All of the US entertainment press have spent the day chasing down information on the new Marvel-Sony Spider-Man deal, and little bits of information have been bubbling up hour by hour. One of the best reports is Variety's latest, and it certainly contains the best new newsbits. For example, they're citing sources on what kind of new Spider-Man the studio is looking for. They say that Sony are planning to "put the character back in high school, which would require it to cast a younger actor." How much younger than Andrew Garfield? Well, he's 31 so quite a bit, most likely, though I wouldn't bank on a real teenager getting the part. At the same time as changing Spider-Man, some of Sony's plans remain the same. Variety say they'll keep "moving forward with the Spider-Man villain-centric Sinister Six, and Venom spinoff, as well as a film that features female characters in the Spider-Man universe." This female team film is perhaps the most mysterious as there's no obvious precedent for a crew of co-operating superheroines in Spider-Man canon. It's also worth noting that Marvel's Kevin Feige won't really have any influence on these spin-offs at all. Peter Parker may be going home to the MCU, but when he goes out to play on Sony's court, he'll still be living in a world of their making. Oh lord, I do hope this doesn't all end up being an awful mess.
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
