Tom Holland has claimed that Generation Z is too young to be interested in a Fred Astaire biopic.
The Spider-Man star, 30, is set to portray the celebrated dancer and actor in a new film by Paul King, the Paddington director.
However, speaking to Esquire UK, Holland suggested that no one under the age of his younger brother, who was born in 2004, would be familiar with Astaire, a leading man in Hollywood’s Golden Age.
He said: “If you ask anyone that is younger than my brother, they have no idea who Fred Astaire is. So there is a nervousness in the idea of making that movie – how commercial is a movie to tell the story of someone that younger generations have no idea who they are?”
Astaire’s stage and film career spanned 76 years. It began in his childhood, during which he became a successful vaudeville dance act with his sister Adele.
He shot to global fame in the 1930s dancing with Ginger Rogers, and the pair would go on to make 10 films together, including Top Hat, Follow the Fleet and Swing Time.
The American actor, who died in 1987 aged 88, was named the fifth-greatest male star of all time by the American Film Institute in 1999.
Holland’s biopic about the dancer and actor, by Sony Pictures, will chart his life and his close relationship with Adele as his early dance partner. Filming is set to begin in early January.
The Spider-Man lead is an accomplished dancer, having spent around two years training for his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical. After years of professional training in ballet, tap and gymnastics, he went on to star as Michael in the West End production before taking on the lead role from 2008 to 2010.
In 2017, he went viral for his dance routine to Rihanna’s Umbrella in the Lip Sync Battle. It became one of the most-watched clips in the show’s history.
Elsewhere in his interview, Holland discussed his fourth instalment of Spider-Man in the latest superhero film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
He described it as “the best Spider-Man movie that we’ve ever made”, adding that it feels “like a detective movie”.
The English actor, who has a starring role in Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming epic The Odyssey, added that he would like his successor in the franchise to be Adolescence’s Owen Cooper.
Cooper, who became the youngest male actor to win an Emmy for his performance in the psychological crime drama, was most recently in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation as a young Heathcliff.
Holland said: “Owen Cooper would be awesome. Obviously he’s super talented and the talk of the town right now.”
The actor also addressed the rumours of his marriage to fellow Spider-Man co-star Zendaya, 29.
Asked about fake AI-generated images of their wedding that went viral, and whether he had to offer an explanation to family members who might have thought they missed the event, he appeared to confirm his marriage for the first time: “No, because they were all there... That’s all you’ll get on that.”
Speaking about Zendaya, who is also starring in The Odyssey with him, Holland said: “Our business can present very stressful situations and it’s really nice to have a bedrock of a relationship that will stand the test of time.
“We can support each other in ways that only we can, because only we understand really what it’s like to live this life, and I think that is such a luxury, because I just don’t understand how I would be able to have anything like that with anyone else.
“So, for me, I found my person. She’s my best friend, and I’m the happiest I have ever been when I’m with her, but I have also never felt so supported and safe, ever. Period.”
The full interview can be read in the July/August issue of Esquire UK, which is out on June 17.