It's Official! Andrew Garfield IS Spider-Man!

Well, there's one less iconic hero to be cast (or in this case, re-cast).

Amid the ongoing months worth of rumor and speculation of candidates ranging from Jamie Bell, Josh Hutcherson (Ha! Fuck me!), Logan Lerman and others, we have a new web-slinger, ladies and germs.

Sony has officially announced Andrew Garfield has been cast as Spider-Man for the studio’s reboot. As well known by now, Marc Webb will call the shots behind the cameras and been up to his eyeballs in 3D cameras and web-fluid ever since.

So what about young Mr. Garfield soon to be donning the red-and-blue suit? Well, he's an unknown to the general public. I’ve yet to check out the Red Riding trilogy, but he was good in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (Had a brain-fart for a second there) and he'll be appearing this fall in The Social Network. He was also among the finalists reported by THR back in late May.

Everyone's immediate concern appears to be his age. He's actually older than Tobey Maguire upon his being hired by Sam Raimi for the first silver-screen Spider-Man iteration a decade ago. I know. I can't believe it's been that long. When the reboot was first announced, the studio and filmmakers made it crystal clear to everyone. Peter Parker was going back to high-school.

So wouldn't the casting of Garfield (He'll turn 27 this August) risk the character turning into Roger Moore with any sequels down-the-line? That appears that's a moot point. HitFix says the reboot now starts with Webhead as a college student. That's quite the logical move. Issue solved.

All that bullshit aside Garfield's a fine pick. Should be interesting to hear who will fill in for the other roles – especially the identity of the villain.

Update: Josh Hutcherson IS Spider-Man - Depending On Who You Ask!

UPDATE: Not surprisingly, there's been some conflicting info on this puppy. Thankfully, it's not in the bullshit "Nu-uh!" fashion. No, professionals are doing their homework and checking with their own source(s).

CHUD is hearing from their moles Josh Hutcherson "has not yet been offered the part." Not that it's out of the question, but "there is no solid casting of Hutcherson" as of yesterday morning. Further rumors they're hearing peg the young actor to follow in the footsteps on a different Marvel superhero in need of recasting – that of Scott Summers/Cyclops in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class.

On the other end of the spectrum, Entertainment Weekly reached Sony for comment to no avail. Their internal peeps, on the other hand, say Hutcherson is "the guy for the job." To be fair, they were the first ones to report on Marc Webb being in contention to helm the reboot days before others claiming so themselves. Like I said, we'd heard the kid had the role locked a couple of months ago. But this whole matter is causing nothing but headaches (or explosions) among us nerds.

So I fully expect to hear yet another actor in the running before all of this is said and done. Maybe Sony will come out and officially unveil the new web-slinger at Comic-Con in a few weeks like some have speculated?

As of late, Josh Hutcherson (while making the press-rounds for The Kids Are All Right) publicly acknowledged his candidacy as the new Spider-Man for the Marc Webb-helmed reboot. Nine times out of ten when an actor openly admits to being up for an as-yet-cast role, it translates to "I didn't get it."

Not unlike our pal George "El Guapo" Roush of Latino Review, word reached us Sony had settled on the young actor as the newly teenaged web-slinger. But there were definitely signs of trouble when Warner Brothers came out and announced they were fast-tracking a Journey to the Center of the Earth sequel for September 2011 release with production set to start this fall. It certainly looked like Hutcherson had been contractually cock-blocked from the role. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.

As Blue Sky Disney exclusively reports:

"Your friendly, rebooted Spider-Man in the flesh. Word from my Bothans is that Sony has settled on "Journey to the Center of the Earth's" Josh Hutcherson as the newly, high school bound Peter Parker. After several extensive test shoots were performed, Marc Webb and the top Sony $uits decided that Hutcherson was the right fit for the role and an offer was made and has been accepted. Now I wonder who'll be cast as the Lizard?"

I know plenty will bitch and moan about Josh because he doesn't 100% look the part already. Let the history books show, Christopher Reeve didn't look a thing like Superman back in 1977. But talent won out and he was simply made to look the part (i.e. getting into shape and that famous picture of director Richard Donner literally taking shoe-polish to dye his hair black for a screen-test).

This is the first re-assuring sign for a film (and franchise, no less) in trouble ever since the controversial cancelling of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 4 and the almost-instantaneous reboot announcement.

