Writer Already Set for Fifth and Sixth Spider-Man Movies

After Spider-Man 3's epic crash and burn, and considering how the series' fourth installment has yet to start principal photography, Sony might be getting ahead of themselves by assigning writers to scribble out Spider-Man 5, now scheduled for a 2012 release.

The franchise's fourth film has experienced a turbulent pre-production phase as the original script by James Vanderbilt, writer of Zodiac, was re-written by David Lindsay-Abaire and Gary Ross. Oddly enough, Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios awarded Vanderbilt a second and third shot, charging him to pen stories for the next two movies, which are expected to be tightly interwoven.

Despite their prolonged delay, director Sam Raimi, now adapting an upcoming Warcraft movie, and actors Toby McGuire and Kirsten Dunst will return for Spiderman 4. They have not committed to any further Spider-Man projects to complete the monstrous hexology. A hefty revamping will likely be under way by this point, according to Variety, a process that could answer the looming question of whether or not the series can get any worse.

Spider-Man 4 production is scheduled to begin in early 2010 to meet a 2011 release date.

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