Ever since Sony announced that the next entry in the Spider-Man franchise would be a reboot rather than a sequel to the Sam Raimi films, speculation has been rampant as to what young actor might fill Tobey Macguire’s boots as a teenage Peter Parker.  Alvin Sargent (Spider-Man 3) is currently in the middle of re-writing James Vanderbilt’s (Zodiac) script, which is said to be “a more gritty, contemporary redo of the series” with a high school setting.  Meanwhile, director Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer) has reportedly been meeting with potential candidates for months now.

Hit the jump for details on the potential spider-men, including Jamie Bell, Alden Ehrenrich, Frank Dillane, Andrew Garfield, and Josh Hutcherson.

If you’re a fan of David Fincher’s Zodiac, Peter Berg’s The Rundown, or are looking forward to either Sylvain White’s The Losers, Marc Webb’s Spider-Man reboot, or director Kevin Macdonald’s Murder Mystery, you’re going to really enjoy my interview with screenwriter James Vanderbilt.  That’s because earlier today, I got to sit down with the talented screenwriter for an extended interview that covered almost his entire IMDb profile.

We first started talking about The Losers, then we went to Zodiac.  From there I tried to ask about Marc Webb’s Spider-Man reboot, and then we got to a project he is writing for director Kevin Macdonald called Murder Mystery.  Finally, Vanderbilt talked about a project he is writing for himself to direct that takes place in the world of journalism, and then we covered how he writes and The Rundown.

Trust me, it’s a great interview.  Since it’s over 20 minutes, I’ve time indexed each question so you can decided what you want to hear us talk about.  Hit the jump to check it out.

On Saturday, we reported that, according to HitFix, actor Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson) was “almost 100% locked” to star in Marc Webb’s Spider-Man reboot.  Tonight, Deadline is reporting that “Lerman was 100% not going to be Spidey and that he is not on the list of candidates being seriously considered.”  This is February all over again when Lerman said he was in early discussions to play the part and Sony responded that, “No offers have been made, nor have any business discussions been made with Lerman.”

Obviously, this is a major role and everyone wants to know who will have the near-impossible task of following Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man.  Maybe we’ll all wake up tomorrow and learn that Lerman is Peter Parker, but only in the metaphysical sense that, on some level, we are all Peter Parker.  As always, I’m going to keep my fingers crossed for metaphysical casting news.

For a brief refresher on the Spidey reboot story thus far, hit the jump.

Back in early February, 18-year-old Logan Lerman, the star of Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, said he was in early discussions to play Peter Parker in Sony’s reboot of the Spider-Man franchise for director Marc Webb.

Shortly after the news hit the net, Sony made sure (via THR) to let everyone know Lerman was one of many actors being considered for the role as they said, “No offers have been made, nor have any business discussions been made with Lerman.”

But a new report on HitFix says Logan Lerman is the first choice for Sony Pictures reboot and is “almost 100% locked”, but is not yet in contract negotiations for the role.  More after the jump:

Back in September of 2009, I was invited – along with four other online journalists – to the set of director Sylvain White’s The Losers when the movie was being shot in hot and humid Puerto Rico.  While I’ve covered many movies while working for Collider, this was the first time visiting a movie set could actually cost me a lot of money.  The reason?  The location was a secure Port that was guarded by Homeland Security.  Each of us had to wear a special badge given to us by the government and we were warned if we lost it…we’d have to pay $10,000 dollars.  Needless to say, I watched my badge like a hawk.

If you haven’t heard of The Losers, the movie stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoë Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Holt McCallany, Óscar Jaenada, and Jason Patric and it’s written by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt. The film is based on the Vertigo comic series by Andy Diggle and Jock.

While I hate making comparisons, The Losers reminds me a lot of The A-Team, except rather than helping those who can’t help themselves, The Losers are out to clear their names and get revenge on the one who betrayed them.  Simply put…it’s an action thriller that should be a lot of fun.

Hit the jump for what we did on set and you can also take a look at 6 brand new character posters of the cast:

Director Kevin Macdonald (State of Play) has signed onto helm the murder mystery, Murder Mystery.  Billed as a “whodunit” (I never would have guessed), Variety says the film, “revolves around an American couple honeymooning in Europe who are implicated when they witness a murder and wind up embroiled in international intrigue.”  Yet another reason why there’s no good reason to go to Euro Disney.

The screenplay is by James Vanderbilt who wrote Zodiac as well as the upcoming Spider-Man reboot.  Macdonald’s next film, the historical drama The Eagle of the Ninth, which stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell, is set to hit theaters on September 24th.

Warner Bros. has released the final poster for director Sylvain White’s The Losers and you can check it out after the jump.  Based on the DC/Vertigo comic book series, the film was written by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt and it stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) as Clay; Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek) as Aisha; Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) as Jensen; Idris Elba (The Wire) as Roque; Columbus Short (Quarantine) as Pooch; Oscar Jaeneda (Che: Part Two) as Cougar; and Jason Patric (My Sister’s Keeper) as Max.

