Sony Planning Long-Term for Spider-Man Franchise
Mon, August 17, 2009 
You gotta give credit to Sony for thinking ahead on this one.
Spider-Man 4 won't start filming until the early months of next year, but the studio is already looking into the future of the franchise. Variety reports that James Vanderbilt (screenwriter behind the insanely-underrated Zodiac) has been tapped to write the fifth and sixth installments of Webhead's cinematic exploits. If you'll remember, he was originally hired to pen Spider-Man 4 back in October 2007 (mere weeks before the WGA Strike began) and his work was thrown out in favor of the Sam Raimi-approved David Lindsay-Abaire (who himself is subsequently off the film) and now Gary Ross.
Of course, the fact that Sony has opted to go back to the guy after Raimi vetoed his draft speaks for itself. Raimi is finished with your friendly neighbor Spider-Man after the forthcoming installment - which I'm still in the "I'll believe it when I see it...or photos from the set" stage. Good ol Sam has Warcraft in his sights after swinging through Manhattan one last time.
What's more interesting (read: lazy) is the apparent plan to turn Spider-Man 5 and 6 into reboots in case Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst decide to call it a day too. Sorry, but it's a tad soon for a franchise that's relatively still-fresh in people's minds to be throwing around reboots, requels, re-imaginings, etc.
Reader Comments (2)
I hope the use of the term "reboot" is just the overuse of the word and not actually trying to restart continuity somewhere just after he was bitten and with new actors.
I think they mean it'll just be going in a new direction, not the origin again. And honestly, after 4, this is what the franchise needs. And yes, it's obvious the studio knows Sam, Tobey, and Kirsten aren't coming back. Whatever two part story that Vanderbilt had at first, that's what they're using and Sam didn't/doesn't like it. Plus yes he's doing Warcraft after Spider-Man 4 and the studio, I'm sure, will want 5 and 6 out in like 2012/2013 or 2013/2014. They also wouldn't wait for Raimi.