James Edward Franco is an American actor and filmmaker. He has starred in numerous films, including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), Milk (2008), Eat Pray Love (2010), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Spring Breakers (2012), and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). He is known for his collaborations with fellow actor Seth Rogen, having appeared in eight films and one television series with him, examples being Pineapple Express (2008), This Is the End (2013), Sausage Party (2016), and The Disaster Artist (2017), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. For his role in 127 Hours (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Franco in 2013
Franco at the Spider-Man 3 premiere, April 2007
Franco, preparing to ride in the Blue Angels No. 7, with Patrick Palma in a two-seat F/A-18B, in August 2006
Franco at the premiere of 127 Hours
Spider-Man in film dates back to 1977, the rights belonging to Marvel until 1999, when Sony bought them for $7 million. He has been Marvel's most successful character in the cinema industry ever since. After selling the Spider-Man motion picture rights to Sony, Marvel eventually founded its own studio, developing the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) based on the characters they still held the rights to. This would change in 2016, when Sony and Disney entered an agreement to include Spider-Man in the MCU. Despite some disagreements pertaining to finances and merchandising between the two parties, the agreement proved a successful endeavor for both companies. The following two Avengers sequels, finally with Spider-Man, crossed the $2 billion mark at worldwide box office for the first time. Meanwhile, Sony in association with Marvel launched the Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), with Sony entering a 3 billion-dollar streaming agreement with Netflix and Disney.
Tom Holland took the role of Spider-Man in Civil War after screen tests with Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, who considered him the favorite pick from six actors.
Image: Spider Man actors
Image: Shameik Moore by Gage Skidmore