With Marc Webb on board as director and Alvin Sargent rewriting the script, the big question hanging over Sony's reboot of the Spider-Man franchise is who will play Peter Parker.

Heat Vision reports that Webb, who directed last year's (500) Days of Summer, has been meeting quietly with actors over the past several months. Although he and the studio apparently are still on the lookout, in the past week or two Webb has narrowed his list of candidates to include:

• Jamie Bell, the 24-year-old star of Billy Elliot and the upcoming The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

• Frank Dillane, 19, who played young Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

• Alden Ehrenreich, the 20-year-old newcomer who appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro

• Andrew Garfield, 27, who appeared in the BBC series Sugar Rush and the Red Riding TV movie trilogy

• Josh Hutcherson, the 17-year-old co-star of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant and the upcoming Red Dawn remake

The studio wants to begin production by the end of the year for a July 3, 2012, release.