An in-demand music video director for nearly 10 years, Marc Webb's career path changed dramatically after his first feature, the endearingly bittersweet romance "(500) Days of Summer" (2009). The film brought him to the attention of the critical community, which showered his debut effort with praise; it also ushered him into the Hollywood inner circle, where, in 2010, he was granted the keys to the "Spider-Man" franchise. Webb's visual skill and boundless imagination made him a talent to watch and admire for film fans worldwide.
Born Aug. 31, 1975, Webb was the son of academic parents, but his own tenure in higher learning was short-lived; he reportedly attended Colorado College for only a semester before delving into the professional side of filmmaking. He built his resume on post-production work; most notably on the acclaimed music documentary "Hype!" (1996) while working on his own films. Two shorts soon followed; one of which, titled "Seascape" (2003) premiered at the Aspen Comedy Festival.
After a music video producer saw one of his shorts, Webb moved into that field with impressive results. His productions for some of the biggest names in the business - from Green Day and Good Charlotte to Regina Spektor and Santana - were filled with crisp, color-saturated photography and inventive special effects. In Fergie's "Clumsy," the scenarios unfolded like a pop-up book, while Green Day was depicted as graffiti art in "21st Century Breakdown." His eye-catching work netted several major video awards, including MTV Video Music Awards for 2009's "21 Guns" by Green Day, and a Director of the Year Award from the Music Video Production Association in 2006.
In 2009, Webb made his feature film debut with "(500) Days of Summer," a charming independent feature starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel as a couple with very different ideas about romance. Rather than spin his story as a traditional romantic comedy, Webb and screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber delivered a non-linear story that delved into areas of pure fantasy, such as the musical number set to Hall and Oates' "You Make My Dreams Come True" after Gordon-Levitt's character first spends the night with Deschanel. The result was met with overwhelming praise from audiences and critics alike, and was among the surprise hits of the 2009 summer season. Among the awards it netted that fall and into the next year were best directorial debut for Webb from the National Board of Review, and numerous screenplay honors from a variety of state and national critical groups.
The success of "(500) Days" naturally brought Webb to Hollywood, where he surpassed the usual stop-and-start path of indie film directors by vaulting to the top of one of the biggest franchises in the business: Sony's "Spider-Man" series. When director Sam Raimi, who had helmed the first three "Spider-Man" features to great success, was dropped rather surprisingly from the fourth sequel, Webb was brought it to direct the first of three new "Spider-Man" films that would revamp the series by making its hero, Peter Parker, a high school student. The news sent shockwaves through the fan community, and elevated Webb from celebrated outsider to newly minted A-list player. He was also attached to a remake of the 2008 Danish thriller, "Just Another Love Story."
