After months of speculation about who will fill the tights of the new Spider-Man, we may finally soon have an answer. The suits at Columbia Pictures have been watching screen-tests for their ultimate Spidey short-list. In a word: thwip!
According to Deadline the final few in serious Spider-Man contention are Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot); Anton Yelchin (Chekov in Star Trek and Kyle Reese in Terminator: Salvation); Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass); Andrew Garfield (The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus); Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson, 3:10 to Yuma); and Alden Ehrenreich (Tetro). Harry Potter alumnus Frank Dillane could have been in there, but opted for drama school instead.
As you'll know full well by now, this isn't Spider-Man 4 per se, but a new start to the franchise, skewing younger, possibly by way of Brian Michael Bendis' alternate plot and chronology in Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man comics. The script is by Jamie Vanderbilt (The Losers, Zodiac) and the 3D film will be directed by 500 Days of Summer's Marc Webb: chosen because Avi Arad likes his way with a teenage drama.
Shooting starts before the year is out, so Columbia and Sony will be wanting to get this small matter sorted, so they can get on with casting everyone else. If you were heading down to Ladbrokes, who would your money be on?