'Thor' Puts The Hammer To 'Spider-Man 4'

It's been a whirlwind tour for fans of the Spider-Man franchise the past several months. First we heard that "Spider-Man 4" would feature The Black Cat on November 9th. Then we heard the likes of Rachel McAdams, Julia Stiles, and Anne Hathaway were the actresses circling the role. Almost exactly a month later IESB had the scoop that "Spider-Man 4" was actually shutting down production despite the protests from various sites that it was just a "holiday break". Yesterday we learned that Rob over at IESB was right on the money when Nikki Finke "confirmed" the story. Now that you're all caught up on the comings and goings of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man we'll move on to the latest news.

Paramount hasn't wasted even a minute of time after hearing that that Spider-Man's web has been packed away for the time being. They have gone ahead and moved up 'Thor' a couple weeks to 5/6/11 from its original release date of 5/20/11. I would imagine this will finally detach some fanboy's heads out of the sand long enough to realize that "Spider-Man 4" really is going to be delayed and there are indeed problems on the set. I'm all for living in denial in some situations, but let's face facts, "Spider-Man 4" is not coming out in 2011.

Don't want to believe me? Nikki Finke is now reporting that the crew for "Spider-Man 4" has been told to look for other work. Sound familiar? It should be, that is exactly what the crew for "Justice League: Mortal" was told and soon after that movie was sent to the Phantom Zone, never to be heard from again. This very well could be the end of "Spider-Man 4".  Don't be surprised if the next time you see Spider-Man on screen it is courtesy of the "reboot" scripts James Vanderbilt is penning for which are being called "Spider-Man 5" and "Spider-Man 6".