Marc Webb

Spider-Man 4 may be dead, but Sony is wasting no time in moving on to its replacement. Word is the studio has hired (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb to orchestrate the first film in the new saga — as well as two additional movies based around the younger Peter Parker and his spandexed alter ego. The news may seem surprising for a relative newcomer to feature film, but Webb supposedly has two things in his favor: Columbia's chairman Amy Pascal likes him, and he comes with a much cheaper price tag than veteran Sam Raimi.

I was against a Spider-Man update before, but things just got interesting. Webb took a ton of lighthearted liberties with Summer, so I'm hoping his younger sensibility and creativity can breathe some life into the old franchise. Let's just hope we've seen the last of those Peter Parker dance sequences.

There's some music and dancing in their current indie romance, (500) Days of Summer, but Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the movie's director, Marc Webb, aren't stopping there. They've put together a little music video to Deschanel's own "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" which she made with M. Ward as the musical duo She & Him. As you might expect from the adorable Deschanel/Gordon-Levitt pairing, the video is extremely cute, a little campy and sometimes sexy. Gordon-Levitt plays a bank robber who has a connection with the pretty teller who's handing him the money. Undeniably drawn to one another, the two swing and swirl and trot their way around the bank in their own private reverie.

It's so cute it practically makes my teeth ache. But, you know, in a good way. The video automatically starts after the jump. To watch and "awww!" just read more

After Mamma Mia!'s global earnings of $600 million last year, Universal may be looking toward Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber for its next movie musical success. The studio is apparently developing an adaptation of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar with an interesting directorial choice: 500 Days of Summer director Marc Webb. Here's more:

The story . . . is generally is seen as decidedly a product of the '70s, with some characters played as hippies. And Webb, well, he's a product of the modern era, fashioning a career out of stylish but emotionally potent music videos for the likes of Green Day (and then, of course, the musical melancholy of Summer).

But Webb has long had an affinity for the project, a rock opera that (perhaps a little like parts of Summer) mixes spiritual uplift with the pop-music type. And just as [director Norman] Jewison's involvement brought a '70s sensibility to the original, Webb could bring a modern, hipstery take.

Well, 500 Days of Summer does feature some singing and choreographed dance. Could you see a "hipstery" version of Jesus Christ Superstar working on the big screen in this day and age?

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