Marc Webb May Not Direct Columbia's Next 'Spider-Man'

Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man wasn't a wild success, but the film did well enough that Sony/Columbia plans to go forward with at least one of two planned sequels — hell, even if the film was a disaster Sony would make another, just to keep the rights to the character from reverting back to Marvel.

But there might be one casualty from the production issues that led to the film being recut late in the game and the loss of most of the "untold story" plotline trumpeted in early ads. A new interview with Columbia Pictures chief Doug Belgrad reveals that Webb might not return.

There are two big Spidey statements in the interview with THR. Asked about "problem areas" in Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man, Belgrad specifies,

The section where Rhys Ifans' character turns irrevocably into the Lizard. It took several months to figure out, and the filmmakers cut a bunch of scenes. In software parlance, it required a patch.

So that's now the official explanation for where some of the "untold story" scenes went, and why.

And then, asked about Webb directing the planned sequel, Belgrad dances a bit:

We'd really like him back, but there are obstacles. He has an obligation to Fox. [Webb owes Fox a post-(500) Days of Summer film.]

That reads like a dismissal, but a polite one. Perhaps it wasn't meant that way, and the business roadblock is really a thing, but you'd think that if Columbia/Sony really wanted him back, he'd be back.