After the announcement of Tom Holland as the new big screen Spider-man yesterday (here), some details have now emerged about the road to spidey for the actor and new director Jon Watts.
It seems that, according to THR, the fact that Spider-man will be introduced first in Captain America: Civil War was a slight complication with the character who is co-owned by Sony. Also, usually the director has a say in who will be the lead in the movie but the director of the 2017 standalone Spider-man movie was being looked for at the same time,.
However, with it all sorted out, things came together over the last while, which is impressive since there were initially over 1,500 actors in for the role. This was narrowed to six for a final screen test in Atlanta on May 30th.
“Robert Downey Jr., whose Iron Man character appears in Civil War and is said to share scenes with Peter Parker/Spider-Man, participated with the actors in the tests, which included former-Sony-chief-turned-producer Amy Pascal and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige. They were looking for chemistry between the boy and the elder Avenger.”
This was then narrowed to the final two, as we reported here, charlie Rowe and Tom Holland – we were shocked at this stage that the favourite, Asa Butterfield, was no longer in the running: “Unable to decide between them, they [former-Sony-chief-turned-producer Amy Pascal and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige] asked for a second screen test that occurred the week of June 8. Sources say that Holland was the only actor who tested separately with Downey and Chris Evans, who portrays Captain America.”
Things get complicated here because some reports say Holland was the favourite a few weeks ago, while others say it’s only been decided in the last few days. Whatever the case, Holland is signed up for three movies as well as Civil War.
With the directors it came down to four choices: Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies), John Francis Daley and Jonathan M Goldstein (Vacation), Ted Melfi (St Vincent) and Jon Watts (Cop Car). “Sources say Feige and Pascal were looking for someone with comedy experience but also with a perspective that would distinguish the new movies from the five already made in the past 13 years. Feige is said to have handpicked 33-year old Watts, falling for the filmmaker’s take on the world of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. The decision came only over this past weekend, and some insiders say Watts and his CAA reps were then sworn to secrecy until an announcement could be readied for him and Holland.”
So there you have it… Spider-man in the MCU has a star and a director in place. And, frankly, we can’t wait to see what Spidey does in the MCU.
Oh and, just for giggles, Tom Holland posted some videos of himself training for the Spidey role on his Instagram and we’ve posted them below. Dedicated, man…
A video posted by ✌️ (@tomholland2013) on
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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