Beaks here...

Update 4/11 7:28 PM: Ugh. Mike Fleming of Deadline New York has just gone live with a story vehemently disputing Drew McWeeny's bold proclamation that Logan Lerman is "almost 100% locked" as Sony's new Spider-Man. Fleming says that sources have told him Lerman isn't even on the studio's shortlist. Hm. Where does this leave us? Same place we were a month ago on CAPTAIN AMERICA: waiting for an official fucking announcement. Fleming (who's probably relying on his boss Nikki Finke's excellent sources at Sony) didn't bother to confirm or deny the other names mentioned below, so for all we know, it's still a wide-open competition. No telling how Drew got this so wrong (if he got this wrong). I'm sure he has a solid source, and I'm sure he's contacting that source right now for re-verification or a good ol' tongue lashing. If this means Johnny Simmons is still in the running, then I'm pleased. Stay tuned.

Looks like the February rumors were accurate: according to HitFix's Drew McWeeny, Logan Lerman is Sony's choice to go a-web-slingin' in Marc Webb's teen-skewing reboot of SPIDER-MAN.

Lerman recently turned in solid work as the titular demigod in Chris Columbus' PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF, but this is easily his highest-profile role to date. He evidently beat out the likes of Anton Yelchin, Jesse Eisenberg, twenty-seven-year-old Patrick Fugit and Johnny Simmons (who would've been my choice out of this group). SPIDER-MAN BEGIN AGAIN is expected to go before cameras later this year in order to hit its July 3, 2012 release date. Will audiences be cool with a full-scale reinvention of a film series they seemed to be enjoying up until three years ago? Seeing as how 99% of entertainment is disposable nowadays, I've no doubt they'll be happy to consign Sam Raimi's movies to the scrap-heap of movies they sorta-enjoyed texting through. The lovely and talented Jamie Vanderbilt (ZODIAC) is the only credited screenwriter at the moment. We'll see how long that lasts.