It seems that Sony is hard at work putting its Spider-Man franchise together, after last week's news that it was abandoning the planned Spider-Man 4, and waving Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire away from the franchise. As we (and, er, lots of other people reported, the plan now is for a complete top to bottom reboot, that would tell once more the high school origins story of Peter Parker. Furthermore, the word ‘gritty' appears to have been used. Ho hum.

As last week wore on, speculation arose as to which director Sony would turn to in order to get a new take on Spider-Man moving, and all the runes seemed to be pointing in the direction of (500) Days Of Summer helmer Marc Webb. That'll be the same Marc Webb then that MTV collared on the way into the Golden Globes, and the same Mark Webb who confessed on the red carpet that he was a big fan of Stan Lee and the Ultimate Spider-Man line. The same Ultimate Spider-Man line that Sony execs are presumably looking towards for their reboot.

Webb hasn't been confirmed one way or another for the director's chair, but the last week has seen precious few other helmers seriously linked with the project, and it's fair to call him the running favourite. Here's the MTV report.

Meanwhile, there's also the small matter of the new Peter Parker/Spider-Man to consider. It'd be no surprise were Sony to pick an actor with obvious appeal to the younger market, and it was equally expected that Twilight star Robert Pattinson would have the spotlight shone in his face. But could the Pattinson speculation have been a case of barking up the wrong tree? For IESB is reporting that a Twilight actor has, indeed, met up with Sony with regards the Spider-Man reboot, but it wasn't Pattinson.

Instead, it was one of his New Moon co-stars, Taylor Lautner. Off the back of his bare chested antics in New Moon, and his instant teenage girl following, Lautner's name has been near the top of many casting director's wish list over the past few months. IESB also reports that Pattinson's age has left him out of the running. It also notes that it's not uncommon for actors to meet with studios, and that it's unclear whether Lautner met about the leading role. But truthfully, who among us would rule that out? We'd wager Sony wouldn't.

The direction of the franchise should become clearer once the star and director are locked down, and we now sit back and await those announcements over the coming months. One thing seems certain: we're going to be getting a very different Spider-Man this time...

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