Amazing Spider-Man Director and Star to Return for Sequel

Sony Pictures announced today that The Amazing Spider-Man's director Marc Webb and star Andrew Garfield will both return for a sequel, tentatively titled The Amazing Spider-Man 2, due out in May 2014. Webb, who is under contract to 20th Century Fox for a film, had been questioning whether it was even possible to make the schedule work. At one point, rumor had it that Fox would agree to allow him to work on the Spider-sequel provided Webb took on another film for the studio, but it's not clear yet whether that's how things eventually worked out or whether another agreement was reached. Since Sony revealed before The Amazing Spider-Man was even in theaters that there would be another two films in the series, many have questioned the logic of committing resources to bring Webb back for a second if it would only turn out that he couldn't return for the third and final film in the trilogy anyway. "We could not be more confident in the direction we are taking this new Spider-Man storyline and we are tremendously excited to be ramping up production again with Marc at the helm and Andrew continuing on as Peter Parker," Columbia Pictures President Doug Belgrad said in a press release. "We can't wait to share what we have in store for Peter and Spider-Man with audiences worldwide." Emma Stone, who played Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man, is reportedly also in talks to return for the sequels. Look for an announcement regarding those negotiations sooner than later; it would be a nice way to tie into the upcoming home video release, wouldn't it?