Meet the new ‘Spider-Man’: British heartthrob Andrew Garfield

John Horn has big news at our sister blog, 24 Frames: There’s a new friendly neighborhood Spider-Man ready to swing forward in the Sony reboot scheduled for 2012…

Sony Pictures has found its new Peter Parker: British heartthrob Andrew Garfield.

The studio announced Thursday afternoon that it had cast the 26-year-old star of the upcoming “Never Let Me Go” and “The Social Network” in one of the most closely scrutinized casting decisions in recent Hollywood history.

Garfield also starred in “Lions for Lambs,” “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” and the acclaimed British miniseries “Red Riding.”

The fourth film in the series is planned to be a “Spider-Man” origin story that Sony earlier in the year said would focus on “a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.”

THERE’S MORE, READ THE REST

– John Horn

RECENT AND RELATED

Raimi and Maguire out as ‘Spider-Man 4′ falls into tangled web

“500 Days” director Chris Webb will swing with Spidey

Sam Raimi’s Spidey regrets: “I would have done everything differently”

Should “Spider-Man” film franchise stop at three?

Spider-Man shocker: Flash Thompson falls in Iraq

Bono says Spider-Man musical is a career highlight

Marvel is on a mission in Hollywood

Spider-Man meets Barack Obama

PHOTO: Andrew Garfield at a Sony event in Cancun (Gerardo Garcia/Reuters)

Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.