Amazing Coverage for The Amazing Spider-Man 2

This week has seen countless stories surrounding the production of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, with Marc Webb explaining his decision to cut Shailene Woodley's scenes as Mary Jane Watson from the upcoming sequel:

In this Twitter-networked world and immediate website stories emerging as-it-happens, this ever evolving story has been the subject of countless conversations since it was revealed that Mary Jane would even appear in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

First, in February JustJaredJr.com released photos of Shailene Woodley on set as the red-head – this was circulated widely– until news about her character not appearing until the third movie spread earlier this month. Rumours now became central to the publicity as it emerged that Woodley was not just being ‘saved’ until the third film – but she was due to recast completely. Suddenly Sarah Gadon is cast and rumours merged together to assume that Gadon was the new MJ … until she used Twitter to clarify this was not the case.

If we recall The Amazing Spider-Man, many questions arose about missing footage that appeared in the trailer. It was clear that the film originally contained a longer narrative involving Peter Parker’s (Andrew Garfield) father – and again, once this was cut, many articles discussed and analysed what this meant. Did Webb cut it or was the film controlled by producers? Marc Webb’s limited experience meant that he was more malleable for the producers and these last-minute changes gave the impression that this was what happened.

On Critic-Wire, Matt Singer wrote about World War Zand how a famously troubled-production doesn’t automatically mean a flop movie (a la John Carter and Heaven’s Gate.) but the relentless reporting on this particular sequel may spoil the film before it is released. Already, I can imagine reviews opening their analysis by highlighting this situation - and how shooting must’ve been difficult as the script was unfinished. But this is not the filmmaker’s fault and is merely a product of the modern world and our need to know the shooting schedule of popular films.

Life of Pi shot footage of (former Spider-Man star) Tobey Maguire in the role of the interviewer only to be replaced, and re-shot, by Rafe Spall. Nicole Kidman was cast as the central role in David Fincher’s Panic Room, but had to leave mid-production due to a knee injury post-Moulin Rouge and was replaced by Jodie Foster. Eric Stoltz was originally Marty McFly – but Robert Zemeckis took it upon himself to recast with Michael J. Fox.

With regards to The Amazing Spider-Man 2, rarely would we be told so much detail about the production of a film – so let us take this with a pinch of salt and judge the final film fairly when it is released in 2014, rather than use this as ammo to store up in a planned-attack when critiquing the sequel on opening weekend.