Production began this week on director Marc Webb's still-untitled Spider-Man reboot, and the first set of production photos are already online.
With shooting underway, casting announcements continue to trickle out: Campbell Scott and Julianne Nicholson joined the cast last week as Peter Parker's parents and Irrfan Khan joined as a villainous character named Van Atter.
Two more casting announcements have popped up this week.
First, The Wrap reports that Chris Zylka (Kaboom) has been cast as Flash Thompson, the football player who ruins Parker's high school life with this public taunting of "Puny Parker." Later on in the comic book series, Parker and Thompson become friends, but as the reboot deals with Parker's high school days and origin as Spider-Man, Thompson will likely stay in bully mode.
The second casting announcement comes from SuperHeroHype, who have heard from "sources" that young actor Miles Elliot has been cast as Billy Connors, the young son of Dr. Curt Conners, a.k.a. the Lizard, which actor Rhys Ifans is supposedly playing, though Sony has yet to officially announce it.
Khan's role as "Van Atter" is also a mystery, though io9 found that a "Nels Van Adder" appears in a single comic book from the Spider-Man canon, 1997's Peter Parker, Spider-Man #1. Referred to as "Proto-Goblin" on the comic's cover but not in the comic's pages, the character is a former research assistant who becomes a test subject of a chemical developed by Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin.
The New York Times asked Khan about playing Van Adder, though Khan apparently knew little about the character.
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Is that his name? These science-fiction names don’t mean a lot to me. He’s a character who, I think, was not in the comics or perhaps a minor character. I’ve read some pages, but the whole script hasn’t been made available to me.
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However screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Alvin Sargent have adapted Van Adder (or "Van Atter") for the script, we do know this: Annie Parisse will play Van Adder's wife.
The Spider-Man reboot opens July 3, 2012.
Andrew Garfield will assume the role of Peter Parker, while Martin Sheen will play Parker's Uncle Ben and Sally Field is rumored to be playing Parker's Aunt May. Emma Stone will play Parker's love interest Gwen Stacy, with Denis Leary playing Gwen's father, Capt. George Stacy.