Logan Lerman Is (Not) the Lead in the Spider-Man Reboot
Posted 04.13.10 by BrentJS
Just a couple weeks after Sony announced that it was scrapping plans for Spider-Man 4, Logan Lerman, the young star of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, created a firestorm of controversy when he announced that he was in talks with Sony to take over the role of Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, from Tobey Maguire. The story was quickly debunked and Lerman backpedaled on his announcement the very next day. Now, Lerman's name is being thrown around again, with one web-site calling him the "frontrunner" for the role and another claiming that he is "100% not" getting the role.
On Saturday, popular movie site HitFix announced that it had exclusive news about director Marc Webb's Spider-Man reboot, declaring that "the search for the new 'Spider-Man' appears to be over."
HitFix has exclusively learned that Logan Lerman is first choice for Sony Pictures and the clear frontrunner to replace Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker in the reboot of the blockbuster franchise. A source close to the production tells HitFix Lerman is 'almost 100% locked' but not in contract negotiations for the role yet.
HitFix also listed the "rumored contenders" that Lerman supposedly beat out for the role as including Anthon Yelchin, Jesse Eisenberg, Patrick Fugit and Johnny Simmons.
However, shortly after the HitFix article was posted, industry news site Deadline debunked the article. Citing "insiders at Sony," Deadline reported that "the young actor is not getting the role."
In fact, these sources were very definitive in denying the story, and were sure that Lerman was 100% not going to be Spidey and that he is not on the list of candidates being seriously considered.
Deadline has a pretty good track record of getting insider information and was the first to predict that Webb would be offered the directing gig on the reboot. However, even Deadline didn't seem too sure about its own information, adding at the end of the article that the HitFix author "is often right about stuff."