And The New SPIDER-MAN Is...

It's taken three years since Sony revamped Marvel's Spider-Man franchise with actor Andrew Garfield following Tobey MacGuire's preceding trilogy. It begs the question however: How many Spider-Men does it take for a famed comic book movie franchise to work on the big screen?

Yes, you're forgiven if you're fatigued by all of the Spidey-hype. I know I was, and all while Sony was left with a huge epic mess of its own last year through a series of damming e-mail hacks (they're developing a movie on it too, because why not?). Rest assured though, they've picked up the pace since then with both companies merging for a new Spider-Man movie venture all while Marvel continues to blow minds with inked character Miles Morales taking the comic book reigns. The movie itself is keeping its Peter Parker iteration though, and more annoucements are to come after today. Until then, there were six candidates before there were two, and now actor Tom Holland is poised as the lead for a 2017 release.

The actor also just completed Brendan Muldowney's upcoming period epic, Pilgrimage, which is now in post production and is pending for a release later this year, so Marvel's announcement was pretty timely.

Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios are proud to announce that after a full worldwide casting search, Tom Holland will play Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the next Spider-Man film, in theaters in IMAX and 3D on July 28, 2017.  The film will be directed by Jon Watts, director of "Cop Car," the upcoming thriller that made its debut earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.  

Marvel and Sony Pictures, and producers Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal conducted an extensive search for both the actor and the director.  The studios and producers were impressed by Holland’s performances in "The Impossible," “Wolf Hall,” and the upcoming "In the Heart of the Sea," and by a series of complex screen tests.  Following Marvel’s tradition of working with the brightest next wave of directors, Watts also went through multiple meetings with Feige, Pascal, and the studio, before winning the job. 

Commenting on the announcement, Tom Rothman, Sony Pictures Motion Pictures Group Chairman, said, “It’s a big day here at Sony. Kevin, Amy and their teams have done an incredible job.  The Marvel process is very thorough, and that’s why their results are so outstanding.  I’m confident Spider-Man will be no exception.  I’ve worked with a number of up-and-coming directors who have gone on to be superstars and believe that Jon is just such an outstanding talent.  For Spidey himself, we saw many terrific young actors, but Tom’s screen tests were special.   All in all, we are off to a roaring start.” 

Feige commented, “As with James Gunn, Joss Whedon, and the Russo brothers, we love finding new and exciting voices to bring these characters to life.  We spent a lot of time with Jon and find his take and work inspiring.” 

Pascal added, “Sony, Marvel, Kevin and I all knew that for Peter Parker, we had to find a vibrant, talented young actor capable of embodying one of the most well-known characters in the world.  With Tom, we’ve found the perfect actor to bring Spider-Man’s story into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.” 

Sony Pictures will finance and release worldwide the next installment of the $4 billion Spider-Man franchise on July 28, 2017, in a film co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. Together, they will collaborate on a new creative direction for the Web-Slinger. 

Spider-Man, embraced all over the world, is the most successful franchise in the history of Sony Pictures, with the five films having taken in more than $4 billion worldwide.