14 DAY TRIAL // Fresh off the commercial success of “New Moon,” Robert Pattinson is admittedly preparing to take on the role that will change his career for ever. Reports surfaced online claim that, now that Columbia Pictures has nixed all plans for “Spider-Man 4” as part of the franchise and will reboot it by having Peter Parker go back to high school, studio bosses are looking at Robert Pattinson as Tobey Maguire’s replacement, MTV informs.
The rumor seems to go back a few months but has only started to gain more ground after the “Spider-Man 4” official announcement was made the other day. Apparently, studio bosses are looking to capitalize on the popularity of the British actor by virtually taking “Twilight” fans and using their money to bring the “Spider-Man” franchise back to life. Aside from the issue of Pattinson’s age (he’s 23 and supposed to play a high school nerd) and the fact that a director has not yet been chosen (which means the studio can’t possibly have already settled on a lead), there are other issues to consider as well.
As MTV also puts it, though there might be some truth to this rumor, only in the sense that someone at the movie studio might be considering Pattinson a good choice for a rebooted franchise, there are countless arguments that work against it in real life. “Rob would have to do the one thing he never could do for Summit or ‘Twilight’ for this role: become buff. Remember how he needed to have his abs added on by make-up because he couldn’t do enough crunches at the gym in ‘New Moon’ pre-production? Remember the very lack-luster sparkle scene in the middle of ‘Twilight,’ when all that was revealed was RPattz’s chest was nothing to drool over? And then think back to the first ‘Spider-Man’ film, with Toby Maguire’s miraculous beefy transition after he was bit by a radioactive spider,” MTV writes.
“And then there are the tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny details that would make Robert completely unfit to play a young Peter Parker: too old, too tall, too gangly, too handsome, too sullen and definitely not witty enough to crack out fast one-liners. Because we are talking Peter Parker / Spider-Man in high school adolescence here […], not Peter Parker / Spider-Man after he’s reached his prime in confidence and ability (aka after the mess that was ‘Spider-Man 3’). And I don’t think RPattz is anywhere near smart-nerdy enough to pull it off,” the publication goes on to say.
There’s more: as per many critics, Pattinson has still not proved his skills, therefore would be too much of a risk for any studio to take with such a major investment as any “Spider-Man” film is; the “Twilight” fanbase might clash with the “Spider-Man” fanbase, and no studio wants to upset the fans, especially Spidey’s; and last but not least, by the time the cameras start rolling, Pattinson will be probably be 25 or 26, which means he’ll be too old for the part.