The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man is a 2012 American superhero film directed by Marc Webb, based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It is a reboot of the Spider-Man film franchise, portraying the character's origin story and his development into a superhero while a high school student. The film stars Andrew Garfield in the title role, with Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy and Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors. Development of the film began with the cancellation of Spider-Man 4 in 2010, ending director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film series that had starred Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco. Opting to reboot the franchise with the same production team, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced a July 2012 release date for The Amazing Spider-Man. James Vanderbilt was hired to write the script while Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves helped fine-tune it. Pre-production involved auditioning many actors for the roles of Parker and Stacy. New designs were introduced from the comics such as artificial web-shooters. Using Red Digital Cinema Camera Company's RED Epic camera, principal photography started in December 2010 in Los Angeles before moving to New York City. The film entered post-production in April 2011. 3ality Technica provided 3D image processing, Sony Imageworks handled CGI and James Horner crafted the film score. Sony Entertainment built a promotional website, released three trailers and launched a viral marketing campaign, among other moves. Tie-ins included a video game by Beenox. The film premiered on June 13 in Tokyo and was released in the United States on July 3 in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D. Critical reaction was generally positive, with a 73% certified fresh score from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The film was also a financial success; it is currently the 45th-highest grossing film of all time and the fourth-highest grossing film in 2012, although not matching its predecessors. The first of at least two sequels is scheduled for release on May 2, 2014.