The role of Uncle Ben in the Spider-Man series is both important and unimportant. On the one hand, Ben is the man who teaches young Peter Parker that with great power comes great responsibility and has been the central father figure in the series. On the other hand, the most significant thing that happens to character is that he dies, the event that turns Peter Parker into the crimefighter we know and love. Because of this, the casting of Cliff Robertson in Sam Raimi's films made sense - he wasn't an A-list actor whose talents were wasted, but had more than enough gravitas for the role. With that in mind, the choice for the new Ben Parker is quite strange.

THR reports that Martin Sheen of Apocalypse Now and The West Wing fame, is currently in negotiations with Sony to star in the rebooted Spider-Man franchise as Uncle Ben. The cast already includes Andrew Garfield in the title role, Emma Stone as the beautiful blonde Gwen Stacy and Rhys Ifans as the main villain (rumored to be The Lizard). The film is being directed by Marc Webb and is scheduled to commence shooting next month.

Martin Sheen is most certainly an excellent actor and could play the role of Ben in his sleep, but it does beg the question whether his talents are being appropriately used. His character isn't guaranteed more than ten minutes of screen time unless there are multiple flashback sequences. With that in mind, it's hard to ignore how stellar a cast they are building for this film. I'm still not entirely convinced that Sony needed to restart the whole thing, but it looks like they're doing it right.