Sony Jumps Web – Hires Writer for “Spider-Man” 5 & 6

Variety is reporting that even though “Spider-Man” has yet to begin production, they’ve gone ahead and hired someone to write scripts for the fifth and sixth chapters in the web-slinging saga.

The man tasked with weaving webs into gold is screenwriter James Vanderbilt. He was actually the first writer on #4 as well, but it has gone through two rewrites since his first version. Honestly, it sounds kind of strange that they would hire someone whose original script has had to go through two other writers… so far, to be the writer for the next two chapters of the epic. One of the initial problems was that he’d written #4 to go back to back with #5 as a seamless story, but Sam Raimi shot that down. Now it looks like he’ll be getting that interconnected story for #5-6.

Sources said it was unclear whether Raimi, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst will be back. If they aren’t, Vanderbilt’s script would be the blueprint for a franchise reboot. After committing to his fourth “Spider-Man” film, Raimi signed on to direct a new franchise based on the massively multiplayer role-playing online computer game “World of Warcraft” for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Maguire and Dunst were locked into the first three pictures and made a new deal for “Spider-Man 4.” It’s unclear how long they want to continue with the series.