Corona | Coming Attractions

Sony Pictures has given screenwriter James Vanderbilt the greenlight to write the screenplays for Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6. Either it shows that the studio has confidence in returning to the well for their Spider-Man movie franchise or that the storylines that Vanderbilt pitched Sony's upper management sounded so great that they had to get two of them done without delay.

Vanderbilt is the guy that also had first crack at writing Spider-Man 4 so this move shows us that Sony loves what he's doing with Marvel's friendly neighborhood superhero. It also tells us that Sony isn't going to wait around too long to see if stars Tobey Maguire, Kristen Dunst and director Sam Raimi want to make movies #5 and #6 after they finish movie #4, slated to go into production in the first part of 2010. Sony may be getting an education from Warner Bros. and their Harry Potter series or Summit and their Twilight franchise; you don't need the same director to make the next chapter in your gravy train. The bigger question mark comes from whether Sony will want to lessen some of their risk by signing Maguire and Dunst for the next two while making Spider-Man 4. As a what if, suppose that neither star wants to re-up without Raimi, leaving Sony with no other option but to recast the roles. Well, they're trying to cover that contingency by having Vanderbilt's stories for SM5 and SM6 interlocked; one flows into the other, Variety tells us. Sony also kicked around the idea of making the fourth and film movies back-to-back. Maybe Vanderbilt's original idea has been retooled for #5 and #6?