Andy Serkis Leading the Rise of the Apes!

Already visualizing in the board-room at 20^th Century Fox there’s an old-school movie executive with a big cigar in his mouth giving orders to the pinions beneath him. When someone asks, "Sir, we need an actor who can do the motion-capture work for that Planet of the Apes prequel we’re fast-tracking for next summer."

Is it safe to assume his immediate response is "Get me Andy Serkis!"

If it isn’t, then color me surprised. Via their Twitter account, 20^th Century Fox has officially announced the actor (having previously Middle Earth's resident crack-whore Gollum and the King of the Apes himself) will play Caesar, the li'l chimp bastard responsible for the monkey-calypse in Rise of the Apes.

The prequel is scheduled for release June 24, 2011 and I'd be hard-pressed to think of a bigger flop this time next summer. Sorry, folks, but this whole thing is just a bad idea

Doug Liman Offered to Direct The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Warner Brothers has been keeping a watchful eye on Doug Liman as of late.

The director (responsible for launching the popular Jason Bourne franchise with 2002s The Bourne Identity) was supposed to readying his Three Musketeers project for the studio. But with Paul W.S. Anderson's 3D version moving forward (it has a cast, distributor and release date lined up), the writing was on the wall that WB's version wasn't going to happen anytime in the near-future.

Meanwhile, the studio has already met with Liman over the prospects of helming All You Need Is Kill and according to the Los Angeles Times, they’re also keen to get him in the director's chair for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Last we heard on that one, David Dobkin (helmer of WBs crazy-profitable Wedding Crashers and the ass-tastic Fred Claus) was on-board. That doesn't appear to be the case and he'll instead remain in a producing capacity.

But before anyone gets excited, Liman is apparently leaning against taking the gig. So your guess is as good as mine as to who will direct U.N.C.L.E. (WB badly wants this puppy going after the latest script was turned in) or what Liman himself will ultimately do next.

Banshee to Appear in X-Men: First Class?

Hot off the heels of Alice Eve being cast as Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class, Latino Review has their very own casting scoop from the forthcoming Matthew Vaughn-helmed prequel.

Word is another of the early students of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr will be an Irish kid with a loud voice named Sean Cassidy aka Banshee. According to El Mayimbe, the favorite to nab the role is Caleb Landry Jones.

Given his name doesn't immediately brighten your light-bulbs (its okay - didn't for me either). The kid doesn’t have much on his resume with his highest-profile gigs being a guest-stint on NBCs Friday Nights Lights and as "the Boy on Bike" from No Country for Old Men. Remember him? I've in the past jokingly referred to him as the smartest character in the role. He’s the kid at the end who gives Chigurh the shirt off his back (Javier Bardem), takes his bloodied cash and doesn't ask any questions. Basically the only character that psycho-path doesn’t off.

With production expected to commence in August, we'll without a doubt hear more names to the roster.

Movie Moan - Quantum of Sequels

As you can defer from the title, there was plenty of sequel news. So the guys from Movie Moan (Phil, Ed, Lou and Jamie) have enough to fill an hour’s worth of podcasting with. But more important than anything came the A-Team trailer being leaked. If you listened to the last podcast, Phil predicted he would nerdgasm over said trailer once it was released. So, did he? Listen to this week’s show to find out.

Sam Mendes is announced to direct the next James Bond movie (or merely consulting depending on whom you heard it from). Cut to another nerdgasm from Phil. Shit it’s been one Helluva week of that for our favorite British gentleman agent, huh? Spider-Man 4 is officially delayed, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides frustrations (read: no James Woods!) and Blake Lively joining Green Lantern are also discussed.

Plus the latest updates on Star Trek 2, Wolverine 2, G.I. Joe 2 and the Sherlock Holmes sequel. All of that as well as the gang bitches about Clint Eastwood – well mostly Jamie.

Movie Moan - Quantum of Sequels

Star Trek Sequel Officially Coming Summer 2012

Captain's Log: Stardate 01082010.

News has reached our base (via Coming Soon) on just when we can expect the Star Trek sequel. The highly anticipated follow-up to last summer's J.J. Abrams-helmed reboot will beam onto the silver screens June 29, 2012.

