Watch Josh Hutcherson’s Spider-Man Audition

Published by Jeff Leins on July 27, 2010

We already know Andrew Garfield is playing Peter Parker in Sony’s reboot of the Spider-Man franchise.  But 7-year-old actor Josh Hutcherson was a runner-up for the role, and his audition tape/screen test leaked online this week.

Blue Sky Disney even reported Hutcherson was in the mix until his management played hardball and the studio went with Garfield, who is only being paid $500,000 for the movie.

While Hutcherson is pretty underwhelming in Cirque du Freak and Journey to the Center of the Earth, the teenager’s supporting role in the critically-acclaimed The Kids Are All Right shows he’s capable of a strong performance, given the right direction and surrounded by talent.

Judging from his audition tape, he would have made a decent Spider-Man (though I still prefer Garfield).  He flips, kicks and poses just like the webslinger, even in a padded mock-up of a high school hallway.  Fight choreographer Larnell Stovall (Undisputed III) helped Hutcherson make a pretty convincing argument in this screen test.

I may be the only person looking forward to a reboot of Spidey.  Marc Webb is inexperienced but (500) Days of Summer had a lot of great ideas (both visually and creatively), Garfield is a proven young actor, and they’ve hired screenwriters who have spent plenty of time with the superhero.  I know Sam Raimi fans don’t want to hear it, but the series needed fresh eyes.  I read Raimi’s treatment for Spider-Man 4 with the Vulture as the villain, and it was a mess.  Sony would have released the sequel, fans would have been upset (like they were with Spider-Man 3) and Sony would have rebooted the character any way.  But I digress…

Take a look at what Hutcherson had going for him from the fine folks at Latino Review.