Yes, the erstwhile Brando-assassin has officially signed on as kindly ol' avuncular Uncle Ben, says E! Online after rumors of the casting had percolated all week. Presumably we'll only see him in flashbacks since Webb has said repeatedly that this is not an origin film. Of course, he also said he'd be casting younger and we ended up with 27 year-old Andrew Garfield, so who knows?
And if that's not enough arachnid buzz, it seems like screenwriter James Vanderbilt has officially dropped Mary Jane Watson from the script and the only gal for Spidey will be Gwen Stacy, as played by Emma Stone. Count me in as thinking this is a swell idea; the "love triangle" came across as limp and unnecessary in the last Spider flick, and it seems like we'll have enough on our super-heroic plate without shoehorning in another lady. Besides, this might be a simple way to help differentiate this Spider-Man trilogy from the last Spider-Man trilogy. Maybe by the next reboot circa 2018, we can move on to Felicia Hardy, AKA, the Black Cat?