I did a set visit for The Losers last year and my report and on set interviews will be getting posted later this month.  Until then, check out the poster and the full synopsis:

Hope your spider-senses are tingling out there because we’ve got more news on the upcoming Spider-Man reboot from Sony/Columbia Pictures. As most of you already know, the short list of filmmakers being pitched around to take up the reigns of the new Spidey franchise, which contained names like Fincher and Cameron (who was spearheading the effort to bring the webbed wonder to the silver screen in the early nineties), was quickly pared down, leaving 500 Days of Summer director, Marc Webb, the man in charge. I’m going to spare you all the joke about it being meant to be… no I won’t; Webb, Spider-Man, get it?! Anyway, now we’ve got a few more details about the story angle and scope that the studio is shooting for with this new take on the world of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, not the least of which being that the new film is rumored to be budgeted in the $80 million range. That’s almost half the budget of the first film back in 2002!

THR hit with the news that the studio is aiming for the relatively low budget of $80 million, also looking to cast the film with unknown actors. This is understandable, as you want the audience to associate the characters with the actors and not the personality of the actor themselves. It’s the reason Christopher Reeve is still Superman in our hearts and minds, it was the first thing anybody ever saw him in. The budget is a bit more troubling as it seems the studio is cutting out the spectacle that audiences have come to expect from a Spider-flick, perhaps wanting to disassociate the new series from Raimi’s films as much as possible. But are they really expecting general audiences to respond after cutting out the main reason Tom, Dick, and Harry go to see these movies? It’s a bit of a craps shoot. Of course now the Spider-Man name is enough to get people in the door. For more on this and a few story details, pull on your spandex and hit the jump.

More details have arisen regarding today’s massive news that Sony would be scrapping Spider-Man 4, kicking out Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, et al., and rebooting the series.  EW reports that Sony wants “a more gritty, contemporary redo of the series,” and are focused on younger, up-and-coming directors.  I’m going to try and be optimistic and not take that to mean Sony wants someone who can make a good film, but more importantly won’t have enough weight to push any independent artistic decisions.

EW also reports that Sony was always aiming to reboot the series in 2012 no matter what, but they did want one last outing with Raimi, Maguire, and co.  This means that Sony just pushed up the timetable on setting up a crappy precedent where they don’t have to use over forty years of material from the comics, but can just keep redoing the series to suit the demographic with the most purchasing power at the time.  That’s why when Sony means Peter Parker is going back to high-school, it means they’re skewing towards the Twilight crowd because they know the fanboys will nut up, take it, and then complain about it after they’ve already paid x-amount of dollars to see it (most likely in 3D; Sony hasn’t announced that for this new movie, but it’s a safe assumption they’ll jump on that bandwagon as well).

Hit the jump for more details on the Spidey reboot story, including the status of the script, why Sony is rushing to get this film made, and when we can expect to hear who the new director and star of the series will be.

So here’s your news story of the day: Deadline is reporting that Spider-Man 4 is no more, which was confirmed by a press release Sony Pictures sent out.  The next Spider-Man movie will be a reboot with a new director, cast, working off a script by James Vanderbilt.  The point of contention on Spider-Man 4 was that Raimi said he couldn’t make Sony’s Summer 2011 release date and make a creatively rewarding film.  Deadline also reports that Maguire wasn’t upset at the decision and feels he’s made three quality Spider-Man films.  Most fans would agree with two-thirds of his assessment.  However, Maguire could move to The Shire as he was rumored to play the lead in Guillermo Del Toro’s The Hobbit (a rumor which Maguire denied, but other sources say that he’s fibbing)  As for Raimi, this could open up his move to World of Warcraft or Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day.

Of course, I believe the news of Spider-Man 4‘s collapse is a bummer for fans of the franchise.  Raimi won’t have a chance to redeem himself from the third film, and reboots are so overdone, and in the case of Spider-Man, completely unnecessary.  The first film came out in 2002 and Spider-Man 3, for all its faults, in no way killed the franchise.  We do not need a refresher.  There’s also a lot of blatant (and expected) spinning in the press release.  The one that stings the most is Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures, saying, ” We have always believed that story comes first,” This casts aspersions on Raimi’s ability as a storyteller, they’re going back to a story they’ve already told, and I think even without Deadline’s report, it was clear that this was motivated more by release date than by story.

Hit the jump to read the press release and its poor argument for moving the character backwards instead of forwards.

Thanks to Idris Elba’s Twitter account, the first image from director Sylvain White’s “The Losers” has hit the web. As you can see, the image shows Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Chris Evans, Oscar Jaenada, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan on the set somewhere in Puerto Rico. More on the movie and the full image after the jump:

While “Spider-Man 4″ is still being put together, Sony is not wasting any more time scheduling Peter Parker’s future adventures on movie screens as they’ve hired James Vanderbilt (“The Losers”, “Zodiac”) to pen both “Spider-Man 5″ and “Spider-Man 6″! So what does that mean for the future of the franchise and director Sam Raimi’s involvement? It’s after the jump: