What Can We Learn From The Official Synopsis For 'The Amazing Spider-Man'?

Sony is rebooting Spider-Man's screen image, and director Marc Webb has shot The Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield playing Peter Parker, Emma Stone playing Gwen Stacy, and Rhys Ifans playing Dr. Curt Connors, the man who becomes the Lizard.

We know the basics of the story — Spider-Man's beginnings are among the most oft-told comic book stories — but Sony has proclaimed that The Amazing Spider-Man will feature the untold story of Peter Parker's early years. We don't have a lot of info that illuminates what, specifically, the untold aspects of the story are. But a new official synopsis from Sony provides a few clues. 

AICN shot out this synopsis:

One of the world's most popular characters is back on the big screen as a new chapter in the Spider-Man legacy is revealed in "The Amazing Spider-Man." Focusing on an untold story that tells a different side of the Peter Parker story, the new film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, with Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the film in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures, which will open in theaters everywhere in 3D on July 3, 2012.

"The Amazing Spider-Man" is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.

Some of this info came out originally in a recent Japanese press conference.

There isn't a lot here that is truly new, but that bit about the briefcase and its relationship to Connors and the work being done at Oscorp is a new angle, at least with respect to the versions of Spider-Man that we've seen on screen. We've known that Parker's parents (specifically his father) would cast a big shadow on the story in this film, and that the father plotline ties to Oscorp. (And the origin of Parker's web-shooters, which will likely explain how a high school student — even a whiz kid like Parker — wears something so advanced.)