British teen Holland nets super role as Spider-Man
LOS ANGELES: Months of speculation ended on Tuesday as British actor Tom Holland scored a coveted Hollywood superhero franchise, and will be spinning webs on Andrew Garfield’s heels.
Sony Pictures and Marvel, apparently keen to get back to Spidey’s schoolboy beginnings in the comic’s tradition, picked the up-and-coming boyish 19year-old who starred in “The Impossible” to play Peter Parker.
“We saw many terrific young actors, but Tom’s screen tests were special. All in all, we are off to a roaring start,” said Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Pictures Group.
Holland’s first Spider-Man film, as yet untitled, will be released in 2017. He follows British-American Garfield and American Tobey Maguire. Jon Watts will be directing. News of Holland’s selection may disappoint some fans who had said they wanted a black actor to play Spider-Man for the upcoming film.
Walt Disney Co’s Marvel Studios will co-produce the film with Sony. Under the agreement announced in February, Spider-Man will appear in the Marvel film, and Marvel characters, such as Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, can appear in later Spider-Man films.
Holland is expected to make his first appearance as SpiderMan in “Captain America: Civil War,” which is due for release in summer 2016.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, a division of Sony Corp, will continue to own the cinematic rights to Spider-Man.
Writer Stan Lee and writer/ artist Steve Ditko created the fictional superhero character, who first appeared in comics in 1962.
The “Spider-Man” franchise has earned more than US$4 billion at the box office worldwide, making it the most successful franchise in the history of Sony Pictures. — AFP/Reuters
We saw many terrific young actors, but Tom’s screen tests were special. All in all, we are off to a roaring start.
Tom Rothman, chairman of Sony Pictures Motion Pictures Group