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As "Spider-Man" moves forward to begin shooting in December, pieces are slowly being put in place. Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans recently came on board playing Gwen Stacy and The Lizard respectively. They join Andrew Garfield in a reboot of Sony's lucrative franchise. But word has arrived of a couple more intriguing parts to be filled.
Moviehole reports that casting is out for young versions of Peter Parker and his nemesis in the film, The Lizard. So do you know a kid you think has what it takes? Sony is looking for a dark-haired Caucasian boy age 4 to 6 (sorry Donald Glover) for Spidey and a kid between 8 and 11 years old for Billy Connors. But before everyone loses their shit about a possible "Young Spider-Man" spinoff don't count on it. These parts are most likely for small moments and since the "Spider-Man" films are PG-13 and pretty much marketed to young kids anyway, don't count on seven-year-olds running around in spandex.
It's been a while since we read the comics, but Billy was a cancer survivor and at one point was nearly killed by his father Curt Connors when his alter-ego The Lizard decided he wanted to hurt him.
Of course whether or not the film goes in this direction remains to be seen but it does point at some potentially interesting elements lined up for the next iteration of the franchise.
Even with the identity of the actor playing him now known, with the announcement of Rhys Ifans in the part at the beginning of this week, the details of who Spidey would be fighting in Marc Webb's upcoming reboot of "Spider-Man" had remained vague. John Malkovich had been cast as The Vulture in what would have been Sam Raimi's fourth outing in the franchise, but when the plug was pulled late last year on that version, it left things up in the air.
Rumors of The Vulture appearing remained (although where Webb & co would have found the dramatic potential in Peter Parker going up against the New York Magazine pop culture blog beats us...), and Deadline briefly linked Philip Seymour Hoffman to the role of Venom (played in the third Raimi movie by Topher Grace), but one character has been consistently mentioned in reports since casting began: The Lizard. Both Michael Fassbender and Christoph Waltz were mentioned in connection with the role, but when Marc Webb praised Ifans' mix of "warmth and rage," in the press release announcing the actor's casting, many, including us, speculated that we would indeed see the character in the film.
And indeed, The Wrap have confirmed that Ifans will be playing Dr. Curt Connors, who transforms into a creature known as The Lizard after an experiment intended to grow his missing arm back goes wrong. The role was previously taken by Dylan Baker ("Happiness"), who played Connors in all three Raimi movies, but never got to take center stage.
It makes sense that Webb and Sony would want to go for a villain not featured in any of the previous films, although we hope they go down a different route than "Peter Parker's mentor goes bad," which was covered fairly convincingly by Alfred Molina in "Spider-Man 2," easily the best film of the franchise to date. Ifans will be up against Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, and filming begins by the end of the year for a summer 2012 release.
The Hollywood career of Welsh actor Rhys Ifans has been somewhat stop-start since his break-out role in "Notting Hill" -- despite turning in solid work in British flicks like "Enduring Love" and "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," his adventures across the pond have mostly consisted of the underwhelming likes of "Little Nicky" and "The Shipping News." But coming off the back of an excellent supporting role in Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg," and with Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous" and a role in the final "Harry Potter" films on the way, Ifans looks set to book a role that'll prove to be easily the most high profile of his career.
According to Mike Fleming at Deadline, Ifans has been offered the role of the villain of Marc Webb's reboot of the studio's golden goose "Spider-Man." Ifans would join Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, who've already been cast as, respectively, Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. There's no firm word on who the actor would play if he takes the role (and we can't imagine why he wouldn't): The Lizard has been rumored to be the villain in the picture, but recent reports have pegged Venom as making a possible reappearance.
Michael Fassbender, Christoph Waltz and, more recently, Philip Seymour Hoffman have all been linked to the role, but it looks like Ifans has landed it -- we imagine that Hoffman turned the project down, if it even reached that stage. Whoever Ifans ends up playing, it's another interesting, and somewhat offbeat, addition to a very strong cast for a project that few held hopes for when it was announced.
Update: A press release has gone out confirming that Ifans has signed on. Columbia Pictures president Matt Tolmach commented that "We have been very fortunate to attract some of the best actors working today to play the villains in the Spider-Man movies, and it is exciting to see that trend continue with Rhys Ifans. After seeing his performance in our upcoming film "Anonymous," we're in awe of his talent and think he's the perfect choice to take on this role," while director Webb added "What sets the Spider-Man villains apart is the complexity of their relationships with Peter Parker. Rhys' incredible ability to embody both warmth and rage makes him the ideal choice for this character."
While there's still no word of who Ifans will be playing, Webb's statement sounds like it could be hinting towards The Lizard -- the 'complex' relationship and mix of 'warmth and rage' certainly sound about right. We're sure it'll be made clear down the line.
It's partly because of the regular, reliable nature of the franchise, but we never really anticipate the "Harry Potter" movies. Since the awful first two Chris Columbus entries, the quality of the series has actually been fairly high, with the last entry, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince," proving the best since Alfonso Cuaron's third movie, but really, they come, they go, we see them, we enjoy them and we forget about them: nothing in the films has really stuck with us over time.
But this may be about to change with the first of the two-part finale, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One," which, judging from the final trailer that debuted at Yahoo last night, has a sweep and scope that we've yet to see from the series. Director David Yates returns for the third time in a row, and his command over J.K. Rowling's world seems as strong as ever, with some neat directorial touches on display.
We also get our first look at some of the new additions to the cast, the last actors in Britain not to have yet done what's become akin to the draft for British character actors: a welsh-accented Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Peter Mullan, Sophie Thompson and David O'Hara all crop up here, along with all the usual Potter cast members. We think that those trying to drum up Oscar talk for the film are a little deluded — the second part, maybe, but probably only as an acknowledgement of the biggest franchise of all time, rather than any intrinsic value in the picture — but this certainly looks a highlight of what's set to be a rather thin season for event movies.
As "Spider-Man" moves forward to begin shooting in December, pieces are slowly being put in place. Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans recently came on board playing Gwen Stacy and The Lizard respectively. They join Andrew Garfield in a reboot of Sony's lucrative franchise. But word has arrived of a couple more intriguing parts to be filled.
