Marc Webb Confirmed To Direct 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2'

Briefly: Since the release of Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man, which cast Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker and Spider-Man, and made a few changes to the character's origin, we haven't known if Webb would end up directing the sequel. The plan for a sequel is obvious, and despite the fact that the critical and fan reception to The Amazing Spider-Man was middling, the film performed well. (Just over $750m worldwide.) The major roadblock to Webb's return was said to be a deal with Fox Searchlight that Searchlight wanted to put into action.

Now Webb is confirmed to return to direct the sequel, with Garfield reprising his role from this summer's film and Emma Stone in talks to return.

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and Jeff Pinkner have been rewriting the sequel script penned by James Vanderbilt; hopefully the sort of problems that caused last-minute editing in the first film will be tackled at the script stage this time. The Spider-Man sequel is already set for release on May 2, 2014. Production is expected to begin in early 2013.

Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, said in a statement:

We could not be more confident in the direction we are taking this new Spider-Man storyline and we are tremendously excited to be ramping up production again with Marc at the helm and Andrew continuing on as Peter Parker. We can't wait to share what we have in store for Peter and Spider-Man with audiences worldwide.

[Variety]