Sony obviously believes the Spider-man riches will never end, as while Spider-man 4 is still yet to go before the cameras, they’ve already hired James Vanderbilt to write parts 5 and 6. Vanderbilt wrote the original draft of Spider-man 4, but Sam Raimi has since brought on David Linday Abaire and then Gary Ross to completely revamp the his vision.
It’s an interesting development, because while Raimi apparently didn’t embrace all of Vanderbilt’s idea, Sony apparently love them (they are said to have hired him for part 4 because they were impressed by his focus on characterisation). Reading between the lines of what the studio has said and what places like Variety have reported is that the reason for Sony doing this is that Venderbilt has an idea that would see an interconnected story spread over two movies.
When he was hired for part 4, it was unclear whether director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst would return. When they agreed for another go-around, they only wanted to agree to one more film, and didn’t want a story that would commit them to at least another two movies, which meant Vanderbilt’s script needed to be completely made over into a stand-alone story.
It appears that by going full steam ahead with Vanderbilt’s two-part story-arc, Sony is preparing for a franchise reboot after the 2011 release of Spider-man 4, although Sony has apparently given Vanderbilt the brief that his screenplays also have to be able to fit into the original continuity, in case Maguire and Dunst do return (it would seem the plan is to make parts 5 and 6 back-to-back, which might lure them in). Either way, Raimi is unlikely to return, as he’s already signed up for World Of Warcraft after he completes Spidey 4.
Getting work on the scripts started so soon will also ensure they can keep the gaps between Spider-man movies, which have been growing with each instalment, as small as possible. Spider-man 4 is currently set for a May 4th, 2011 cinema release.