Emma Stone lands ‘Spider-Man,’ but it could mean she won’t go undercover with ‘Jump Street’
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Sony this afternoon said that ‘Easy A’ star Emma Stone will be the female lead and Spider-Man love interest in Marc Webb’s reboot of the superhero tale.
The news got fanboys a’twitter with the revelation that said lead part would be that of Gwen Stacy, the science student who is Peter Parker’s other love -- and not Mary Jane Watson, the character inhabited by Kirsten Dunst in Sam Raimi’s take on the franchise and the more central of Spidey’s love interests in the Marvel comic books.
But while answering one question about a Sony movie based on a well-known property, it immediately raises another, this time about ’21 Jump Street.’ After initially thinking of the Jonah Hill-penned and -starring reboot of the undercover-cop show as a male-male picture, filmmakers and the studio have been leaning toward dual male-female leads, with Stone right at the center of its plans.
The idea has been to take the actress, already beloved at the studio after the success of ‘Zombieland’ and ‘Easy A,’ and cast her opposite Hill. That would give them a different dynamic than a male-male tandem and attract a female fan base to boot. (It wouldn’t be without precedent: The original show, about a group of policemen who enroll in different high schools and pose as ordinary students to infiltrate crime rings, also starred a female cop (Holly Robinson Peete), opposite male policemen Johnny Depp, Dustin Nguyen and Peter DeLuise. And Stone, after all, knows a little bit about not fitting in at high school after ‘Easy A.’)
But the Spidey role now muddies the waters. ‘Jump Street’ could recast with a different actress or go back to the male-male concept. Or the film could get pushed so Stone could do both. While some familiar with ‘Jump Street’ said the latter was still possible, it would mean the reboot of the Johnny Depp series wouldn’t shoot in early 2011, as had been hoped, since Spidey is shooting through the winter.
There also would be a potential scheduling issue down the road, since it’s unlikely Sony would want to bring out another Stone vehicle so close to its July 2012 release date for Spidey. Looks like it’s Gwen 1, Hoffs: 0.
--Steven Zeitchik
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