While newly-minted bosom buddies Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal choose between Asa Butterfield and Tom Holland for Sony and Marvel’s joint effort to bring Spider-Man to the big screen a third time, another question about the project has long gone unanswered. Who’s directing it? We reported in March that Drew Goddard was the man behind the camera (and the writer’s pen), but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.
According to Deadline, Feige and Pascal have opted for a different direction, and they’ve got a shortlist of directors who currently fit the bill. But what does the new bill look like if Goddard‘s no longer involved?
There are all kinds of rumors raging about the wall crawler, including that Feige and his producing accomplice Amy Pascal are planning an arc that will tell the Spidey story over three to four movies, each covering a year of high school for Peter Parker, who’ll already have been bitten by the radioactive spider so we don’t have to see that all over again. The tone they are searching for in the coming of age tale is John Hughes humor and emotion, plus all the superhero stuff.
That’s right, folks. Imagine the high school angst of The Breakfast Club with a detention-bound Peter Parker who’s fully capable of, you know, escaping from Mr. Vernon.
The names on the shortlist include:
- Jonathan Levine, writer and director of 50/50 and Warm Bodies
- Ted Melfi, writer and director of St. Vincent
- Jason Moore, director of Pitch Perfect
- John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein, the writing and directing due behind the upcoming Vacation reboot
- Jared Hess, writer and director of Napoleon Dynamite and Don Verdean
If the Hughes-inspired approach is truly the way Feige and Pascal want to go, then all five choices sound like they’d be a great fit — at least for that half of the mix. The web-slinging action? Eh, not so sure on that point.
I’d love to see Melfi get the job, if only because his work history with Bill Murray might possibly lead to the esteemed man’s introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Otherwise, Hess’s Napoleon Spider-Man could be interesting — especially the dance scene.
(Via Deadline)
