Variety reports that Sony Pictures has engaged screenwriter James Vanderbilt to write Spider-Man 5 and Spider-Man 6.
Production on Spider-Man 4 will begin early next year for a May 6, 2011 release. Vanderbilt wrote the first draft of the script for the fourth installment. David Lindsay-Abaire was brought on board to do a rewrite, and Gary Ross is now rewriting that script.
The trade adds that director Sam Raimi didn’t embrace all of Vanderbilt’s ideas, but executives at Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios have. Vanderbilt has been hired to pen the fifth and sixth movies, which have an interconnected storyline.
It’s unclear whether Raimi, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst will be back for #5 & 6, but if they aren’t, Vanderbilt’s script would be the blueprint for a franchise reboot.
