The upcoming Spider-man flick now has a title – The Amazing Spider-man – and we’ve had a couple of official photos, but there’s still been very little news on the plot. One thing that did seem clear though was that it was going to be a total reboot, rehashing the origins story and taking things back to the beginning, with Peter Parker in high school, dealing with being newly arachnidly-enhanced.
However producer Avi Arad, who was involved with Sam Raimi’s trilogy of Spider flicks and has now ported over to The Amazing Spider-man, suggests it may not be the total do-over most have suggested it will be. He told EW that, “It’s not a comeback. You have to look at it this way: Do you want to know more about The Amazing Spider-Man? This movie is going to tell stories that you didn’t see in movies 1, 2, and 3.” The magazine adds that ‘Exec producer Avi Arad says the film wont erase what came before but will try to weave a narrative that could take place within the framework of the earlier films.’
However, the info we’ve had so far suggests Arad is being a tad slippery, as with new actors, taking things back to high school, a different tone, fresh director and tweaks to the origins (for example, in the new film Parker’s webs come from a device attached to his wrists – as in the original comics – whereas Raimi made them an organic ability), there’s no doubt this is a complete reboot of the franchise. It’s difficult to see then how the new movie could genuinely be reconciled with Raimi’s flicks. However with many grumbling about starting over again so quickly after the last round of Spider movies, Arad may have felt the need to try and underplay things.
We’ll be able to find out quite how different The Amazing Spider-man is, or if it fits well with the earlier movies, when it hits cinema July 3rd, 2012.