more average person. That he was socially awkward was also part of the character.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Old actors should not be playing action figures, they should be playing horny old grandfathers.
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I am sick-up-to-here from hearing about how Marvel movies are all going to be crossovers.
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The new Hulk movie will be better than the Ang Lee one, but the CGI is still gonna suck so hard.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Look Spider-man 3 was not bad in the Mild “gee this is’nt good. way. It really is one of the worst movies i’ve ever seen and now they want to bring in the guy from “almost Famous”? Really no thanks
May 28th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Either one of those would be better that Tobey, currently; Tobey seems almost embarassed to wear the costume and is getting ‘the big head’ - witness how much screen time he spends unmasked in 2 and especially in 3. That’s usually a signal that an actor is saying ‘I want them coming to see me, not Spider-Man’. So, give Tobey the boot.
I really liked Fugit in Wristcutters; I think he’d do good as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man.
May 28th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
If it’s a ‘requel’ they should at least wait a few more years.
The last thing we need to see is another ’set-up’ story as well. Raimi’s was near on on the money.
No Raimi for number 4? Could that mean Evil Dead 4…?
May 28th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Wasn’t Doc Samson in the Hulk trailer? The one who speaks to Ed Norton about having anger issues or something? I’m sure I read somewhere that was him.
May 28th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I’d prefer seeing Tobey, and other actors, back if they’re going to make yet another Spidey. They’re well-established, and I think changing actors midstream is asking for a lot of trouble. I certainly don’t see the point of casting someone YOUNGER than Maguire and relatively unproven (Fugit hasn’t done much anyone’s seen since Almost Famous).
The only way I like a change is if they start all over with a new direction (though I see no need to do a new version of the origin story), with several years in between to make a clean break. But then it’s not really Spidey 4 either. If Sony’s retaining the rights and it’s not part of the larger Marvel Studios universe, then I wish they’d just let it go. Of course, with such big money involved that won’t happen.
I’m glad to hear Green Lantern’s looking a “go” though!Hopefully something good will happen there, and we’ll see some DC properties have the same success Marvel’s seen of late. This approach of establishing the “big guns” first, and maybe then going for a JLA film later, is, potentially, a much smarter idean than “JLA 90210″ was.
Nothing in the Star Trek article has me interested in seeing it. A shame, since I grew up with Trek and loved the first three series (TOS, TNG and DS9) a great deal.
May 28th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
i think the direction they re headed for the series, is kind of weird in a way, but i can always expect something, in other word let raimi stay.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I would hope that Berlanti and Guggenheim are keeping David Boreanaz in mind for the Green Lantern movie. DB’s nod toward his role as GL in New Frontier suggests that DB wouldn’t say no if the live-action part were offered to him.
Hey, maybe the movie could feature an end-of-the-end-credits cameo by Emily Deschanel as Wonder Woman, too. Hee.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I don’t know how anyone could disregard Tobey McGuire’s role as Peter Parker/Spiderman.
Wasn’t there a rumor going around that they might talk to Jake Gyllenhaal, then again, I guess this all goes to the look-alike factor to Tobey. There was even talks of maybe having Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Here’s the thing, I think deep down Hollywood and Marvel are all wishing that Sam and Tobey will return for the fourth movie, but if they can’t, they want someone that closely resembles him in the hopes that nobody will recall the actor’s name, but just know, yea here’s another Spiderman movie, it did great in the three movies, so let’s try with the fourth. I say good luck, because they are really going to need it.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Actually…. over on CHUD.COM… http://chud.com/articles/articles/14905/1/UPDATED-PATRICK-FUGIT-IS-NOT-WEBBED-UP/Page1.html No Fugit. At least as far as Fugit knows…..
May 28th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
“Wasn’t Doc Samson in the Hulk trailer? The one who speaks to Ed Norton about having anger issues or something? I’m sure I read somewhere that was him.”
You are correct, sir.
May 28th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Sony just debunked the Spidey rumor:
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=45450
May 28th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Nice to see the studio is still following the same off-beat casting philosophy they used when they cast Tobey in the first place and aren’t going for pretty boys like Ben Barnes or some other pasteboard generic type. I don’t know if their current choices are the best ones out there but at least they’re on the right track. And come on, even Connery gave up being James Bond eventually…
May 28th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Fugit was in an excellent indie flick called Wristcutters. See that, you’ll believe he has the Parker chops.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:39 am
wasn’t jake jillenhall (or however you spell it) supposed to take over for McGuire if he didn’t come back?
It’ll be nice to see a new guy as spidey though…McGuire was starting to wear on me after awhile…
dug him in the first one, started to get sick of him after that though
May 29th, 2008 at 9:48 am
mat-mann
you mispeld both jillenhall and McGuire, even tho there nemes ar in manny places in the psts abve.
May 29th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
“Wasn’t Doc Samson in the Hulk trailer? The one who speaks to Ed Norton about having anger issues or something? I’m sure I read somewhere that was him.”
You are correct, sir.”
Thank you, sir.