The Amazing Spider-Man is a 2012 American superhero teen drama film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man and sharing the title of the character's longest-running comic book of the same name. It is the fourth theatrical Spider-Man film produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Entertainment, and a reboot of Sam Raimi's 2002–07 trilogy preceding it. The film was directed by Marc Webb, written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves and stars Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curtis Connors, Denis Leary as Captain George Stacy along with Martin Sheen and Sally Field as the uncle and aunt of Peter Parker, Ben Parker and May Parker. The film tells the story of Peter Parker, a teenager from New York City who becomes Spider-Man after being bitten by a genetically altered spider. Parker must stop Dr. Curt Connors as a mutated Lizard from spreading a mutation serum to the city's human population.
Development of the film began with the cancellation of Spider-Man 4 in 2010, ending director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film series that had starred Tobey Maguire as the titular superhero. Columbia Pictures opted to reboot the franchise with the same production team along with James Vanderbilt to stay on with writing the next Spider-Man film while Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves helped with the script as well. During pre-production, the main characters were cast in 2010. New designs were introduced from the comics such as artificial web-shooters. Using Red Digital Cinema Camera Company's RED Epic camera, principal photography started in December 2010 in Los Angeles before moving to New York City. The film entered post-production in April 2011. 3ality Technica provided 3D image processing, Sony Imageworks handled CGI and James Horner composed the film score.
Sony Entertainment built a promotional website, releasing many previews and launched a viral marketing campaign, among other moves. Tie-ins included a video game by Beenox. The film premiered on June 30 in Tokyo and was released in the United States on July 3 in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D and released in home media in November 2012. The reboot was well received by critics, praising mostly Andrew Garfield's performance and the visual style, but both critics and audiences were mixed with the reinvention of the titular character and the introduction of the character the Lizard. The film was a box office success, grossing over $757 million worldwide, becoming the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2012, and the highest-grossing reboot of all time. The film's sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, was released on May 2, 2014, with Marc Webb and most of the first film's main cast returning to their previous roles.
