Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) will assume the role of the nerd with Great power and Great responsibility for the reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. The director is Marc Webb, who has a filmmaking portfolio of 500 Days of Summer and a single episode of The Office to his name.

Liam Kruger’s crush Emma Stone (Superbad, The Rocker, Zombieland, Easy A) will play Gwen Stacey, Peter Parker’s main squeeze. As Liam pointed out, her current appearance places her in line with Stacey’s look in Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s original comics. This can only mean happy faces for the fans. I’m sure several hits were out on Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire after they bungled that film with Sandman, Venom and that embarrassing scene where Tobey sports an emo barnet and dances about like a gimp.

The film will also star Charlie Sheen’s old man, Martin as Uncle Ben, Sally Field as Aunt May and Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard. So there are certainly more than a few reputable names out to make collective Spidey amends.

Now, it must be said that the name is a stroke of genius. Nothing too novel, but a throwback to the comics surely means that this film is worth a look. The Amazing Spider-Man was the name for the original comic books, giving some indication that the style of the film will be inspired by those original scribbles.

The official picture gives the Web-Slinger a slightly futuristic and edgy vibe, so the hero will not be clad in the perfectly cut suit that Tobey miraculously made for himself with just a few needles and some thread (remember his guardians were on a shoestring budget).

There’s still a while to go before the film is released (July 2010 in the US), but I’m sure every fan of the comics will be relieved that the film sounds like it’s on a promising path. I think it’s safe to say that whatever Tobey can do, Andrew will do a gazillion times better.

[Source: IGN]

Main image via IGN.