'Spider-Man' Casting Young Peter Parker & Lizard?

As "Spider-Man" moves forward to begin shooting in December, pieces are slowly being put in place. Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans recently came on board playing Gwen Stacy and The Lizard respectively. They join Andrew Garfield in a reboot of Sony's lucrative franchise. But word has arrived of a couple more intriguing parts to be filled.

Moviehole reports that casting is out for young versions of Peter Parker and his nemesis in the film, The Lizard. So do you know a kid you think has what it takes? Sony is looking for a dark-haired Caucasian boy age 4 to 6 (sorry Donald Glover) for Spidey and a kid between 8 and 11 years old for Billy Connors. But before everyone loses their shit about a possible "Young Spider-Man" spinoff don't count on it. These parts are most likely for small moments and since the "Spider-Man" films are PG-13 and pretty much marketed to young kids anyway, don't count on seven-year-olds running around in spandex.

It's been a while since we read the comics, but Billy was a cancer survivor and at one point was nearly killed by his father Curt Connors when his alter-ego The Lizard decided he wanted to hurt him.

Of course whether or not the film goes in this direction remains to be seen but it does point at some potentially interesting elements lined up for the next iteration of the franchise.

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It Sucks To Be Dylan Baker: The Lizard Is The Villain In 'Spider-Man' Reboot

Even with the identity of the actor playing him now known, with the announcement of Rhys Ifans in the part at the beginning of this week, the details of who Spidey would be fighting in Marc Webb's upcoming reboot of "Spider-Man" had remained vague. John Malkovich had been cast as The Vulture in what would have been Sam Raimi's fourth outing in the franchise, but when the plug was pulled late last year on that version, it left things up in the air.

Rumors of The Vulture appearing remained (although where Webb & co would have found the dramatic potential in Peter Parker going up against the New York Magazine pop culture blog beats us...), and Deadline briefly linked Philip Seymour Hoffman to the role of Venom (played in the third Raimi movie by Topher Grace), but one character has been consistently mentioned in reports since casting began: The Lizard. Both Michael Fassbender and Christoph Waltz were mentioned in connection with the role, but when Marc Webb praised Ifans' mix of "warmth and rage," in the press release announcing the actor's casting, many, including us, speculated that we would indeed see the character in the film.

And indeed, The Wrap have confirmed that Ifans will be playing Dr. Curt Connors, who transforms into a creature known as The Lizard after an experiment intended to grow his missing arm back goes wrong. The role was previously taken by Dylan Baker ("Happiness"), who played Connors in all three Raimi movies, but never got to take center stage.

It makes sense that Webb and Sony would want to go for a villain not featured in any of the previous films, although we hope they go down a different route than "Peter Parker's mentor goes bad," which was covered fairly convincingly by Alfred Molina in "Spider-Man 2," easily the best film of the franchise to date. Ifans will be up against Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, and filming begins by the end of the year for a summer 2012 release.

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Rhys Ifans Will Play Villain In 'Spider-Man' Reboot

The Hollywood career of Welsh actor Rhys Ifans has been somewhat stop-start since his break-out role in "Notting Hill" -- despite turning in solid work in British flicks like "Enduring Love" and "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," his adventures across the pond have mostly consisted of the underwhelming likes of "Little Nicky" and "The Shipping News." But coming off the back of an excellent supporting role in Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg," and with Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous" and a role in the final "Harry Potter" films on the way, Ifans looks set to book a role that'll prove to be easily the most high profile of his career.

According to Mike Fleming at Deadline, Ifans has been offered the role of the villain of Marc Webb's reboot of the studio's golden goose "Spider-Man." Ifans would join Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, who've already been cast as, respectively, Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. There's no firm word on who the actor would play if he takes the role (and we can't imagine why he wouldn't): The Lizard has been rumored to be the villain in the picture, but recent reports have pegged Venom as making a possible reappearance.

Michael Fassbender, Christoph Waltz and, more recently, Philip Seymour Hoffman have all been linked to the role, but it looks like Ifans has landed it -- we imagine that Hoffman turned the project down, if it even reached that stage. Whoever Ifans ends up playing, it's another interesting, and somewhat offbeat, addition to a very strong cast for a project that few held hopes for when it was announced.

Update: A press release has gone out confirming that Ifans has signed on. Columbia Pictures president Matt Tolmach commented that "We have been very fortunate to attract some of the best actors working today to play the villains in the Spider-Man movies, and it is exciting to see that trend continue with Rhys Ifans. After seeing his performance in our upcoming film "Anonymous," we're in awe of his talent and think he's the perfect choice to take on this role," while director Webb added "What sets the Spider-Man villains apart is the complexity of their relationships with Peter Parker. Rhys' incredible ability to embody both warmth and rage makes him the ideal choice for this character."

While there's still no word of who Ifans will be playing, Webb's statement sounds like it could be hinting towards The Lizard -- the 'complex' relationship and mix of 'warmth and rage' certainly sound about right. We're sure it'll be made clear down the line.

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Emma Stone Confirmed For 'Spider-Man'... As Gwen Stacy

Over the weekend, it seemed like Emma Stone, who became one of the breakout stars of 2010 with the sleeper success of "Easy A," was all set to play Mary-Jane Watson, the love of Peter Parker's life, in Marc Webb's upcoming and still untitled "Spider-Man" reboot. An offer had gone out, and it seemed that the actress was likely to sign on. And indeed, a press release from Sony has announced that "Spider-Man" will indeed feature Ms. Stone in its cast. But not as Mary-Jane.

While Deadline suggests that Stone was originally offered the part of MJ, she has in fact taken on the role of Gwen Stacy, the first love of Peter Parker's life, and the role taken in "Spider-Man 3" by Bryce Dallas Howard. While the actress seemed to be a natural choice for the other role, partly due to the red-headed look she's been sporting since "Superbad," Marc Webb says in the release that it was fun to find out that our choice for Gwen (Emma) is also a natural blonde." Man, we hope that's not the only reason they've cast her...

Stone will be sporting blonde locks for the currently filming civil-rights drama "The Help," so audiences will at least have some time to get used to the look. We're huge fans of the actress, and between her, Garfield and (if rumors are to be believed) Philip Seymour Hoffman, it's shaping up to be a mean cast for a superhero film that we're cautiously optimistic about: at least more so than next year's batch of "X-Men: First Class," "Thor," "Green Lantern" and "Captain America."

One imagines that Stone may have made the switch because as a rising star, she may not want to be tied to as many movies, and if the film stays true to the comics this time, *spoiler* Stacy may get chucked off a bridge at some point in the first or second movie, paving the way for MJ to take over -- we can imagine that the idea of a one- or two-picture deal would be more tempting for the actress than being locked in for three films.

It remains to be seen whether any of the previously mentioned names (Dianna Agron, Georgina Haig, Dominique McElligott, Lily Collins and Mia Wasikowska) will be in the running to play Mary-Jane or if Sony will go back to the drawing board for the role. We reckon it's safe at this point to count out Wasikowska, who was said to be skeptical of the project anyway, but any of the other three could still theoretically be on board.

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Emma Stone To Be Offered Mary Jane Role In 'Spider-Man' Remake

Looks like speculation has ended, with "Easy A" star Emma Stone looking to step into the massive shoes of Kirsten Dunst as Spider-Man's redhead love interest Mary Jane Watson for Sony's untitled "Spider-Man" relaunch. Deadline Hollywood has announced that Stone should be expecting an offer very soon to star alongside Andrew Garfield in Marc Webb's "re-imagining" of the Spidey mythos. Stone has made some good money for Sony with both "Zombieland" and "Easy A," so it's no surprise they would pick someone so prominent on their Rolodex.

We like Stone, but it's hard to say anything positive or negative about what is such a secretive project. Though there is fresh talent all around, how much pressure will Sony feel to adhere to the formula that led the "Spider-Man" franchise to become a billion dollar extravaganza? In other words, will Stone being doing the damsel-in-distress BS that Dunst visibly grew bored from, or will she have a chance to utilize her comedic talent and make Mary Jane a fully-functioning character that might convince girls these movies are worth watching on their own?

Sony remains on the hunt for a Gwen Stacy character as well, revisiting the love triangle/square that helped the maligned "Spider-Man 3" to almost $900 million in worldwide theatrical gross. Adding Stone, who's appeal isn't exactly va-va-voom but more bubbly and warm suggests they might go in another direction for the Stacy character, but it's hard to say what's going on in Sony offices regarding this massive gamble, even with names like Mia Wasikowska and Dianna Agron being tossed around. But we're still bitter about not getting Oded Fehr as Kraven in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man IV: Keep On Webbin'" so maybe we're not the ones best suited to speculation.

