Sony is zeroing in on a director for their brand new Spider-Man reboot. When we last reported on the news, the studio’s shortlist consisted of Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies, 50/50), Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre), Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect), Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent), and the team of John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein (the Vacation reboot). That was just a few weeks ago, and now it appears that two of the directors are now in the running to helm the film.

A new report says that Levine and Melfi now top Sony’s shortlist of directors. It also says that the studio may settle on a new name that hasn’t appeared on the original shortlist. More on the story below.

Every day now appears to bear news regarding Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Spider-Man reboot, which might be titled either The Spectacular Spider-Man or Spider-Man: The New Avenger, and is rumored take place during Peter Parker’s high school years. The title role has yet to be cast, but the front-runners reportedly include Nat Wolff, Asa Butterfield, Tom Holland, Timothée Chalamet, and Liam James.

Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods) supposedly had been the studios’ top choice to write and direct the reboot, but recently a list of possible directors up for the job was released by Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. and Goddard’s name is nowhere to be found. Instead it appears as if Marvel and Sony are on the hunt for someone who will bring a lighter touch to the proceedings because the list features the likes of Jonathan Levine, Jared Hess, Jason Moore, Theodore Melfi, and the team of John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein.

Subscribe to the Podcast: RSS | iTunes | Zune | Stitcher
Follow us on Twitter: @SkullFaceIsland
Like us on Facebook: Skull-Face Island
E-mail us at
Call Us: 980-272-0111

Hello There! This is Adam Frazier and you are listening to Skull-Face Island, the official movie podcast of Geeks of Doom! As always I’m joined by Ryan Gosling to my Rachel McAdams, David Allen… and The Owner of a Lonely Heart, producer Tim Grant.

Today on the Show: We’ll discuss Jonathan Levine‘s latest film, Warm Bodies, and boot-up the Geek-O-Matic TeleFax for all the latest news on Disney-Pixar’s Finding Nemo 2, as well as Seth MacFarlane‘s new western-comedy, A Million Ways to Die in the West.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day we’ve decided to share Top 3 Romantic Movies. It’s time for us to, you know, open up to you, the listener, and give you a piece of our collective jungle heart and give a glimpse into our souls. We’ll be joined by a special guest for this segment in the form of The Prince of Darkness himself, SATAN. Turns out SATAN really enjoys Sleepless in Seattle…

Warm Bodies
Directed by Jonathan Levine
Written by Jonathan Levine
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich, Rob Corddry
Summit Entertainment
Rated PG-13 | 97 Minutes
Release Date: February 1st, 2013

Back in 1993, Bob Balaban directed an obscure romantic zombie comedy (a rom-zom-com, if you’re one of those people) called My Boyfriend’s Back, about a teenager who returns from the dead as a zombie to take his high school sweetheart to the prom.

I won’t lie to you, I secretly kind of love My Boyfriend’s Back – it’s a guilty pleasure, what can I say. As a kid, I would rent the VHS tape every other weekend – along with The Sandlot and Critters – until the tracking button on the VCR begged for mercy.

Guilty pleasures (code for ‘bad movies’) are essential to appreciating good cinema. I won’t say My boyfriend’s Back paved the way to my discovery of films like Touch of Evil or The Seventh Seal, but as the late film critic Pauline Kael once said, “Movies are so rarely great art, that if we can’t appreciate great trash, there is little reason for us to go.” Amen, sister.

Balaban’s movie is great trash, and worth seeing for, if nothing else, early appearances by actors like Philip Seymour Hoffman, Matthew McConaughey, Renée Zellweger, and Matthew Fox.

Why am I talking so much about this damn movie? Well, because I found myself thinking of My Boyfriend’s Back and films like Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead and Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead while watching Jonathan Levine‘s latest film, Warm Bodies, based on the novel by Isaac Marion.