Details for the most part remain under lock and key. The only other thing we definitively know is the return of screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Also the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise including the new Captain Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban) and the rest will seek out new life and new civilizations once again. Thank you very much multiple-picture contracts.

Some might be surprised by this latest development. Before Trek was even released, Paramount went ahead and penciled in a summer 2011 release. But as the year rolled on and all we kept hearing from Kurtzman and Orci was them still throwing around ideas, it became crystal clear that the next installment would instead hit cinemas for summer 2012. If you'll remember, we at TMT previously speculated about this development back in October. So we can honestly say we're not surprised by this news-item. At all.

Nonetheless, it's great to see that things are slowly but surely moving forward on the Star Trek sequel.

Movie Moan - Bonus Moan

Because they love you people, our heroes at Movie Moan (Phil, Ed, Lou and Jamie) went ahead and recorded a bonus podcast. Long story short, there was plenty more topics to discuss. But being the genius he is (in his own mind), Jamie decided to do a separate edition right then and there. So here we are.

It's a special look-back at 2009 - the news-items that made the year. Everyone would agree (probaby) that Disney buying Marvel was the story of 2009. There was the infamous Wolverine work-print leak and the Academy Award hosting duties on star Hugh Jackman. The Terminator franchise was put down to sleep concurrently with the re-birth of Star Trek with the J.J. Abrams-helmed reboot. Not to mention, there was the great surprise of District 9 and the situations with Spider-Man 4 and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Note: This was recorded before the updates on both tentpoles earlier this week).

All of that and our heroes make their bold (i.e. stupid and will 99.999999% not happen) predictions for 2010. Jamie pegs Inglorious Basterds to win "Best Picture" and "Best Director" at the Oscars. Lou thinks Avatar and James Cameron won't be nominated in either category. Meanwhile, everyone's favorite British gentleman agent decrees Prince of Persia will be this year's G.I. Joe.

Movie Moan - Bonus Moan

Green Lantern Gets the Greenlight, Baby!

"In brightest day, In blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight!"

That phrase not only applied to the rogues gallery for Green Lantern, but also its at-time sluggish development hitting the silver screen. From time and again, it looked like it wasn’t happening with the multiple changes of directors, screenwriters and even filming locations. In fact, we still don’t know who will be in the damn movie – except for its lead Ryan Reynolds.

But fear not! Now confirmation on the production receiving the so-oh-vital greenlight from Karen Goulekas (the visual effects supervisor on the Martin Campbell-directed/Reynolds-starring comic book tentpole) via her Keg F/X blog:

Green Lantern got the official green light today! And not a second too soon - only 10 weeks out from shooting!

While it's great news we are a go - now we have to actually get our prep done in 10 weeks!

With that in mind, we should expect official news on casting soon enough.

G.I. Joe Sequel Inches Closer to Happening

UPDATE: The super sleuths over at IESB have confirmed through their sources that the writers taking on a possible sequel to GI Joe are Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.  You may remember the news earlier this week or when it was actually reported originally by Chud about a month ago, that the duo will also be taking on the writing duties for the upcoming "Deadpool".

Even though I greatly enjoyed G.I. Joe last summer (calling it "retardedly awesome!"), the prospects of a sequel were always iffy. After the film opened to a respectable $54 million, Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore told the LA Times that a sequel was on the way. Then all we heard was the tumble-weeds passing by.

Now Collider has received word that the studio has commissioned a screenwriter to pen the sequel. Just who this phantom typist is remains to be seen. Their source wouldn’t divulge details beyond that. No release date has been penciled in (I’d assume they would be aiming at summer 2012) and no word on whether or not director Stephen Sommers would return.

Although the cast is already locked down for multiple sequels, so you Channing Tatum fanboys have no reason to pout.

As much as I (and my Movie Moan hetero life mate Phil) enjoyed it, I’m not crazy about seeing another one to tell you the truth. I have a weird feeling the "This is so stupid it’s amazing!" response will die down if another one were to be made. Look at what happened with Transformers. The overwhelming feed-back on the original was how "kick-ass" it was. But its 2009 sequel had a 180 reception across the board despite the fact that it was essentially more of the same.

Just in case a G.I. Joe sequel goes to the way of Spider-Man 4, check out Phil’s Memo to the Executives regarding the subject.