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NYFF '10 Review: 'The Social Network' Is A Thrilling, Rapid Fire Tale Of The Early Days Of Facebook

According to director David Fincher, the opening scene of "The Social Network" took an astonishing 99 takes and two days of filming. And it's very easy to see why. With a 166-page script to get through, Fincher needed to keep the dialogue and scenes moving and with this scene, featuring the most rapid fire tete-a-tete this side of "His Girl Friday" not only does it quickly establish the competitive, hierarchical and exclusive world of Harvard, it sets the pace for the rest of the film. And you better be ready, because from the first second, "The Social Network" moves; this is the quickest two hours you will ever spend in a movie theater.

The film is essentially told in flashbacks as Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) gives testimony at two separate depositions shortly after Facebook crosses the 1 million user mark in its exciting, early days. We bounce back to Harvard in the fall of 2003 and as the aforementioned scene lays out, Zuckerberg is eager to climb the ranks of the hallowed, prestigious clubs at Harvard but before that, he must deal with healing the wound left following the breakup with his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara). So, he does what any young, confident and vindictive (personality traits that seem to define his every impulse) geek would do: he blogs about it. After a couple more Becks and prodded by an idea from his roommate, he has an idea to build a crude Hot Or Not-esque website so guys can rank the girls at Harvard. To do this he hacks into the databases of most of the houses at Harvard, snags the snaps of their members and builds the site. But he needs one more thing before he goes live. He quickly calls his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) a budding financial genius who recently made $300,000 over the summer by using weather to predict oil prices. Mark asks Eduardo for an algorithm to help with the ranking of the girls on his site, and after scribbling something quickly on the dorm room window, Mark plugs it in and the site goes live. Dubbed Facemash, it makes the rounds of Harvard the same night, and by 4 AM, the traffic has crashed the university's servers.

Mark is reprimanded by Harvard, but his ability to blog, hack and build a website in one night that earns enough hits to bring the university servers to a grinding halt brings him to the attention of twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) and Divya Narenda (Max Minghella). The trio have an idea for a website, that could more or less be described as a simplified version of what we would come to know as Facebook, but exclusive to those only with an @harvard.edu address. Mark doesn't seem too taken with the idea, but is more stricken by their monied backgrounds and access to clubs and agrees to do the job. Fast forward a few months and Mark is deep at work on something called Facebook that bears a striking similarity to the project conceived by Cameron, Tyler and Divya. Mark makes Eduardo his co-founder and gives him a CFO gig and in return receives initial funding for servers. With a few more clicks the site goes live and then, all hell breaks loose. At first confined to Harvard, Mark and Eduardo quickly expand access to surrounding schools and eventually to Stanford where Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) sees it and begins to take a keen interest. If the first half of the film is about the launch of the site, the second half is about the disintegration of a friendship and the coming of age of young A-type geniuses whose common sense is blunted by their own energy and ambition. It isn't long before Eduardo's level-headedness and tentativeness about all aspects of the site are viewed as liabilities while Mark's lust for status and recognition blinds him to his own good judgement.

Fincher's energy behind the camera is breathtaking. We tried to read the unwieldy script a while ago and kind of gave up on it, but here, Fincher and the cast energize Aaron Sorkin's script into a slick, lean and wickedly compelling narrative. There is not one moment in the film where someone isn't talking, where a mouse isn't being clicked or another angle to the story being opened up. None of it would matter if the actors couldn't keep up, but everyone is in top form here. Jesse Eisenberg gives a career changing performance. Previously known for mastering intelligent if awkward teenage characters, here he pours that awkwardness into a mold that casts Mark Zuckerberg as outcast and/or self-imposed exile. If he's book smart, he's street stupid (or simply uninterested). In a strange irony, for all his interest in reaching upper class echelons, he has no time for proper social mores (he spends much of the time wearing ragged sweats and open toed sandals). He speaks with a machine gun fire as if he's already five ideas ahead of what he's actually saying, and as his navel gazing focus keeps personal relationships from ever going deeper than a surface level. So it's no surprise then he's allured by Sean Parker, who is nothing but surface level. Sean wears his bad personal and business decisions almost as a badge of honor because, no matter what, he's the guy who took down the music industry and that still carries tremendous currency. And Timberlake falls into this role with ease, basically playing a much smarmier version of himself; a man with all the ins but unable to control his baser impulses. Both men seek a legitimacy in each other with Mark seeking social status and Sean looking to regain his tarnished reputation in Silicon Valley. And thus Eduardo Saverin, whose sense of pragmatism has no place in the fast and loose world of web startup, finds his relationship with Mark being torn apart and it's the stuff of tragedy. Andrew Garfield has been left out of the early praise but his performance here is every bit as good as Eisenberg's, if completely opposite. Garfield wonderfully transmits the naïveté that cripples his ability to keep up with Facebook by making Eduardo seeming to always be chasing Mark, constantly a couple steps behind. It's a nuanced and less showy turn but it's strong and ultimately moving stuff.

