And the lucky sods at San Diego Comic Con got the chance to see a five minute preview of what's to come.

Of course, these things never say private for long - especially not in the smartphone era...

Wow. Just... wow.

In best American drama tradition, the 27-year-old will be playing Spidey's teen alter-ego in what's been likened to a Batman Begins of the franchise - probably based on the Ultimate Spider-man comics.

It's a hell of a coup for Garfield - who apparently only found out he'd been cast a few minutes before being introduced to the press while at a media event to promote Aaron Sorkin's Facebook movie, The Social Network.

And it's a cracking move by director Marc Webb - as the Anglo-American (Garfield was born in the US) is a phenomenal actor. Folk have been citing his turn in last year's adaptation of the Red Riding trilogy for Channel 4 as a key source to see him in, and rightly so, but if it's a gritty teenaged performance you want, absolutely check him out in Boy A for his BAFTA-winnng turn as a notorious schoolboy killer trying to have a normal life and keep his identity secret following his release from prison.

He beat off a lot of competition to land the Spider-man role, and a lot of well-known competition at that - including fellow Brit Jamie 'Billy Elliot' Bell and Anton 'Chekov' Yelchin.

Interesting how cyclical all this is, though. Folk raised an eyebrow at Webb - best known for quirky indy romcom 500 Days of Summer - landed the director's chair, and now he's gone for a critically acclaimed but outside bet to play Peter Parker. Rewind a few years, and you had exactly the same situation with Raimi and Maguire.

If you liked last week's Doctor Who story The Lodger - you know, the flatshare comedy with that fat bloke who upset Sir Jean-Luc Picard the other week - then you may (or likely, may not) be surprised to know it started life as a comic strip in the fabled pages of the official Doctor Who Magazine.