But not everything is perfect in "The Social Network." For all of the film's period detail, tightly packed story and effortless rhythm, its also a fairly one-note movie. There is no big overarching theme and despite some reviews, it's not really a critique or insight on contemporary online culture. This is really a portrait of how one massive website came together as fast as it did, and the no holds or feelings barred approach that made it happen. As Marilyn Delpy (Rashida Jones) who is part of Mark's legal team says to the young impressario, "You're not an asshole. You're just trying to be one." Mark's achievement with Facebook is staggering, but essentially, he's kind of a jerk from the first frame right to the end. Even as the film closes, with a scene that we won't spoil here, that shows Mark that perhaps he's learned something and has matured, the feeling is not quite earned. And that's not to mention a couple of plot threads that in the zip and vigor of the storytelling, seemed to get lost, particularly, Eduardo's relationship with Christy (Brenda Song) an early groupie turned jealous girlfriend that seems dropped in and out of the film with little rhyme or reason. To be sure, these are minor problems, but it will be interesting to see how the film holds up on further viewings. Will the wildfire pacing and dazzling wordplay still seem fresh and impress or will the film's tiny flaws become more apparent?

However, that's a question best left for later because right now, the film lives up to its excitement. It's impeccably shot -- Fincher's color design has never been stronger, from the musted whiskey tones of Harvard, to the blinding whites and primary colors of California -- and the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is subtle but effectively bristling and propulsive. "The Social Network" is grand entertainment; a thriller built inconceivably on the intricacies of computer code, copyright and the thin line between idea and inspiration. Fincher's film is a profile of today's entrepreneur, one where the values hubris, arrogance and brilliance are held in esteem first, and sometimes, in that very order. [A-] --Kevin Jagernauth

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Emma Stone, Mia Wasikowska & Lily Collins Enter The Mix For Female Leads In 'Spider-Man'

Director Marc Webb is getting closer to finding Peter Parker a leading lady or two for the upcoming "Spider-Man" reboot. After Andrew Garfield was announced as have secured the lead, there has been much speculation on who would be jumping into the role of Mary Jane Watson. But sources close to the production say that is not the only lead female role Webb has been testing actresses for, so comic book fans rejoice as it seems Gwen Stacy will also be making an appearance. With that in mind, a few new names have entered the mix for these highly sought after roles.

Emma Stone, whose latest film "Easy A" opened at number two at the box office this past weekend, was reportedly reading for the role of Mary Jane with Garfield earlier this month. A natural fit for the role, we laid out the case for her casting back in January, she would be able to play opposite Garfield's Parker and would bring a spunky comedic talent and presence to the role. Stone's reportedly "great relationship" with Sony head Amy Pascal couldn't hurt her from getting the part, but with her upcoming slate filling up quickly, she'd have to weigh how starring in a superhero blockbuster would fit into her career.

And for the role of Gwen, it seems Webb and Sony are smitten with "Alice in Wonderland" star Mia Wasikowska, who they recently flew in from New York to meet with. While Wasikowska has received rave reviews for her recent film "The Kids Are All Right," as part of 'Alice' she proved herself capable of being an anchor to a tentpole film. But if you're worried like us that Wasikowska's talents will be wasted in a comic franchise, you can sight a breathe of relief as she is apparently "ambivalent" about the part. Of course, that could also be a ploy for more cash, as even the Mark Ruffalos of the world eventually succumb to a franchise project at some point in their career.
Finally, Lily Collins, who co-starred in last year's surprise hit "The Blind Side," has reportedly met with Sony for the film as well, but no word yet on which role.

With "Spider-Man" slated to begin filming later this year, Sony and Webb are likely to start making some hard decisions soon. With Fox stacking "X-Men: First Class" with a host of young, up-and-coming talent, it seems that Sony is taking the same the approach. Let's just hope this time they think bigger than Kirsten Dunst.

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